Otto - Der Film

Plot synopsis:
The film starts with debris floating in the middle of the ocean, including a toilet seat, through which Otto emerges and begins to relate how he has gotten to be in this situation.
Otto, a young East Frisian country boy, comes to the big city to make his fortune. Unfortunately, his naivety nearly ruins everything from the start as he falls victim to a loan shark—conveniently going under the name of "Shark"—from whom he borrows the capital to start his own forwarding business; the resulting debt of 9,876 DM and 50 Pfennig becomes a constant object of worry and temptation for Otto throughout the film.
During one of his earlier attempts to make money, Otto inadvertently saves the life of Silvia von Kohlen und Reibach, the young heiress of an enormously wealthy family. Otto is introduced to the Kohlen und Reibachs to receive their gratitude, but Otto is quick to note that he could use their wealth to pay back his debt. But every chance he gets slips through his fingers, either owing to the callings of his conscience (such as when he attempts to shoot a hare for a reward which matches his debts exactly) or by dumb luck (when the wine he receives from the Kohlen und Reibachs turns out to be quite valuable, but only after a wine lover has consumed a considerable quantity of it).
Silvia and Otto also find themselves drawn to each other, but their main obstacle against their getting together is Silvia's stern mother, Konsulin ("Consul") von Kohlen und Reibach, who wishes her daughter to marry befitting to her status and who has selected a prospective candidate named Ernesto, a handsome South American millionaire.
In the end, Otto realizes his true affections for Silvia only after she and her mother prepare to depart for Rio de Janeiro for Silvia's wedding to Ernesto. On his way to tell Silvia about his feelings, Otto gets mixed up in a bank robbery committed by disputatious Sonnemann and Haenlein. Otto later smuggles himself aboard the plane the Kohlen und Reibachs are in, but among the passengers are also the two bankrobbers. Otto, disguised as the radio operator, attempts to inform Interpol but instead hits the pilot's announcement system, prompting Sonnemann and Haenlein to hijack the plane. Unfortunately, the two break out into another argument, in which course they knock out both pilots, so they force Otto to fly. This of course results in mayhem when Otto sends the plane rolling, subduing the two bankrobbers in the process; Otto reveals his presence and his love to Silvia, who happily joins him in the cockpit, and Konsulin von Kohle und Reichbach has to learn to her shock that "Ernesto" is really a fraud named Harald.
Otto subsequently attempts to land the passenger jet on an aircraft carrier, but of course fails spectacularly, thus looping back to the film's beginning sequence. Fortunately, all passengers on the plane, including Silvia and her mother, reach a tropical island, where they receive a warm welcome from the local carnival-obsessed natives and Otto and Silvia finally become an item.

Tags: cult, romantic

Review:
King Otto.
Otto Waalkes is essentially the smallest common denominator of German humour, and a strange concoction:  Waalkes himself a talented performer with a tendency to become irritating quickly if left without direction, constantly yodelling and grimacing with a Tourette syndrome - like permanence;  on the other hand, much of his material was written by some of Germany's foremost satirists and poets such as Gernhardt, Knorr, Eilert.His first feature movie shows Waalkes at his best by balancing his goofyness with a good story line, great actors and excellent camera work -- the kind of movie I enjoy watching time and again when I am in the mood for some light entertainment.Unfortunately, most of Otto's other work is not really up to the standard he set with his first movie, especially the atrocious sequel "Otto, der neue Film"..
Otto's first and for a lot of Otto fans the best.
After a bunch of stand-up live programs, it was the time for Otto Waalkes, a popular comedian in the late 70's and early 80's to move to the big screen.
The result is a film without the smallest amount of acting ability but with a huge lot of gags and parodies.
Even though I think "Otto-der Liebesfilm" is better than the first one, I like it and can it see over and over again..
The highlight of Otto's career (and sadly the beginning of a steep decline).
If you're from Germany and from my generation (born in the mid-70's, that is), there really was no way around Otto Waalkes.
Kids would recite his jokes in school, parents would let the kids stay up longer just to watch a re-run of Ottos Stand-Up-Show on TV and his trademark cartoon, the "Ottiphant" was to be seen everywhere.
