Talk of the Town (1995) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
Charming bit of fluff, still highly enjoyable
jandewitt19 July 2004
Originally produced for German TV this charming little comedy was released nationwide instead and turned out to be a surprise hit at the box-office.

Though by no means a classic, it's nevertheless a silly bit of fluff, often foolish, sometimes downright dull but overall entertaining stuff.

All actors show admirable flair, even Miss Riemann underplays admirably. Best of the crop: Moritz Bleibtreu as dull but attractive gay lover of Riemann's brother and Martina Gedeck as the wronged wife, who finally got her revenge.

The great soundtrack features Della Reese's all-time classic rendition of 'It's so nice to have a man around the house'.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
German DVD
larsedik30 December 2006
I first saw this movie at the Directors' Guild in Hollywood at a gay film festival, and it was shown with subtitles. It was well received by the audience, few of whom probably understood German, but the subtitles were sufficient to convey the humor. I liked it so much that I searched quite some time for a DVD and finally found one at amazon.de, and I ordered it from Germany. I have a code-free DVD player that will play European DVDs, and so I was not concerned about being able to play the DVD. However, the DVD contained NO subtitles, and so while I was able to understand the dialog, it was lost on my brother, who does not understand German. I found it very curious that no subtitles at all were included in the DVD, especially since they were done for the theatrical release.

If you want to see this movie, try to find it at a film festival, unless you speak German. It's quite delightful, and I liked the lightheartedness of it. It's not like many of the other German movies I've seen and has rare comic appeal that may be more interesting for American audiences who are less familiar with contemporary German culture.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
2/10
Extremely unrealistic and unfunny
Horst_In_Translation7 August 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Stadtgespräch" or "Talk of the Town" is a German 90-minute film from 1995, so it had its 20th anniversary last year. The director is Rainer Kaufmann, the script comes from Ben Taylor and this film actually received quite a bit of awards recognition back then (also at the German Film Awards), so I was kinda curious about it. My hopes were smashed. Thsi film is mostly comedy, but it's really never ever funny. Some of the moments they intended as funny were downright embarrassing because you could see they tried so hard, but it turned out a big mess. There are dramatic moments in here as well, but really that's just minor. I think Gedeck was fine in these moments and she is the somewhat only occasionally decent part of this film. The male actors are entirely forgettable which is not really due to their performances, but the way they were written. Stereotypical, over-the-top and yet extremely uninteresting. Certainly a missed opportunity given the fact that guys like Zirner and Bleibtreu were on board. Don't care much about Wiesinger. Now lets talk about Riemann. She won a German Film Award for her performance here (and for another) and she was among Germany's most successful actresses back then, still is very well-known today. I have no idea why though. With her work here, she proved to me that she has zero talent in terms of comedy acting. The romance parts weren't much better, you have to say in her favor that's mostly because of the writing, but hey at least she showed everybody their breasts. The absolute negative highlight of the film was the ending with this weird phone conference at the radio stating. Extremely cringeworthy. Also characters are randomly mad at each other, then immediately best friends again and they keep falling in and out of love with several characters and I just cannot take this film seriously from a dramatic perspective. A contender for Worst 10 1990s films from Germany. Stay far far away.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed