Schluckauf

A few years ago I've got a Roland Klick Collection on DVD with some of his movies, his first short films and oddities like this. Sadly, the box doesn't contain Bübchen from 1968 which is definitely his best. I had to get it a bit over priced on secondary market. A movie about a young boy killing his younger sibling. I describe it as a Horror disguised as a Familydrama. If you haven't seen it: Check it out! You won't regret it.

Klick was a passionate filmmaker in his prime. His passion sometimes became wrong-headed and probably that's why he never became more of a insider's tip.

His biggest career break was probably in the 1980s where he was the initial director for the Bernd Eichinger production "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo". Because of conception disagreements he got fired 2 weeks before filming began.

Another one was his next movie "White star" which went through production hell and it never got finished. The elephant in the room was Dennis Hopper who was a seriously coke addict at the time and most of his scenes were useless because of his erratic behavior in front and behind the camera. He even broke Klick's foot by driving over it. Klick tried in post production to make it a coherent movie but resulted in a commercial/overall flop.

So and now we are here. Why did I talk so much about Klick's career and not about this movie? Because this time it's his worst. Not only his worst movie but his worst work in general and there's not much information to find about it. But the movie is unique in two categories! 1. Because it's just plain awful and 2. It was the first and to my knowledge still the only movie that got canceled by the German Federal Film Board while filming. The producers where shocked of the bad quality and stopped the production. Similar to "White star" Klick tried to finish the movie on his own. He added stock footage for example for atmosphere and deleted scenes.

And how that turned out? Terrible!

The movie is about two models living together in Berlin but their careers stuck even they haven't really began. Most of the film they hang out, try different clothes and talk sometimes about this and that but not very important things to bring on the story. Something to care about for the viewer you know. There is not much of a story or anything interesting/funny/thoughtful dialogue in there. The main character sometimes has visions about a guy that gives her some hints and advice but it leads to nothing. And the added stock footage with ruminant background music of a ship going down the river Spree. As a viewer you really have to fight not to fall asleep or die in boredom. I kind of understand that he was desperate to finish the movie because of the passionate filmmaker he is but: Why? It never got finished. The production was canceled before they filmed the whole thing.

The funniest thing is the audio commentary by Klick himself. He mostly says that he loved working on this movie because of the actresses and the team behind it. He doesn't tell much of the production failure behind it but what was really eyeopening to me where two things he told.

The movie is called "Schluckauf" because the characters at the end find a case filled with money in the trunk of a car. And in reaction the main character immediately hiccups. CUT! End Credits.

You know, that really sounds like a sweet little ending. Not that I wished the main characters some luck in their misery at all. I couldn't care less because the characters have nothing for the viewer to care about and I don't even care checking up the names. That's how irrelevant they are.

No, what I want to say is: with a good script, interesting dialogue and maybe a coherent story that ending really could've worked. Do know why it didn't? Because none of that I just mentioned is in this movie. No, literally. The movie has no ending. Klick tells his version why: Because filming all the other stuff was so beautiful and exhilarating they forgot to film it in their infinite joy. Yeah, he says that.

So you're telling me there were 25+ people around the filmset and nobody looked at the script/schedule that they haven't filmed everything?! The real reason was probably what I already told: The production got canceled and the team couldn't film the rest of the movie.

And after 25 minutes in the audio commentary he tells something about ice cream. He got so obsessed about it that he says he goes out now and gets one. And that's where the commentary ends.

And I'm thankful for that. Really! Because I don't have to watch the movie two times now.

You probably never get to see this one because it never got released for TV or anything except of this Collection box.

Klick in the 60s/70s was a great filmmaker. Check out his other work. Just avoid this one if haven't seen "Bübchen", "Supermarkt" or "Deadlock" yet.