Granted, Otto wasn't great intellectual humour like Loriot or Gerhard Polt, often crossing the border of pure, physical slapstick and grimace-humour and if I'd have to compare him to American comedians, I'd go for a cross Jerry Lewis and the Three Stooges in one persona.The story is simply: Otto is a young, innocent boy from a godforsaken Frisian island, who dreams of making it big in the Big City (namely Hamburg).
But all doesn't go as planned once he arrives there.
In fact, nothing goes as planned.
In order to get cash and open a business – which consists of him making outrageous plans for all intents and purposes – he loans some money from a local loan-shark.
Before he knows it, Otto (who didn't read the small print on the loan-sharks contract) finds himself in debt of exactly 9876,50 Mark.
By chance and coincidence he rescues the life of Silvia (Jessika Cardinahl), daughter of a high-society lady and falls in love with her.
Now Otto has to multi-task, forever trying to find a way to pay off his debt while trying to win the heart of his beloved, before she can marry the slimy socialite Ernesto (Sky du Mont).
It does not come as a big surprise that "Otto – The Film" went on to become the most successful German film at the box-office; a record that has not been broken yet.
How else could it have been without aforementioned Otto-Boom?
Technically it's a compilation of sketch-material and personas, pumped up by a cinema-production, tied together by the thin storyline and bolstered by numerous guest-appearances and cameos by well-known TV-personalities such as Johannes Heesters, Eberhard Feik ("Tatort"), Elisabeth Wiedemann (an accomplished comedian in her own rights) or Günther Kauffmann (a famed Afro-German actor since his time with Werner Rainer Fassbinder; the butt of this particular joke, namely that Otto considers himself "a negro too", because he has black/dirty feet as well, not really 'PC' by today's standards).We'd have to lie if we'd claim that the humor has aged very well.
There are dozens of spoofs and "cultural references", from "Jaws" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (which Otto spoofs on a graveyard, dressed up as Heino).
But all those references – both to his own show and other movies – are kept in measure, leaving Otto as naïve, chaotic but still lovable bumpkin at the heart's core.
Something that Otto wouldn't (or couldn't) replicate in later films, becoming a parody of himself and the references merely the flesh to his potatoes.
Is it compatible with foreign viewers?
Hard to say.
I'd give it a 30 percent "yes" and 70 percent "no".
Sure, the goofy slapstick is rather universal, but unless you're fluent in German and know your way around the Germany of the 1970's and 80's, much of the wordplays and situation-humor will most likely escape you.
So yes, it's probably more of a local affair.
"Otto – Der Film" would sadly remain the highlight of Waalkes career, which has since declined.
Sure, the comedian made a few new fans with more contemporary films like "Sieben Zwerge" ("Seven Dwarf"), but to many old-school fans his desperate attempts to regain former glory are often saddening, if not pathetic.
Waalkes had never developed or progressed an inch from the Otto-persona which he developed in the 70's, sticking to it to this very day, even when making public appearances or giving interviews.
Hence, the word "tiresome" comes to mind.
Again it shouldn't come as a surprise – sad as it is – that he went on to star in Germany's bestselling comedy of all times to making a cameo in "Kartoffelsalat", which has righteously earned its place in the IMDb's Bottom-100.
This will be his eternal best....
In 1985, people got, for what they were waiting for more than 10 years: Germany's most popular comedian, Otto Waalkes, finished his first feature film, after several stage programs, TV shows and LPs. And even the critics had to admit: it was a very funny film.
Okay, you should be German from the Seventies and Eighties to understand this sense of humor, but this mixture of pure slapstick, verbal jokes, absurdities, satirical side gags, visual ideas and Marx-Brothers-like drive is a little bit genius.
Written by some of Germany most popular satirical playwrights, is "Otto- Der Film" nothing more than a skeleton of a plot with an endless stream of shorter or longer comedy episodes attached to it.
Otto is a young man from East-Frisia (which is in north-western Germany), arriving at hamburg, with no job, no money and no plan.
He loans some money from a loan shark and now has to pay back the sum of 9.876,50 deutsche Mark.
