"Der Firmling" is an over 80-year-old German short film. It was made shortly after the Nazis claimed power in Germany, is in black-and-white and runs for 23 minutes. It features Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt. The two made quite a few short films together and were pretty successful. Karlstadt, a 40-year-old woman when this was made, plays the teenage son of Valentin's character here. And while it is a credible performance, I found the short film all in all not too interesting and entertaining. The boy's constant giggling at every (not so) funny comment becomes repetitive quickly and the father is basically drunk for over half of the film talking nonsense and stumbling around. I have to say this has not aged particularly well and I can't recommend it.
2 Reviews
Certainly Karl Valentin's best movie
joerg-915 April 2004
Karl Valentin's Firmling is the only German movie in my top-ten list of what I think are the best movies of all times. We see a father (who must be 70 or so) who takes his son to a restaurant after the confirmation ceremony (son still holds a candle when entering the place). Father is already drunk when entering and gets even more drunk during the course of action. What makes it so special is the variety of subjects it handles during the relatively short period of 25 minutes: war friendship ('we were out there...'), simple man's ignorance ('they have Affentaler in a bottle!' - he thinks Affentaler is a cheese), father-son relationship ('why is he laughing?' 'Well he is young' 'that's no reason to laugh, I was young too, I was may be younger than him!') and then of course the unprecedented story of his friend who gives him his son's suit even though he doesn't know the boy! Certainly not everybody can laugh about something like that but I have seen this movie 20 times or so and still find it amazing! Karl Valentin plays a drunk which lets the famous 'Dinner for One' look pale in comparison.
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