Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei

Am interesting movie with great potential, which Hans Weingartner managed to fulfill only partially. Partly because he didn't shoot all that much, but mainly because the viewer understands too soon whose side the director sympathizes with. The theme could have been approached as a ruthless drama, where the game would soon get out of the hands of the young "revolutionaries," but the director did not have the courage for that. Or as a sarcastic comedy about why revolutions are so difficult in Western Europe today. As Karel Kryl wrote, revolutions have not succeeded in Germany since the 1950s because revolutionary-minded students quickly buy a car and an apartment after starting work and have no desire to demolish their belongings in revolutionary riots. But the director didn't have the desire for that either. It would have been beautiful if he had cut to ten years later, when Julia Jentsch leaves a similar clique with her partner, just like they were improving their class opponents' lives in their youth. For a functional drama, it would have been good if the kidnapped manager became an equal opponent and the screenwriter equipped him with arguments and audience-sympathetic qualities to deepen the dramatic conflict. However, the creators wanted to portray him as an unsympathetic scoundrel, so the only scene in the car with police escort actually undermines the whole point. The film runs at half throttle from beginning to end, and it could have been funnier, more dramatic, and more provocative. Overall impression: 60%. (09.03.2010)

Výborný německý snímek, který utáhnou v podstatě celou stopáž čtyři herci. Daniela Bruhla považuji za velký herecký a jazykový talent, na jeho výborné výkony jsem již zvyklý, Julii Jentsch jsem viděl poprvé a Stipa Ercega jsem si bohužel výrazně nezapamatoval v Baader Meinhof Komplex. Všichni tři však předvádějí přesvědčivé výkony, jejich postavy si postupně získávaly mé sympatie čím dál víc. Především mě strhla druhá půlka filmu, jež je vyplněna řadou diskusí a polemik a mírným milostným napětím. Pod mnoha názory ve snímku uvedenými bych se s chutí podepsal a nejvíce se mi líbí název v německém originále, jenž vystihuje i dnešní realitu v Evropě. Je to tak na čtyři a půl, za druhou půlku a sympatické hlavní představitele se přikláním směrem nahoru. Německá kinematografie opět boduje. (22.12.2011)

I'm certainly no rich capitalist, but even as a complete loser and a charity case, I don't adhere to the notion that wealth should be distributed equally to everyone without discrimination, even to those who hate work with a passion. If a bunch of activists stormed into my place saying that a computer, a Play Station, and an XBOX are too much for one person and I should share them with, say, a poor refugee family, I'd probably lose it. By that, I mean that the film’s premise wasn’t exactly close to my heart. That clichéd and hackneyed song that took up the whole ending was grating on my ears, and I didn't believe the resolution of the love triangle for a second. Yet, I’m giving three stars for Niki Lauda and Sophie Scholl’s performance. (15.08.2016)