feels a lot like going back deep into the late 80`s in Germany. Lot`s of beer, music and men`s talk. Great performance from Christian Ulmen aka Herr Lehmann in his first feature film.
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Helmut-33 January 2004
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magusachan16 November 2004I definitely recommend this one to people interested in German movies.
It is a very simple story of a waiter working in a 'beer pub', but nicely told and filled with warmth which the actors carry. Hard to imagine that Christian Ulmen used to be a MTV moderator before starting acting, and Detlev Buck is so great in this one!
Want to see a 'different' movie on West/East-Germany? Then, go try it! While you might not get anything of the power of 'La Vita E Bella' or 'Amores Perros', it is a nice little comedy and gives good insights on how people in the catering branche did work before the 'Mauerfall' (wall fell).. -
kosmasp16 September 2013There are two different words in the German language that translate into the word "you" in English. One of them is a formal word, that is being used when you refer/talk to someone you don't know that well or as a form of respect. The other is being used by friends. The former mostly is connected to you referring to the other person as Mister (Lehmann). And this is where one of the jokes of the movie lies. The use of that word and something might be impossible to translate (I have no idea how one would try to).
That might have been a lengthy explanation to a simple joke, but hopefully it also made clear, how the humor of the movie works. And a former VJ (MTV) is in the center of it all. Watching him take his first steps into "major" acting and succeeding is more than satisfying. -
Camera-Obscura15 December 2006BERLIN BLUES (Leander Haussmann - Germany 2003).
The film is set during the fall of 1989 in the run-down West-Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg 36, an isolated corner of the city right next to the Berlin wall, mainly populated by a collection of misfits, artists, philosophers and drop-outs of all kinds. This is the world of Frank, alias Herr Lehmann (Christian Ulmen), who works as a bartender, takes live as it comes and generally lives in a pleasant bubble, unaware of the major events occurring in the outside world. His friend Karl (Detlev Buck), an artist who builds huge metal constructions, works in another bar, as does Katrin (Katja Danowski), the new chef, with whom he soon starts a turbulent relationship.
There are quite a few well-observed hilarious observations about Herr Lehmann's life in Kreuzberg, like an encounter with a whiskey-drinking dog, a confrontation with his visiting parents, a chaotic visit to East-Berlin and trouble in a gay-bar with "leather-Lily." The film's backdrop, with the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989, Herr Lehmann's adventures seem to assume a certain importance, somewhat impaired with the occasionally flimsy and ridiculous occurrences in his life. In any other setting, the film would probably be less memorable than it is now. But that's probably the essential element what makes it work on many levels. The setting, Kreuzberg, and time in history, 1989, are the most potent ingredients for the film's relevance.
The late eighties' atmosphere is well served, with a good soundtrack by Eels, Violent Femmes, Calexico, Ween, Cake and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Above all, I watched this with great pleasure, because I lived in this particular part of Berlin and it still is my absolute favorite part of the city. It seems very little has changed since 1989. Many of the bar scenes were shot in Café "Zum Elefanten" on Heinrichplatz, typically the kind of place where the interior and personnel hasn't changed since 1970. The kind of place where you only come to get served, get a drink and talking is restricted to a minimum.
Frank Griebe, who also lensed Tom Tykwer's LOLA RENNT (1998), did the cinematography, but here it's not nearly as flashy as in as in LOLA RENNT. Whether that's a good or thing or not, i'll leave that decision to you. And, as one other commenter from that proud Hanseatic city in Northern-Germany already noted, the film displays one of the most conspicuous product placements in recent German film.
Camera Obscura --- 7/10 -
kruks24 October 20031. a remarkable screenplay (based on a contemporary literary classic) with several truly hilarious lines
2. fresh, charismatic characters and actors, all the more convincing for their random quirks and non-supermodel appearance
3. unconventional direction
4. one of the best soundtracks EVER!
a recommendation with five exclamation marks!!!!! -
ethone6 March 2006Of course you can't really compare Herr Lehmann to dramatic history reenactments like Der Untergang.
But Herr Lehman is so full of comedy, but also full of authenticism and a plot not devoid of drama. It's dialogues are outstanding, but then the book the film is based on was exceptional to begin with. And the best thing is, if you like the movie, you will like the books. Sven Regener managed to show his talent in storytelling and humour in both art forms, book and movie. The connections he makes, the way he connects what actually happens to Frank Lehmann's thoughts is the best use of basic rhetoric means I ever saw. He doesn't use the "rhetoric artillery" so to speak, but achieves literary greatness nevertheless.
The acting is on par with the quality of the script though. Even if I didn't expect Christian Ulmen to do any good acting ever, he produced the perfect rendition of the lazy, slightly hedonistic, disoriented Herr Lehmann. Detlev Buck is outstanding as well, as is nearly everybody in the supporting cast.
