Toni Erdmann (2016) - Maren Ade
A father/daughter drama that touches on Europe’s new generation.
Toni Erdmann has quickly become one of the most prominent German films in recent film history. There are some that would argue that not only is it a modern great German film, but that it has become a canonized. This three-hour film that was nominated for Best Foreign Language Movie of the Year at the Oscars was written and directed by Maren Ade. The movie lost the Oscar to The Salesman but did grab the 29th European Film Award for Best picture making it the first time a woman has done so.
The film has a few themes that it touches upon. Namely, the reconciliation of a man’s end of life, humor as medicine, and entrepreneurial expansion into western Europe, the new generation that runs it, and what it’s like to be a woman inside of that. The plot could be a premise devised by Shakespear. An aging father Winfried (Peter Simonischek), follows his daughter Ines (Sandra Hüller), and tries to help her as she manages her ambition and her inner world and the divide between them while being in disguise as Toni Erdmann.
A theme in the movie is the need to find humor in life. Especially when the chips are down. In one scene we see Toni make a joke with a Romanian worker and it inadvertently gets the worker fired. A few minutes later we see Toni being taken inside of a poor man’s hut where he is shown lavish accommodations given their extreme poverty. Toni tells them to keep their humor as they meet with the businessmen who want to use their land for profit. His daughter later reprimands her father for being cruel with this comment but it’s a matter of perspective to Winfried. To him, their ability to laugh was what made their life valuable and not the property or possessions that they have in their life. It also shows what Ines’ head is like because it foreshadows that she is cognizant that their life is about to get much worse and that she is partly responsible for it. While Toni might be playing a fool, at that moment he calls Ines on her ability to “enjoy” the things she has to do. Ines is unable to laugh off the barb and realizes that his statement is true.
After the end of Communism Germany went to many Western European countries to help build their economy. The film touches on the exploitative trend that Germans are afraid of happening with the rise of capitalism and their own restoration of political prowess. Toni Erdmann gives a few nods to Romanian New Wave but on a larger and more polished budget.
Winfried’s alter ego is loosely based off of Andy Kaufman’s character Tony Clifton. Knowing that it becomes the obvious first choice for the name Toni Erdmann. Like Tony Clifton, Toni Erdmann is an acquired taste. Using the absurd to navigate uncomfortable situations, many scenes in Toni Erdmann are reminiscent of the series The Office in either UK or US adaptations. Toni is uncontrollable and Ines tries to separate herself from him out of shame and embarrassment. Despite her rejection, her father follows her and appears in disguises. Knowing that he might be literally around every corner, she learns to try to work with him in a quirky way that is consistent to the humor in the movie.
The major point that Winfried tries to make to his daughter is that there is no humor in her career in business, which is displayed as a sort of “College for the Psychopathic” where individuals are trained by their peers to be masters of manipulation. In one comedic scene, Ines is preparing for her dinner party for her colleagues. She is dressed when she realizes her shoes don’t match. She tries to take off her dress but is stuck when the doorbell rings, we see her struggle and she decides to rename the party a “naked party” where guests are able to join only if they themselves are literally and figuratively stripped down. Many leave but some stay when Toni shows up in an elaborate Romanian costume. Toni hangs out for a while at his daughter’s “naked party” before leaving. Ines chases after him after she puts on a thin robe. She follows him to the park where she plays with him, he scares her, they circle each other like animals, and then each leaves to their own parts of the world.
Later Winnfried says that Ines was only able to interact with him after they engage with each other but that she never notices him when he is around and presents. Ines takes her father’s fake teeth that he carries in his pocket and grabs a hat to show him that she is willing to engage with him right now on his level. Winnfried leaves to find a camera and leaves Ines alone missing his own moral by not engaging with his daughter at the moment.
The most interesting part of the film for me was understanding of the generational conflict that is specific to Germany and the reason to why this movie was such a success in its home country. Winnfried’s generation is the children of the parents who fought in World War II. Men who were told that everything that they believed in was wrong. Their children in the 60′s and 70′s began asking “What crimes against humanity did my parents commit?”. From that question a new social reform was provided and a large part of Germany’s complex and superior social system that I was able to use when I lived there. Winnfried, growing up as part of that generation dedicated his life to music and the freedom that his generation cultivated allowed him to be the oddball that he is.
Seeing Ines whose generation has to work more than her father’s will to survive is struggling between the ideas instilled in her from her father and the dominating business world that she lives in. It’s true that my recent generations have grown up being told that we must work harder because of the threat of unemployment, the vanishing middle class, and the desire to own product.
Toni Erdmann is an interesting project that I had problems with. I couldn’t relate to the humor that well. I thought it had too many extraneous characters and situations to warrant the 3 hour watch time, but I think it was a good movie that makes a lot of sense to Europe and that it is important to know and understand each other globally.
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