Two Movies

 Over the past two weeks....via German TV, I've watched two movies.  

The first was a BBC/RAI/ZDF production of 80 Days Around the World.  Eight episodes.....45 minutes each (no commercials, because it was on public TV - ZDF).

So, if you read the book by Jules Verne, watched the 1956 movie (David Niven) or the 2004 movie.....this has basically no real relationship to them, which is rather odd.  Oh, I agree....there is a bet. There is a travel segment.  There are a couple of major characters.  And it comes to the same conclusion in  the end.

So the criticism.  It seemed awful cheaply produced.  The Fogg character in this attempt is portrayed as a woeful guy....weak, and unable to carry through on decisions.  Passepartout is a black guy, who faces racism left and right in the movie.  Forte (the reporter) is a woman.  

I made it through second, third, and eighth segments of the movie.  It was like watching a woke-series, and delivered like a two star soap opera.  Verne wrote the piece to be 'fun' (enjoyable).  This was more like an adult lesson on 'how to be a loser but succeed'.  Fogg?  He's got all kinds of problems (never mentioned by Verne) and ought to be working at some cheese cake factory, or serving drinks at a pub.

So here's the odd thing.....as bad as I saw the series.....the three networks who built this loser of a movie have decided upon a second series (another eight episodes).  There's probably some other bet, and maybe some travel off into Africa or South America.  

I'm just shaking my head....if you've watched the 1956 or 2004 version....this 2021 movie is crap.  They might as well remake Passepartout as a trans-gal, have Fogg sitting in a mental institute at the beginning, and have everyone fall into a tiger-pit at some point of the movie.

So onto the second movie review, from ARD (Channel One, public TV) from last night....entitled: Eldorado KaDeWe.  

This is based somewhat on the Jewish family that ran the KaDeWe department store in Berlin, and their woes from 1918 to the mid-1930s.  

So there are six episodes to this....all running last night (Monday) and starting at 8:15 PM.  Yes, it ran to around 1:30 AM....without commercials or breaks.  Why?  Unknown.  I would have done this over a one-week period....an hour at a  time.

Unusual effects....about 30 minutes into the movie, you suddenly had a scene where it was modern-day Berlin (a car in the background).  Then you began to notice about every ten to fifteen minutes.....another modern scene built into the movie.  Weird?  Yeah.  The only thing I thought was that they simply didn't have the budget for a purely 1920s/1930s movie, and just eased modern scenes/landscapes into the movie.

Wild sex built into this?  Well....there's several scenes over the five hours where bondage, lesbians and kinky stuff are built into the story-telling.  

About two hours into this.....I began to shake my head.  The situation was more of a lusty soap opera, than a historical piece.

All historically correct?  WELL....NO.  This lead character in the piece....Fritzi (female daughter of the store owner) who carries the bulk of the movie as a lesbian....was a totally made-up character.  The owner didn't have a lesbian daughter.  So this lesbian angle....probably used for 25-percent of the entire movie....was just a created piece for public interest.  

(Note: maybe the 80 Days Around the World movie should have gone and made Fogg into a lesbian....it might have improved the movie)

The Nazi angle toward the final two hours?  Probably accurate.

As for some standing to the 1920s era?  I give them four-stars for that effort.  It's one of the few German movies made to explain and detail the era, which I think is one of the interesting periods of German history.

Trying to watch it?  I'd suggest you take only one segment (45 minutes) per evening, and try to avoid connecting the modern-day scenes to the movie (someone probably should edit out those segments).  I'd also just try to forget about the historical account of the Berlin store....it's just a half-true/half-fictional situation.  Finally.....if you are into lesbian stories/dramas and hot-lusty scenes.....I'd give it four stars.