10/10 for humour, artistic style, acting, all that while staying serious. -
eisbaer20018 October 2003The film opens with a great and also very funny scene. The drunken and tired Herr Lehmann walks down the streets to reach his apartment. Finally he sees himself confronted with an awful dog!
He grabs into his pockets and finds some booze. In the end both are more or less drunken, Lehmann and the dog.
Two police officers drive by and wonder about this strange event...
This film has everything you can laugh, cry or cheer about and in the end the Berlin Wall is teared down, too.
Go and see it. -
***********************May contain SPOILERS!!!*******************
Mister Lehmann is 30 years old and lives in Berlin. He works in a tavern and like his life although nothing special happened in it. But then he felt in love and his life seems to change. But she don't know if she loves Lehmann or if she only be in love. His best friend, at least he think he is, get more and more depressive. "Kristall-Rainer" seems to be a cop and he realize more and more that he's felt in love. And all that happened in the time nearly the Fall of the Wall. This movie shows this historical time from a simple point of view of a simple human being and, that's important, in West Berlin. So slight and funny hints ("why do people in the east need a world clock?") and so deep senses of the characters. Awesome! Christian Ulmen seems to become a great actor, unless he is at present! Lehmanns lethargic moral conduct paired with funny dialogs makes a bizarre and hilarious spirit. The best German comedy in the last years beside "Lammbock", also if this movie can't be pigeonhole. -
"Herr Lehmann" is a German 105-minute movie from almost 15 years ago and probably the most known work by filmmaker Leander Haußmann. The script comes from Sven Regener who also wrote the novel that this film is based on. I am not too familiar with most of the cast here. Christian Ulmen is pretty famous of course and Germans know Detlev Buck as well from acting and directing. And finally Uwe Dag Berlin and Hollywood superstar Christoph Waltz play minor characters. Buck won a German Film Award for his performance here and Katja Danowski who plays the female with the most screen time was nominated for one as well. 2003 was a good year for German films in terms of contents that have to do with the GDR and the Fall of the Berlin Wall ("Good Bye Lenin"). But is this really what "Herr Lehmann" is about? One may think so with the ending, but basically the 90 minutes before that have almost nothing to do with it, even if it is set in West Germany shortly before the Fall. Or maybe they wanted to tell us that it just wasn't a big thing at that time at the other side of the Wall? I am not sure.
Anyway, I am not sure either why this movie has garnered such positive reception. I rarely found it memorable, almost never. Ulmen proves again that he is charismatic, but he is not a great actor. Then again the script gives him little to work with. Instead it never manages to decide if it is a comedy or a drama and does not deliver convincingly in any of these 2 areas. It certainly is not worth seeing either for the historical context as the ending may be good, but it has little connection to everything that happened before. The performances are bearable, but nothing that stays in the mind either. As a whole, I was pretty disappointed by this movie. I certainly expected something better, especially as I kinda like Ulmen as a comedian. As an actor though, he still has to wow me. I do not recommend checking out "Herr Lehmann". Thumbs down. -
heroin-bob26 November 2003As a fan of Sven Regener's (Author of Novel and Screenplay) Band "Element of Crime" I read the book and was really looking forward to see this picture. In some way I was hoping for a better "Soloalbum", an other adaptation of a German so-called "Pop-Novel". After seeing Soloalbum I really had the desire to kill just anyone involved in this movie that was nothing but let's say an average Romantic Comedy, having deleted all the cynicism, the melancholy the humor and the truth which made the book so marvelous.
But let's get back to Herr Lehmann: I got what I hoped for!
Sven Regener carefully adapted his own story for the big screen, transforming some words into images, thoughts into dialogs, leaving out what had to be left out and keeping this special humor that was one of the characteristics of the book. The only thing I missed is the Chapter about the "Ku'damm-Bus", which I would have loved to see on screen, but who cares about this detail...
The cast (consisting of some of the best German On-Screen-Actors of the "old school" and a bunch of great Newcomers) is nearly perfect. It would take to long to name all the actors who played their roles so authentic and sometimes getting into the field of warm-hearted satire. The one that takes it all is obviously Detlev Buck playing Herr Lehmann's best friend Karl in a way that will be remembered for long time, I suppose.
The soundtrack is really cool and the photography by Frank Griebe (besides Michael Ballhaus probably the best German Cinematographer at present) finds the perfect images to illustrate the life of the Boheme in West-Berlin at the end of the 80s.
