So why only 6 stars- there were flaws- and the reviewer (3 star) from Vienna familiar with the hotel and the history & life of Anna Sacher makes some important points. Without giving any spoiler, if you don't know, as I don't, makes it clear that she was very significant, one of the 1st feminist, fought anti-Semitism, and had a very interesting story. (there is a German Doc).
I did feel at times, that the 3 (to6) main story lines, some of the characters were pretty self indulgent, maybe true of the society, but it makes it hard to be involved with all the details of their story line. How real are these characters. Sometimes, I had to say, really, what.... But it was a very excellent production. At the end touched on WWI, showed some of the horrors, and that everyone wasn't for it (well, it is a German production) and the chaos and poverty that followed it, but not at the Sacher Luxury Hotel. There was more about marriages, and the social political structure in the society. And woman fighting for a voice (still going on 100-120 years later).
It looks like they could pick up with a 3 &4. It might be hard to move forward bec by the end of WW1, where this leaves off, within 10 years you have the rise of Fascism, and by 1934 you have Hitler in power, and Triumph of the Will Rally.
But I wouldn't mind seeing it from the beginning, with a focus on Anna Sacher, a few other minor story lines. The characters in this 1&2 could be present, but not focus on their stories. there seems to be a lot known about her; why not her interaction with the anti-semite mayor she fought, That a lot is known, can also be a draw back in a drama based on real people, bec it may fail to deliver.
I see there was a Hotel Sacher made in 1939 that would be interesting-(available?) and one in the 70s.
3 Reviews
A boring film about a fascinating woman
m-de-werd29 December 2016
I have only seen the first part of this two part TV-film, but as nobody has written a review yet I will be the first. I live in Vienna and know the hotel Sacher quite well, so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately the film tells very little about Anna Sacher, the legendary director of the hotel, and concentrates on some rather uninteresting fictional characters: a editor couple from Berlin and an Austrian count and his wife who is a secret writer. In between is the weird story about a girl who is kept as a prisoner in the cellar of the opera - a mixture of the Phantom of the Opera and the story of Natascha Kampusch.
I was glad that on the same evening the Austrian television showed the documentary film "The queen of Vienna" about Anna Sacher, who was indeed a fascinating person. A butcher's daughter who after a long struggle becomes the first female director of a European top hotel. A close friend of the high-society and the cultural world when Vienna was one most of the most thrilling places in the world, a pioneer of equal treatment for women and a sworn enemy of Vienna's notorious antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger. Even Anna Sacher's personal was full of drama. As her great love was already married she made her daughter of fifteen marry his son. When she was 20 this daughter committed suicide.
I was not very enthusiastic about the actors either. Ursula Strauss has very little in common with of the real Anna Sacher and Nina Proll plays the imperial mistress Katherina Schratt like a cheap slut. I can't understand how Robert Dornhelm could make such a bad film about such a good theme.
I was glad that on the same evening the Austrian television showed the documentary film "The queen of Vienna" about Anna Sacher, who was indeed a fascinating person. A butcher's daughter who after a long struggle becomes the first female director of a European top hotel. A close friend of the high-society and the cultural world when Vienna was one most of the most thrilling places in the world, a pioneer of equal treatment for women and a sworn enemy of Vienna's notorious antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger. Even Anna Sacher's personal was full of drama. As her great love was already married she made her daughter of fifteen marry his son. When she was 20 this daughter committed suicide.
I was not very enthusiastic about the actors either. Ursula Strauss has very little in common with of the real Anna Sacher and Nina Proll plays the imperial mistress Katherina Schratt like a cheap slut. I can't understand how Robert Dornhelm could make such a bad film about such a good theme.
I take the cake - without the movie
Horst_In_Translation9 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Das Sacher. In bester Gesellschaft" is a co-production between Austria and Germany in the German language and this one had its world premiere in 2016 (last year). The cast really does include several pretty good actors especially from Austria with Strauss who may be the only one close to being called lead or Simonischek (Toni Erdmann) and the stunning Julia Koschitz and Simon Schwarz. I am also a bit of a fan of Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Josefine Preuß mot so much. The director is Robert Dornhelm, actually an Oscar nominee in the documentary category, even if this was decades ago. The writer is Rodica Döhnert and she also worked on the Adlon script, sou you could call her a bit of a hotel film expert. Or rather a hotel mini-series expert as this one here consists of two episodes of roughly 100 minutes each, which means you can watch the entire thing in under 3.5 hours if you got the patience. And you will need a lot of patience I must say because this one has its lengths. They somehow never really managed to hit the right notes. The girl abduction story early on did not fit in too well and this was one extreme, while the other extreme causes a great deal of boredom, i.e. the story in the hotel. Or stories, a great deal of which was forgettable romance stuff and making-out scenes. It is not a failure really, but given the cast this could have been a far better 2-part movie in my opinion. The potential was not fulfilled. Instead the film only delivers in the visual department as costumes, make-up and sets were all fairly convincing and probably the best thing about it all. But this cannot let me forget the gigantic mediocrity when it comes to story-telling and how much especially Simonischek was wasted. Strauss was probably the most memorable, but that is by no means surprising because she also has the most screen time from the cast and with this huge running time somebody has to stay in the audience's mind right? But yeah, this is like the Adlon movie a fairly forgettable outcome and not even close to the period piece I hoped it could become. I also feel honestly that while many films struggle with strong writing for female characters, this one here is the exact opposite and could have needed better character writing and development when it comes to the male characters. They are already outnumbered in quantity, no need to give them bad quality too. Watch something else instead.
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