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Alles auf Zucker! (2004)

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12 comments in total

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28 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
Lots of laughter & a message, 28 January 2005

Author: Ken Gordian from Luebeck, Germany

There's been a media buzz surrounding this movie since its release in Germany. It is a bittersweet satirical comedy on the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans, making it - to my knowledge - the first movie of its kind and utterly successful.

Since the Shoah, there has been a perception among the majority of non-Jewish Germans that Jewish people in this country have to be treated with velvet gloves in every respect. This perception is strengthened further by the fact that due to the small number of Jewish communities in Germany, many non-Jewish Germans don't know Jewish people personally, thus creating an abstract image of easily offended Jews who have to be treated with utmost political correctness.

This movie by Dani Levy puts things into perspective again, demonstrating that despite the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish population, one nowadays is allowed to laugh about curiosities caused by Jewish rituals like problems in keeping the household going during Shabbat or about other Jewish/non-Jewish incompatibilities without breaking a taboo. Both Jewish and non-Jewish stereotypes are equally poked fun at in this movie, and with its intentional and charming political incorrectness and spot-on irony on this complex and sensitive matter, it is hilariously funny and an absolute must-see! I am convinced that this movie will help bring relations of Jewish/non-Jewish Germans to a more normal, more natural level, based on more mutual understanding. But even for those not looking so much for a movie with a message, but rather for an evening highlight of clever entertainment and big laughter, this is an ideal choice!

9/10

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21 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
At last!, 22 February 2005
Author: missmarmite from Hamburg, Germany

Wow, I can't say for how long I have been waiting for a film like this! I was always looking enviously over to America where they have films with, say, a dozen characters and one of them happens to be Jewish. But neither the Shoah is mentioned, nor Israel nor any other "typically Jewish" topics. These characters are Jewish like others are catholic or Mormon or atheist. Great. We never had this here in the last decades and I wondered when at last we would be treated to films like that made in Germany.

This film might not be 100% brilliant, but it's funny, it's very good and worth its while and money. Originally made only for Arte TV, they decided to get it into cinema first. And what a great idea this was! Hopefully more films like this will follow, so that we all can go another step on the way back to normal. Because it is normal to see black German characters, Turkish-German characters and Jewish German characters and what else in films and series and plays. So, writers, sit yourself down and write. Directors and producers are hopefully waiting for good scripts! They better be...

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20 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
One hell of a movie, 7 March 2005

Author: mabuse786 from Germany

This movie is really great. I fully enjoyed it and it was fun and gives you an idea of what the Jewsish community would have added to German society if they would not have been killed during the Holocaust. This is a sad thing and I say that as a German. I love to see what light hearted story Dani Levy made and it's really excellent actresses and actors. This movie is entertaining, easy to watch but has it's twists. Personally I really admire the screenplay of the actresses and actord -it is really wonderful and sets up a 'believable' environment for the movie. The fight between the brothers is also very noticeable.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A German Comedy That Is Actually Funny, 19 February 2006
Author: Crap_Connoisseur from Australia

I usually find German comedies about as amusing as bad diarrhea. I love German cinema but films like "Der Schuh des Manitus" and the entire "Otto" series have traumatised me to the point where I now just stick with German dramas and thrillers. Therefore, it was a big surprise to find that Alles Auf Zucker is not only an extremely well made and acted film, but also very funny.

The set up in Alles Auf Zucker has been done many times before, bringing two mismatched parties together in order to reach a common goal. In this case, brothers Jaeckie and Samuel are forced to end their long running feud and strictly follow Jewish customs for 7 days after the funeral of their mother in order to accept her inheritance. The twist being that while Samuel's family live as orthodox Jews, Jaeckie has entirely forgotten his religion. Many of the laughs stem from Jaeckie's wife's last minute crash-course in Jewish culture and Jaeckie's general disinterest.

The film owes a lot of its charm to Henry Huebchen, who plays Jaeckie, and Hannelore Elsner, who plays his wife. Alles Auf Zucker is really built around Huebchen's performance and he is effortlessly convincing as an endearing loser. Elsner, in my opinion the best actress working in Germany at the moment, brings her usual skill and world weary charm to what is really little more than a supporting role. Udo Samel also deserves praise for his turn as Samuel, fleshing out a character that could have been little more than a stereotype in the hands of a lesser actor.

In addition to some fine performances, Alles Auf Zucker is also blessed with a witty script and stylish direction by Dani Levy. These qualities more than make-up for some lazy plotting, such as Samuel's Ecstasy experience, and the unnecessary touches of whimsy that have Jaeckie speak directly to the audience. I think the film could have also done without the creepy inter-cousin romance. Nevertheless, these are minor faults with what is a very funny and charming film.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
I wish it was more crazy, 22 September 2007

Author: dromasca from Herzlya, Israel

There are two big divides in the family that this film centers on, and these are the premises of what could have been a very fun and touching movie at the same time, with a political and human message not to be missed. It's about Jewish family led two brothers, where one side are orthodox and observant Jews, while the other side are completely agnostic, actually involved in mixed marriage between a Jewish man and a non-Jewish woman which would make the children non-Jewish according to Jewish faith. The other divide is the Berlin wall and the division of Germany during the cold war which makes the observant family leave in the prosperous West, while the other half of the family leaves in the East. Not that the Eastern European brother lacks success and charisma, he is actually the more interesting character of the two, a former TV sports reporter dealing with a small prostitution business and a champ in billiards, but who finds himself in dire straits because of gambling and debts. Ten or fifteen years after the fall of the wall, when reunions are possible the mother of the two dies and in her the testament she asks for a traditional burial followed by the one week shiva mourning period, and a true reconciliation as a precondition for inheriting.