Whean he steals some cement, he accidentally saves young heiress Sylvia from death and gets in contact with her family, the super-rich "von Kohlen and Reibachs".
Already in love with Sylvia, who wants to marry the snob Ernesto, he try to get the money, the woman and everything he wants.
In 85 Minutes an endless stream of funny or not-so-funny episodes roll down from the screen and Otto is always the center.
His best scenes are definitely the arrival in Hamburg, a visit in the rich family's house, a hunting party for a hare ("dead or not living"), his search for Sylvia's evening dinner in the "Creme de la Creme" which leads him accidentally to the biker joint "Chrome de la Chrome", where he saves the day by knowing right joke answer ("What's invisible and smells like a hare?
- A Rabbit's Fart?"), his entry an the evening dinner and the hilarious scene on a cemetery at night (somethat inspired by Michael Jacksons "Thriller" where a heck of "Heinos" (Germanys famous "folk singer" with white hair and dark glasses), coming out of their graves.
In other episodes, he sells a slave (an American soldier) to an old woman and then returns and cashes the registry fee or he try to entertain some seniors, which are not amused.
A running gag is the sum of DM 9876,50, which turns up every time he don't need it: the hunting trophy's worth, a jewel and finally his lifesavers present: a bottle of old wine.
Otto is always silly, and if not, he pretends to be clever (what is silly again), ending in another catastrophe.
But nearly 90 Minutes, you can laugh really hard, if you like his style, because his timing is always right this time.
Enjoy it - but if you are not German, there will be some difficulties to understand the hilarious wordplay..
Otto's eternal 3 problems.
"Otto - The Movie" is the first of 5 Otto films where actor Otto Waalkes plays basically the same character and being from summer 1985 it is almost as old as myself.
It was directed by Xaver Schwarzenberger who got in the film industry by being Rainer Werner Fassbinder's cinematographer on several works and this is his first directorial effort for the big screen.
Fassbinder was already dead at this point.
Schwarzenbergwer worked on another Otto film afterward and his maybe most known work then is as a cinematographer again on Dietl's Oscar-nominated "Schtonkh!".
Anyway, back to Waalkes.
He is in his 60s by now and still one of Germany's most lauded and respected comedians.
He is also still active in the movie industry and has given us his approaches on Snow White and Ocean's Eleven in recent years.
In this film here, he does not only play the central character, but also many minor characters such as his own parents.
But not the naked woman in the window.
Looks like in the 80s you could already show that kind of stuff, at least for a short moment without getting everybody upset.There is one scene in here which is really politically incorrect.
It is prank with a black guy and modern slavery included and I found it really funny.
And about how he drinks his coffee.
Very provocative yes, but exactly my kind of humor.
Shameless.
The main plot, though, is a man who gets in trouble with a ruthless investor, but is lucky enough to save the life of a young woman with very rich parents.
Sadly the desired reward does not happen.
The film features some actors who very very popular 30 years ago.
The almost immortal Johannes Heesters appears in one scene.
And so does Günther Kaufmann, also a Fassbinder collaborator.
One of the main antagonists is played by Sky du Mont, who was already quite a star back then, also internationally, and then again rose to fame almost 20 years later by being the antagonist again in the successful Bully Herbig movies.
The audience must have enjoyed all the word-plays in this movie as it was a crowd magnet and truly successful at the box office in 1985.
It won the Golden Screen and also a Bambi which is usually given to films relevant to culture.
Otto also shows us his musical talent and uses quite a few classics including the Comedian Harmonists "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus".
And it seems not only audiences enjoyed it, as occasionally I felt that some of the characters were laughing out of character just because they found Otto so funny in his role.However, let me warn you that this film is entirely different compared to today's (German) comedies.
Humour was simply something else in the 80s.
The alarm button scene was just the weirdest thing ever and so was the Heino song parody.
Other than that, you can enjoy the film for Otto's frequent changing of costumes and maybe also for the action sequence at the end.
Guess they really wanted to include one for the sake of it.
Solid movie and I had a fun time occasionally watching this.
Recommended.