User Reviews

There are two main reasons why I want to erase this film from my memory. Firstly, some scenes in this movie make me laugh every time I think of them, and I can't stop laughing even when I'm in public places. This film is going to drive me insane. After I saw this film, that night I spent about half an hour thinking of it, and laughing. Secondly, it makes me feel guilty every time I laugh. How can I laugh when the subject matter of this movie is about the cruelest thing that ever happened.

While many scenes is this film are oddly and extremely funny, there are two special scenes that I can't get out of my mind. They are the scene when the doctor tries to give the exact prescription, and the scene when Barbara keeps doing that thing. I wonder how Herbert Achternbusch can create such a scene like this. The doctor's scene make me laugh and feel very guilty at the same time. And the Barbara's scene is the funniest scene in the funniest movie by the funniest director. Achternbusch is not only my most favorite German director, but also one of the funniest directors for me. His films make me laugh the most, and Das letzte Loch might be one of his greatest works. While every film of his is excellent and tremendously funny, this one is also hypnotically powerful in its visual style and its use of music. Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein's cinematography here is beautiful, meaningful, and disturbing at the same time. And the music is incredibly strange.

Like other films by Achternbusch, I never understand what happens in this film. But like other films of his, to laugh and enjoy it requires no understanding. Every sentence spoken in this film is absurdly funny. I can't stop laughing at the dialogue though I can't make any sense out of it. Maybe one day I might understand it more if I have a chance to learn German and see it for the second or third time. Seeing any of Achternbusch's films for only one time is never enough.

The last part of the film when the characters go to Italy is the most impressive part for me. It is full of ludicrous ideas, and I really like the way it makes fun of names. But it is not only very funny, but also powerful, hypnotic, and poignant. Powerful and hypnotic for what Last Susn does in this scene. Poignant for what Nil discovers under the sand. I guess Nil is what one calls a tragicomic character. He makes me feel painful and sad. What should he do? Where should he run to? Is there any way for him to escape from his guilt and memory? I can't answer that, and I doubt if anyone can.

If I could nominate this film for some awards, I would like to nominate it for best film, best director, best supporting actress (Annamirl Bierbichler) , best screenplay, and best soundtrack. As for now, I want to forget this film before it drives me insane and overwhelms me with guilt.

Protagonist The Nile in Herbert Achternbusch's novel and film "Das letzte Loch" ("The Last Whole", 1982) is beer-drinker by profession, and also flycatcher, private detective, series-killer of female servers and personal memory of the Holocaust. In order to forget the 6 millions of murdered Jews, he drinks a pint of beer for each dead Jew. He spends his days in the Munich pubs in search for his "Last Susn" (= Susanne, played by the unforgettable Annamirl Bierbichler). All of his waitresses have been called Susn, but The Nil is looking for his ultimate Whole, however, he will not find it in the last Susn's body, but in the volcano Stromboli in the Tyrrhenian Sea. But until then he has still a long way to go. Since The Nil catches diabetes from his beer drinking, a Nazi-physician prescribes him schnapps: "Drink schnapps! Beer confuses the memory, but with schnapps, you will forget. With each schnapps, you will forget a Jew, this yields 20 Jews with a liter of schnapps ... therefore, for 6 millions, you need 3'000 hectoliters of schnapps".

The Last Susn says: "You are the infinitely long Nile, that has not come to me for such an endless time, whom I loved so endlessly, and who kept me alive for such an infinite time ... . The physician wanted to send you to Egypt because of the mild air of the desert. But we did not have the money to travel. Doesn't matter. Is anyway everything desert around me. You said: 'Then, I am your Nile. The Nile who refreshes you amidst of the desert'". But everything goes down too slowly: "I am so hungry that it is senseless to eat anything. I am so weak that I cannot die anymore". The Nile and The Last Susn sit in a compartment of a train that is bound to the Aeolian Islands. He drinks from a big schnapps bottle with the label "150 Jews". Arrived on the island of Stromboli, The Nil puts a German steel-helmet on his head, since he does not want to hurt his head when he will jump into the volcano. To his aid comes a German tourist, who spends all her vacations on the island in order to throw in her mind the Germans into the volcano. The Nil's friend, the police-man "Stupid Cloud", gets frightened at the volcano: "Is the volcano an appearance caused by eccentric nerves?". The two ladies want to know what else The Nil has gotten. Besides tennis rackets which he uses to dig out skeletons, he wears a little letter on a necklace in which is written about the immortal love of The Nil to The Last Susn and the reason why The Nil failed: "The murderous Germany". The Nil disappears in direction of the volcano: "Before each midday, I quickly eat a pretzel, which I quickly wolf, since a pretzel has the same color as your hair. Your pretzel-colored hair, farewell! I commit suicide, since as a self-killer I belong to the mountain of dead victims. To the mountain of dead of the self-righteous Germans I will not belong. I go into the volcano".... . The Last Susn follows him. Herbert Achternbusch's tremendously touching story of a modern Empedocles and an immortal Sulamith.