There are two ways to approach making such a movie. Rely on character comics, but here you need to be quite careful as a movie dealing with Jewish characters risks to be considered as too offensive if they pedal too much on this line. Although a lot of stereotypes are present I did not find them offensive at all (yes, I am Jewish), actually it's more the gay and sexual allusions that some may find more visible and doubt there good taste. The other approach would be to deal more with the political theme, but here the film is just a pale social commentary, and it never gets even close to the subtlety and human dimension of a film like 'Good-bye, Lenin'.

Unfortunately by choosing the middle of the road the director condemned the film to mediocrity, and instead of good laughs it's mostly polite smiles all along. It's not that good comedy scenes are completely missing, but I could not escape the feeling that the premises of the movie are better than the outcome, and that if the authors had chosen a more definite line, or just dared to be more crazy the result would have been better.

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I don't understand some of the negative reviews--this was a nice little comedy, 11 July 2008

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

As I stated in my summary, I can't understand how negative some of the reviews are for this film. While I strongly agree that it is not side-splitting funny, it works very well as a light comedy--a comedy that has some important things to say about family.

The central character in this film is a guy named Jackie Zucker. He is an ex-sports announcer from East Germany and now that the Wall has fallen and he's no longer famous, he's a bit of a weasel. Much of his time is spent gambling, making promises to be a better person and then ignoring his family. He's also very deeply in debt and is about to lose everything. His only chance, he thinks, is to win a huge pool tournament--giving him money to pay off everyone and get his life back on track. But since he's alienated his wife and grown children, it won't be easy to convince them to stake him in the tournament.

Then, quite inconveniently, just before the competition begins, his mother dies. She was apparently a religious Jew as was her other son, while Jackie was a communist party man and atheist (or at best, an agnostic). In her will, she promises to split her inheritance between her two sons IF they give her a proper Jewish funeral AND bury the hatchet. Considering that the two men haven't spoken in forty years and are as different from each other as possible, this is no small order. Plus, a proper Jewish funeral includes sitting 'shiva'---a one week mourning process that coincides with the pool tournament--a week when you are not allowed to do anything!! How Jackie conspires to cheat--by seeming to observe shiva and sneak away to the pool tournament is rather funny. However, the movie, while funny, is far less a comedy and far more a film about alienation and reconciliation. Seeing these two proud but exceptionally flawed men and their families work through all this actually is rather charming and interesting. A very good film--just don't get your heart set on it being a laugh out loud comedy.

PS--A note to parents. There is adult content in the film and it's probably not appropriate for younger audiences--though for most teens it's probably okay if you watch it with them.

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4 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Silly, Broad Comedy of German Jewish Reconciliation that Has Endearing Moments, 15 February 2006

Author: noralee from Queens, NY

"Go for Zucker! (Alles auf Zucker!)" is a broad, comic take on East vs. West reconciliation issues in Germany today that was done better in "Goodbye, Lenin!."

Co-writer/director Dani Levy goes further in making German audiences comfortable to laugh at their 20th century history by somewhat ridiculously adding in the Jewish issue, both past and contemporary. He makes it safe to joke about the Holocaust and its aftermath.

There have been countless comedies through the decades that have scheming beneficiaries pretend something or other in order to claim an inheritance (marriage, children, etc. etc.). Here, the premise is Jewish brothers and their families separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall need to reconcile and be observant Jews. But the joke, as they accuse each other, is that one grew up with the religious attitudes of Stalin and the other like the Ayatollah.

This is first played for very broad laughs, as the ex-Communist brother's estranged Aryan wife frantically tries to learn Jewish household rules through a kind of "Kosher for Dummies" book, while he's off gambling. Similarly, the Orthodox Jewish family displays every stiff visual stereotype of piety known to film, from the long beards to the triple chins on the wife.

The actors playing the older generation who lived through Germany's traumas are very world-weary effective. There's a lot of running around like a French parlor comedy. Their adult kids are mostly silly and too slapsticky sexually confused. Maybe it's a German comic thing that the men are all passive dolts, the women are sexually aggressive and their relationships make no sense.

The best parts of the film are when the brother from the East is comically doing his funny grifter thing to get into a pool tournament and, at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, when the brothers actually start to communicate about how history tore up their family. This makes history personal and poignant amidst the laughs. Everyone turns out to have faults and secrets, including the rabbi who is supposed to moderate. Some of the Frankfurt vs. Berlin jokes probably have more meaning to the German audience.

For all the film's silliness and stereotypes, it does end up endearing.

The subtitling is very difficult for an American audience. The opening credits are very funny, with the Eastern brother talking to and over the camera (a technique that continues throughout the swooping camera work). However, the subtitles are mixed in with the credits and are impossible to read. The subtitlers just assumed that any English speakers coming to see the film would understand Yiddish, as all the Yiddish expressions by the Western brother and his family are just transliterated as Yiddish and are not translated, though some words are not that widely part of American conversation and could be a problem for some viewers.

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3 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Treat yourself, 10 November 2005

Author: rob-1253 from Canada

Lighten up. It's a movie. It's not real life. Enjoy it for what it is. I laughed out loud in the theater continually. These are romantic movie characters. My belief was definitely suspended. i recommend this movie to others constantly as one of the best I've seen this year. Reality TV is no more real than these characters. It's refreshing to finally see a German comedy rather than the pap that the American cinema churns out. There are many twists in this movie that will add levity to your day. Go Go Go And take someone with you. Germany has become so strict and gloomy in the world's eye that it's great they can cross boundaries that many are scared to talk about. C'mon we're all people. We all have beliefs. We should be able to laugh at ourselves and certainly have to ability to see the human in this mortal existence.

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2 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Jewball Comedy, 6 October 2005
Author: Karl Self from Yurp

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Americans have quested for a long while for the "Great American Novel"; the French have battled for an atom bomb that produces more than a mere farting noise and which won't expose them to the ridicule of the natives; the British have long since tried to create a beer that doesn't evoke connotations of warm urine. On a similar ticket, Germans have been searching high and low for the fabled "Decent German Comedy", the storied holy grail of German culture and proof that the "master race" can jape and jest with the best. Whereas the arrival of "Alles auf Zucker!" doesn't herald the "Endsieg" in that department yet, it at least manages to pass the touchstone test of being "somewhat more preferable to a unanesthetized root canal treatment" and even to be oftentimes genuinely amusing. It manages to shine through world-class-heavyweight acting (especially by Hannelore Elsner and the hitherto-unknown-to-me Henry Hübchen), fast direction and camera-work and an insolent script. And besides, it is a movie about German Jews that isn't a moralistic tear-jerker, so director Dani Levy really scores a hattrick here.

***Slight Spoilers Ahoy!*** But there is also a slew of undeniable downsides: first of, the entire plot comes across as somewhat construed, scripted and make-believe, although this is somewhat compensated for by the movie's enormous speed; but still you can't escape the impression that the makers borrowed heavily from Woody Allen, et al. However I was genuinely disgusted by the fact that the four cousins are "romantically linked", as if this quasi-incest would constitute only a slight and ultimately hilarious misdemeanour (there even is a scene which shows two of the cousins snogging with a conservative rabbi in attendance, which really pushes the envelope of good taste and credibility). Also the affair between Jana and Jakob ten years ago consitutes a plot-hole, since the entire movie is based on the fact that the two brothers Jacky and Samuel haven't been in touch since the erection of the "Mauer". And finally I had the impression that the movie sells out its laudably knuckle-hard humour for a sappy ending when Jacky states from the off that he now reads the Torah and attends the synagogue, although this transformation from fast-mouthed atheist to zealot comes entirely out of nowhere.

In brief, not a perfect but rather a surprisingly good movie.

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1 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
It's not funny, 5 February 2007

Author: manuel-pestalozzi from Zurich, Switzerland

This movie starts with the main character lying in a coma in a hospital ward, attended by two orderlies. The unconscious main character is heard in a voice over, saying that the orderlies are gay. The orderlies kiss. I watched this in a DVD version and I have the suspicion that this is supposed to be funny – it said „comedy" on the DVD case, after all and it goes on like that. Had I seen this in a movie theater I probably would have heard part of the audience roar with laughter, because it is so funny – and because they are supposed to sit in a comedy. While it is fascinating to think about what it is funny and what isn't, this movie unfortunately only delivers arguments about what isn't.

Brilliant brains can MAKE anything funny, people like Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder or Mel Brooks have proved that fact. But you have to know the „mechanics", I suppose. Director and co-scriptwriter Dani Levy does not bother about those mechanics, he thinks that certain things simply ARE funny, the fact that two orderlies are gay and kiss over a man in a coma, for example. Do not get me wrong, some people can MAKE that funny, Dani Levy can't, not for me, anyway.

The main problem I have with this movie is that I can't see a reason behind the way the main characters behave. I could not understand why the two brothers, one an orthodox Jew from West Germany one a third class carbon copy of Fast Eddie Felson from former East Germany so strongly disliked each other. They are both rather bland characters. Their children are boring apart from the fact that they are sexually attracted to each other (well, one is a lesbian now but raises the daughter she has with her cousin). But even these incestuous relationships – if anything they are embarrassing - just come through as an excuse because the scriptwriters could not come up with anything better.

The acting is not bad, Udo Semel I actually came to like quite a lot although he reminded me more of ex chancellor Helmut Kohl (a lighter version) than of a venerable Orthodox Jew. The direction in itself is not really bad either, but maybe Levy should stick to directing movies, leaving the scriptwriting to someone else. Now I heard he did a comedy about Hitler. Oi, Vai!

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