A torn off ear in a field – a classic case for Franz Eberhofer. But the village policeman has other worries. Because the women in his life are planning a revolt.
A revolution has broken out in Niederkaltenkirchen. Grandma doesn’t want to cook and clean anymore. And Susi wants to have a career and not just stand back as a caring mother, sorting out the everyday family chaos. Difficult times for the village policeman Franz Eberhofer, his father and his brother Leopold, as they have been sitting in the nest in the previous eight films in the “Eberhofer” series and have been able to do a lot of navel-gazing.
That’s the end of the crime comedy “Rehragout-Rendezvous”. The men have to take matters into their own hands because Susi and Grandma don’t want to be exploited any longer. The film can be seen in the “ARD Summer Cinema” series on Monday at 8:15 p.m. on Das Erste.
“It was perhaps long overdue that the most important female characters took up more space,” said producer Kerstin Schmidbauer when the film was released a year ago. The comedy is based on the 11th volume of Rita Falk’s crime series. Sebastian Bezzel and Simon Schwarz, alias private detective Rudi Birkenberger, are this time working together to investigate a missing person case that turns out to be a murder.
So are these new times in the “Eberhofer” universe? Yes and no. The discussions in the film are old. The fact that mothers work and men take out the garbage and change the children’s diapers has long been part of everyday life in many relationships. Eberhofer is exposed as being very old-fashioned in view of his horror at having to cut back on his job in order to be able to look after his son Pauli more. His father (Eisi Gulp) and brother Leonard (Gerhard Wittmann) also seem to have been unaffected by the debates about a fair division of work and household chores.
The women don’t want to put up with that any longer. Enzi Fuchs as Grandma dares to protest – once again wonderfully mischievous and tough – but still fragile. Potthoff plays with his usual quick wit and stands up to the men around him, unfazed.
But the script limits her character’s self-confidence. Susi doesn’t exactly seem like the spearhead of emancipation when she struts into her new role as deputy mayor of the fictional village in Lower Bavaria in her pink Barbie costume. The cliché of a naive woman who doesn’t really know how to fill this position. It’s reassuring that in the end she develops a taste for being in charge and discovers her professional ambition.
“Veer Ragout Rendezvous” takes the film series in a different direction. More female power, less tolerance for male airs and graces. Fans of stupid sayings and slapstick will still get their money’s worth. There are plenty of parodically exaggerated macho behavior and lame jokes, not least at the expense of Franz, who feels under great pressure from Susi’s ambitions, even in the most intimate areas. A situation that worries butcher Simmerl (Stephan Zinner), innkeeper Wolfi (Max Schmidt) and Flötzinger (Daniel Christensen) so much that they want to help him rediscover his masculinity.
The change in perspective is good for the story, even if some of the jokes aren’t quite as fresh as they used to be. Nevertheless, the film also serves as a signal to the male world: even in the most remote corners, it’s no longer possible to nestle comfortably in the macho niche.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
