A German friend of mine once was assigned to write a review about a Dominik Graf movie for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, but when he told the editor he didn't like the flick, he was informed that Graf and the chief film critic of the paper, the late Michael Althen, were close friends and a negative review strictly impossible. Now holy cow and zoom world champion Graf, who directs pretty much everything from doughy period pieces (Beloved Sisters) to FAZ-lauded crime yawners (Im Angesicht des Verbrechens, which ruined the production company), comes up with a declaration of love for the German genre film of the 70s, proposition: Once upon a time there were, opposite to the spiritless and stuffy Autorenkino, bold and untamed movie makers out for danger, velocity, and sensuality. Unfortunately, there weren't, and Graf's proof" is downright risible – misogynist scheißedreck like Rolf Olsen's boorish Bloody Friday, or Roger Fritz' dim-witted and amateurish girl hunters fantasy Maedchen mit Gewalt. The cherry on top of the mythmaker bullcake provide the interviews with Mario Adorf, Graf's role model for physicality" – 'cept Adorf needed Italian directors like Fernando di Leo (not to speak of his extraordinary performance in Pietrangeli's Io la conoscevo bene) and seldom acted as boffo as in Roland Klick's narcisisstically artsy Deadlock. While the near-senile Mario tells mildly amusing anecdotes, you can hear Graf's sycophantic giggle in the background. That's the bonus of the movie: You rarely hear a fellow so full of himself.