Leander Haußmann after all succeeded in even topping his first movie "Sonnenallee" and is now responsible for two of the best German pictures of the past years. -
rah-232 September 2007I live in SO36 for over 20 years now, the film was shot here - so why not give it a try? Here is why: no significant story. If you like to gossip and watch other peoples relationships this might be interesting. If you're into stories that exceed everyday life - look somewhere else. SO36 in 1989 was different. Far better than the utterly and totally misconceived sham 'Sonnenallee', but if you seek for insight into the times of the Wende in Berlin SO36 (Sonnenallee: Berlin 44) - avoid these! In my opinion SO36 had been the choice of location for this film, cause SO36 still catches peoples imagination - and has been for a quite long time. This story does not require the Wende at all. not convincingly made. Some of the dialogs are just so woody, so read out...
Anyway - I wasted two hours with this - don't do the same! -
QueenNadine17 January 2009Frank is a barman in 1989 West Berlin. Everyone calls him Herr Lehmann, much to his annoyance at times- but then, he's not really all that bothered, as he lives his life day to day, beer to beer, without much of a plan or direction, happy just to hang out with his mates and do the same bar hopping routine over and over. His comfortable state of leisure is disrupted when he meets attractive but tough chef Katrin, his parents visit him unexpectedly, and his best friend Karl starts going insane. And of course, a couple doors down, on the other side of the wall, a whole new level of turmoil is starting to brew...
Well, where to start? The acting is great, with former MTV cutie Christian Ulmen giving a brilliantly lazy, laconic "am I bovveeeered?!" kind of performance. Detlev Buck steals many of Ulmen's scenes as artist stroke party animal Karl. I know Buck's a director, producer, and whatnot, but I love him as an actor. He's just able to create these hilarious, memorable characters, does deadpan like no other- and as Karl he sports the most incedible mullet (or Vokuhila, as we call it).
I'd expected more eighties nostalgia in set and costume design, and music, but the film pretty much stayed clear of that. Even the dialogue sounded like it could have come from any period. (The mullet does make up for that, though. Big time.) I did think the atmosphere of late 80s West Berlin was captured well enough though, with the countless Eckkneipen and these types that just live for the next night out and are simply to cool to be bothered about what's happening around them. I've met enough of those myself, albeit not in Berlin, and love how the film manages to thoroughly take the mickey out of them while still presenting them as likable characters.
Dialogue is witty, with some great, pointless beer conversations about basically nothing.
There are points when the film seems to drag a little, just like Herr Lehmann's life- nothing much happens.
The soundtrack is well-picked, though like with all modern German movies seems to have been put together by someone who hasn't quite realised that there have been songs written in languages other than English. That said, there is some seriously funky music in there.
All in all, I absolutely loved this and would strongly recommend it. Even just for the mullet.
9/10 -
bob_bear17 November 2009Character driven...the strength of this film is its lack of narrative drive...
...and the weakness of this film is its lack of narrative drive...
I'm all for films that break away from the conventions...but this one is...
The greasy haired Herr Lehmann does not engage me. Nor do his cronies. The film is like a stream of consciousness with no resolution. The 10p ending of the fall of the wall is? Like, Na...und? What does it have to do with anything??? Didn't enjoy it. Kinda interesting and kinda boring.
I love Berlin. I love Kreuzberg. It was nice to spend an hour or two in that lokal...but it would have been better spent with interesting people. A nerd and his nerdy friends didn't do it for me. I'd rather have followed Soda Pop (Fanta) Rainer's story. -
readytorumble13 March 2006I totally don't see why people would like this movie, or give it good votes. The acting is extremely poor, the storyline is very boring, and even though the director "tried" to put the movie to a higher level, by putting in some weird scenes, he just makes it all chaotic and totally annoying.
Except for Detlev Buck, who is doing OK IMHO, every single person in this movie seems to never have attended acting classes. The actors are so crap that it is really starting to annoy right when the movie starts.
The movie is also full of surreptitious advertising made by Becks. Without counting it i would guess there are about 50 Beck's bottles shown in the movie, often with the camera on those bottles instead of the actors.
I voted 2/10, giving credit to some ideas which might have been nice, if they were executed properly. -
zieglerh2 November 2003Read the book, it's great. The movie is very disappointing. Bad adaption of the story, worst casting. Sorry, but Mr. Ulmen didn't perform very well as Herr Lehmann. Detlev Buck couldn't save the movie.
If you have read the book, don't see this movie. If you haven't, read it. -
meyerzwo23 June 2005Hmm, who's the set director of Leander Hausmann? He should look out for a new one. The story is quite good, the main actor is great, but the set decoration makes me sick and remembers me all the time to Sonnenallee. Watch out or for the recycling bins after the scene where Frank and Katrin dispute in the Döner takeout. Leander, please remember, the story took place in the eighties. Another example? Did anyone read the story? Frank Lehmann came from Bremen, north of Germany.. And the slang of his parents? They sound like east Germans. And the hidden propaganda for Beck's Bier all the time... Boye, Hausmann, Buck, please stay away from making films.