The Sandman (1995 TV Movie) User Reviews (4)

Hard to believe that this is „only" a TV- and not a cinema-movie (and hard to believe that it was produced by RTL2)

[t_atzmueller · 7/10 · 26 January 2014]

1995 was the year in which actor Götz George wanted to break the mold and prove that he's beyond the role of hardy street-cop "Schimanski", in which he had been typecast for almost 20 years. George had already collected accolades for his performance in the satire "Schtonk!" three years prior, but most viewers still identified him with the Schimanksi-character. With the chamber-play-type "Der Totmacher" and TV-Psycho-Thriller "Der Sandmann", George finally established himself as one of Germany's finest actors.

Ina Littmann (Eichhorn) is a young, ambitious journalist, who feels that she has neither given her dues nor her chance in the male-dominated industry. Littmann senses her big chance when she is told to interview Henry Kupfer (George), a rehabilitated prostitute-killer, who had spend years in jail and has since established himself as bestseller novelist (who usually writes about serial-killers). At the same time there is a string of prostitute-killings, which seem eerily similar to those committed by Kupfer years earlier. Sensing a "big story", Littmann plans to lure Kupfer into confessing the murders during a live-televised discussion-panel. Now begins a cat-and-mouse-game and sooner than later Littmann is no longer sure on which end of the game she's playing.

The performances in "Der Sandmann" are altogether excellent but it is Götz George who steals the show. Full to the brim with the charm of the psychopath, his killer-cum-novelist figure Kupfer is fascinating, mysterious, witty, at times menacing, all the while leaving the viewer to guess (along with Karoline Eichhorn, doing a superb job herself) which role Kupfer is playing in this game. At the same time director Nico Hofmann is able to build up a tension of feel of tension that until that date (or since) has rarely been seen on German TV. TV that in many ways was far superior to what was/is shown in German cinema.

Yes, it is true that "Der Sandmann" has elements that can best be described as "Silence of the Lambs"-'esque, but those are subliminal and make the film by no means a rip-off. Rather, it contains elements of the real case of serial-killer Jack Unterweger. Unterweger had been imprisoned for having killed a prostitute, "rehabilitated" in jail and gained through his novellas and poems. Upon his release, Unterweger was courted by the German and Austrian "café intellectuals"; while heralded as literature genius and perfect example of rehabilitation through art – all the while Unterweger kept murdering, killing between 10 and 15 more women. Unterweger hanged himself in 1994 (ironically with the same complex knot that he used to strangle his victims with).

At the same time Hofmann has produced a criticism of the sensational (TV)-boulevard-media and the no less cynical consumerist audience. Which is ironic, since "The Sandmann" was produced for German private TV-channel RTL2, which at the time catered to just the audience which the film criticizes. It's even harder to believe that this was the same RTL2 which today stands as epiphany of so-called "Unterschichten-TV" (Low-Class-TV; sometimes also referred to as "social pornography"), which generally only features Jerry-Springer-like shows and the infamous "jungle-camp"-series, where has-been- and wanna-be-celebrities consume bugs and excrements for a few moments of public attention. We could be cynic and say "RTL2 has gone a long way from times of "Der Sandmann"".

As far as a TV-film goes, "The Sandmann" is as close, if not superior to cinema as it gets. Highly recommendable (if you're able to find it somewhere, that is).

7/10

Good acting, bad script

[Sebbi-2 · 7/10 · 7 August 1999]

The acting for this movie is top notch, but unfortunately the script can't quite keep up. So what you end up with is a film that's certainly better than average, but it's not as good as the movies that it is inspired by - first and foremost "The Silence Of The Lambs".

One of George's finest performances

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 25 August 2016]

"Der Sandmann" or "The Sandman" (nothing to do with the little fella who helped kids fall asleep) is a German 90-minute movie from 1995, so it had its 20th anniversary last year. The director is Nico Hofmann and the writer is Matthias Seelig and I must say taking into account that this was a small-screen production for RTL I think, I am truly surprised how well this film turned out. Yes the story is fairly absurd on more than a few occasions, but George shines and truly makes it work as a sociopath writer and possibly killer too. And I believe Karoline Eichhorn was pretty good too and had strong chemistry with George. The ending also was a true highlight in here and made up for occasional lengths throughout the film as it adds a sociocritical component to the already strong crime and thriller plot developments.

Beyond the two I already mentioned and maybe the late Barbara Rudnik, there are not many well-known names in here, but that is perfectly fine as George has enough screen presence for all of them. And he is fascinating, almost mesmerizing to watch. He really shines in roles as a killer and there are more performances from him with a similar tone (Haarmann, Mengele). I think we should be glad that he left us such a great body of work full with movies worth checking out. This one here definitely falls under this category. The only thing that keeps it from being a contender for best (German) film of the year is the fact that the story occasionally gets too absurd in its attempt to be as breathtaking and memorable as possible. But the dialogue writing is fairly good at least. I recommend checking it out if you manage to get a hand on it. Certainly an underseen little movie.

Obscure, but worth it

[QueenNadine · 26 January 2009]

Der Sandmann (The Sandman, 1995, TV) is a film you're probably never going to see as it's a TV production, and its star Götz George, though (almost) indisputably is one of our best actors, is one you've probably never heard of as he seems to do TV mostly. Why am I still writing about this, then? Well, for what it is, I thought it was pret-ty good.

Ambitious young TV researcher Ina Littmann (portrayed by Karoline Eichhorn with boyish stubbornness) just landed her first big project- to get enigmatic crime writer Kupfer to appear on live TV and research his private life. Kupfer, who's apparently had a tough youth being beaten up by his father and watching his sister kill herself, once spent time in jail for manslaughter and is now making rather decent money writing very successful thrillers with graphic descriptions of criminal bestiality. During her research, Ina cannot help but notice links between Kupfer's life, his character and his mannerisms and a series of brutal murders that have been taking place across the country, in pretty much all the places that Kupfer has visited in recent years...

Sounds a bit cheesy? Certainly is. Like you'd expect from a TV movie, the conflict is established pretty soon (young girl gets sucked deeper and deeper into mysterious older man's dangerous world and is fascinated and appalled at the same time), there are a number of rather convenient twists for our heroine (always in the right place at the right time- how does she do it?!), and there's a few mildly graphic shock moments ("Boobs- oh yes we like'em," the TV producer said).

All this cliché aside, however, this is still a pretty decent film. George (not pronounced like the English first name) is incredibly watchable as Henry Kupfer, going from creepy to pathetic to arrogant bastard (though the latter of which, judging from his TV appearances, may not have involved all much acting). Eichhorn makes for a strong counterpart as a woman who, despite being pushed around and belittled everywhere she goes, is determined to show everyone and make it big in the business.

I do remember seeing the last third of it on TV in the late 1990s, and I did know that there'd be a twist at the end. I was glad my memory didn't serve me quite that well as I didn't quite expect that twist to be what it was. I was expecting something much more graphic and cliché and was pleasantly surprised when the predicted character ended up being victimized, but in a much different way from what I expected. This very ironic ending was very much in line with the criticism of tasteless, ruthless TV voyeurism and the greed that drives it that's present throughout the film, and I thought its last couple of scenes rounded that whole criticism up very nicely and, despite its limited accessibility, made it a film worth writing about.

So, if you ever find yourself tuning into this on German TV, and if you've somehow magically manged to learn German in the meantime, and have nothing better to do of course, this may be worth a try.