"Alleine war gestern" is a German television film from 2014, so this one is already over five years old comfortably and maybe even close to ten years depending on when you show up here to read this review of mine. It is an ARD production of course, even if we don't have the words Degeto here on imdb (at this point), so as always it runs for minimally under 1.5 hours. Before I get to the cast, let me say a few words about the people who made this film and are not seen in front of the camera. Dagmar Seume is the director and her first filmmaking credit is from 2004, but apparently then she had a break of almost a decade before she became more prolific. I would say it is surprising somebody fairly new gets to work with these established actors here, but then I see she also directed a pretty popular kids movie right before this one apparently and that one was a theatrical release, so it's probably even more surprising she was in charge there and her involvement there with Hanni and Nanni surely helped her to get the job here. The writer is Beatrice Meier. She only wrote one short film before this film, so was even less experienced and again i am surprised she got picked for this one we have here. She also worked on some other projects afterwards, quite a bit in fact, but was still not nearly as prolific as Seume since then. This film is, as you can see from the title of my review, mostly about the elderly. Not a surprise at all this got made with stuff like Spätzünder, Live is Life and Rentnercops really. So maybe if you enjoy those, you will also find this one here worth watching, even if I'd say it is a step back in quality from what I have seen from the aforementioned. But why now? It makes sense this got made. people are getting older all the time and so are audiences, especially television audiences, who are sometimes not mobile (or willing) enough to leave the house on a regular basis. So the idea to make a film like that is not a problem. The execution and lack of quality, however, is.
This already starts with the cast. At least partially. Yes, we have two people in here who played minor parts in the Oscar-winning "Das Leben der Anderen", Faßnacht and Bauer and these two have enjoyed long and successful careers for decades, but if the writing is this poor, they cannot save a film either. And at least faßnacht has great recoognition value, so they definitely could have done more / something better with them/him. One I have no respect for is Swiss actress Charlotte Schwab. If "Alarm für Cobra 11" and "Kreuzfahrt ins Glück" are one's career-defining efforts, then you're doing it wrong. Or actually you're doing it right because you manage to make some nice bucks despite itter absence of talent apparently and nothing I saw in this movie here could make me think otherwise about Schwab. She was probably the worst from the entire cast although she maybe had the best material or at least perhaps the most screen time. The other female at the center of the film is Marie Gruber. I cannot go easy on her either. Of course, it is easy to feel sorry for her character, but she did not have to do a lot for that. And she sure didn't. Then again, the character is not half as challenging as you might think given what happened to her. I have seen Gruber in other films and I am not surprised. Also not a lot of range or versatility. And finally, Walter Sittler. He is the one most people will recognize in this film. Has been in a lot and also almost always played key characters. But even if a lot of that also kinda sucked, it is still a bit sad to see him, in 2014 already, stoop so low and appear in one of these uncountable terrible ARD productions. Especially next to these two pretty untalented female actors at the center of the story. But this also applies to the two other guys obviously. But for Sittler, it is especially sad because his only purpose in this movie is basically that he constantly needs to court Schwab's character. And even with Sittler being in some not so good stuff, he is way beyond that. Cannot say anything about the rest of the actors, but with the exception of the one who plays Schwab's character's daughter, they have literally no screen time at all anyway.
As I just mentioned the daughter, her subplot is a prime example how how this film came short in really every department. So ridiculous and unwatchable. I mean the actress was already not good, but the story was such a joke. She shows up to get some advice from her mother because she is pregnant and unsure if she should keep the child. Okay. How she does not get the chance to tell her ma though and instead tells us in a cringeworthy shot at thought being spoken out was utterly bad filmmaking. Same applies to how we find out later on that now it is already too late for an abortion. Let's not even get started on the issue of birth control here. You could think with all these pregnancy issues in ARD (Degeto) films, condoms or the pill do not even exist. Also her loud talk to herself early on was another example of how these films are always anti-male because the writers do not possess the talent to make the women likable in a way where they do not insult men all the time or treat them disrespectfully. Imagine it the other way around. Gender equality groups would be all up in arms. Here the evil fella left the woman and gets insulted for that of course. Oh well, to be honest, with her I'd have been gone quickly too, child or no child. Anyway, this gender discrimination continues and is a common factor. Take the three guys here: One vanishes halfway into the movie because he no longer wants to take care of Gruber's character. The other only does it because he is crushing on the other woman. And finally, number three is always grumpy and does not feel as if he belongs to the group anyway. And if the females then say something like it's good the one I mentioned first is gone, it's absolutely justified. Or also how the guys really struggle in accepting the challenge to support Gruber's character when they find out about the stroke, but of course classy Schwab's character is so heartfelt and caring that she convinces the others. She is also the one who gets the kindest words in the end when Gruber's character eventually agrees to move out.
The title meany basically "being alone is so outdated". Difficult to translate honestly. At least verbally and in three words the way it is done in German. You get the meaning though. I mean I sometimes dig films on how difficult life can be for older people. "Amour" is a movie I adore because of how sobering it it. "Das letzte Rennen" is a film I think is very touching and by the way Hallervorden palys the main part there and he is also in one of those films I mentioned earlier with focus on the elderly. But there need to be smart writing and realism and authenticity and there is not one bit to this film here. The contrary is the case. And yet, they expect the full display of emotion from the audience through scenes like the one at the end when we have Gruber's character say that nobody ever did for her what her friends did. With proper elaboration before that, this could have been a great moment. The way it actually turned out, it felt just for the sake of it. There are other smaller inclusions too that fit the description. Take the example early on how one character says she cannot swim. Not that she says it, but how and in which context she says it. And how it's supposed to be charming. It's not. Take the scene with the little fire where you could literally feel the filmmaker's fear to not become too dramatic. Take the reunion at the retirement home with everybody around and her new friends and also how the guy who left earlier is there again too for some joking around. The epitome of a forced happy ending as always with these films. Take the broken dishes early on, the screaming about the toilet lid, the porn magazine, the very first scene with the sausages and telephone, the talk with the guy when they are making gestures behind them and the fella knows what's going on as we find out through a comment from him, how the healty folks try to reenact the situation of how to move somebody lying in bed and so on. There are so many moments really with this movie when it all felt false and for the sake of it, especially when they were going for the attempt (it's really nothing more) to get laughter out of the audience. The weed scene? I don't even.
The more dramatic moments are equally bad: Take the fire I already talked about towards the end. There they just pushed forward with the agency to make clear she has to leave and cannot stay with them because the effort is too much of a challenge, so they included one showy moment after the next that was just too much. Felt also forced. But also way before that, the drama moments were never really smart inclusions. Or at least they were not used and elaborated on in a way where it felt like quality filmmaking. Take the little boy who apparently has no purpose other than telling the woman with the stroke she is half dead already and when she needs to go to the toilet, things really escalate. This was also another moment to show us how irresponsible men are with the Harry dude (the one with the porn magazines) not staying home to help her as it was his task. And Charlotte Schwab, as a consequence, can show us how much of a dedicated woman she can be when she gets angry because she cares for Gruber's character. Sigh. I hope you're getting irony. Otherwise you probably really like this film. I myself think it was a travesty. The entire thing. So bad at times that, even if it was not intentionally, I felt they were mocking people who actually had a stroke. Still I think that, even with the serious background story, the area where they messed up the most was the unsuccessful shot at comedy and how they wanted this to be a relatively light (and uplifting) film nonetheless. Plain horrible.
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