$60m at the box office, a first for a German film. That is the success of HEAD FULL OF HONEY, whose Toronto premiere the Goethe-Institut is showing you at The European Union Film Festival on Nov 19 at 8:30pm. The writer-director-producer-actor behind the miracle is Til Schweiger, Germany's biggest screen star. He is often considered Germany's answer to Brad Pitt with his rugged good looks (looking half of his 53), large patchwork family, tabloid lifestyle, and Vocal support for refugees in Germany. No other German actor has drawn more people into the cinemas in Germany in recent memory. I still remember his first appearance as an actor: on still-running TV soap "Lindenstrasse", the German equivalent of Coronation Street, in the late 80s. Soon followed by a slew of popular hit movies too numerous to list.
Fast forward to Fredrik Bond's feature debut "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman". Starring Shia LaBeouf & Evan Rachel Wood. And Til Schweiger. In Competition at the Berlinale 2013 no less.
As Cinema Blend reported: "
Though an A-lister in his native land, Schweiger is best-known Stateside for brawny roles of merciless men like Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz of "Inglourious Basterds'.
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman' follows suit, lining Schweiger up to portray Darko, a paramilitary fighter turned Serbian gangster who runs a strip club in Budapest after escaping the grasp of a War Crimes tribunal."
And when the (Sundance) reviews were in, they included rough appreciations such as this one by Geek Tyrant: "
The true standouts were the movie's villains, memorably played by Mads Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger. These guys seem to really relish playing these ruthless gangsters, and they were perfectly cast as dudes who don't think twice about killing innocent people or using Crazy glue as a bonding agent to hold two prisoners together." Sounds like a German Dr. Jekyll and an American Mr. Hyde.
Schweiger is indeed one of the few German actors who have managed to carve out a career in Hollywood. For 10 years, he was married to a US model, with whom he has (really good) young actor daughters. He appeared in "Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life", "The Replacement Killers", "The Courier" (type-casting anyone?) and most recently "This Means War" with Reese Witherspoon
. He has played alongside Christopher Plummer, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Neve Campbell, Nick Nolte, Clive Owen and Keira Knightley. In 2009, he was invited to TIFF with his heroic biopic "Phantom Pain."
The push-and-pull of his double life is not lost on him: "We need stars!" he told the audience at a German Film Academy event. "France has twenty film stars, Germany only two - according to ((Berlin newspaper)) Tagesspiegel,
'splendid Bully & courageous Til'“ (in reference to his colleague, comedian Michael Herbig).
Back home, Schweiger has also fashioned himself courageously and ambitiously into the producer-director role. In 2008, the popular comedy-for-all-ages "Keinohrhasen" ("Rabbit Without Ears") --written, produced, directed and starring Schweiger-- became the most successful film in German theatres up to that point with over 6 million viewers. "Zweiohrküken" ("Rabbit Without Ears 2") followed suit, as well as "Kokowääh" (he should win an Oscar for most bizarre film titles). All with phenomenal 4 million plus viewers. And, you guessed it, "Kokowääh 2", followed suit. In the tradition of Will Smith, the former med student likes sequels and acting alongside his four kids.
One of his few projects that wasn't a mega success, against all expectations: The 2009 German reality casting show "Mission Hollywood", in which Schweiger was supposed to choose a young actor for a Hollywood role, quietly Vanished. But he is always present on German TV, for example to star in the coveted role as a "Tatort" detective on the mean streets of Hamburg.
“Success is not a sign of quality," he once commented on another dichotomy he is often dragged into, the one between arthouse and mainstream, "but failing at the box office isn't a sign of quality either. A film is not inherently good because no-one sees it. Cinema is a mass medium and it can only survive economically if it is made for the audience.”
P.S. HEAD FULL OF HONEY is PG rated, so bring your kids along to see the impressive 12-year-old Emma Schweiger.
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
image: Emma and Til Schweiger HEAD FULL OF HONEY © Warner Bros. Entertainment
