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Immer nie am Meer – Forever Never Anywhere Farce
By Claudia Gedoe | August 12, 2008
It’s been a long time since I laughed so much as I did upon viewing Antonin Svoboda’s wonderful, way-out, black comedy Immer nie am Meer (Austria, 2003). Forever Never Anywhere begins when in the middle of the night the unfortunate solo-entertainer Schwanenmeister (Heinz Strunk) lands with his car in a ditch because of a failed masturbation attempt.
Baisch (Dirk Stermann), a phlegmatic history professor, who with his fully loaded brother-in-law Anzengruber (Christoph Grissemann) is returning from a family celebration, picks up Schwanenmeister along the way. But the ride doesn’t last very long. Surprised by a hightech jogger on the highway, he gives way and drives at high speed right into a dark cavernous forest. There the car gets stuck. Jammed between trees, the doors can’t open and the battery is dead too. Baisch had just bought the Mercedes-Benz-Limousine by auction on Ebay. And because it had formerly belonged to Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, the windows are made of armored glass. So only a little crack is open.
There the trio are crouched together: Baisch, whose thoughts are mostly on getting something to eat. Anzengruber, who gradually gives way to panic because he no longer has a pill “against world disgust”. And Schwanenmeister, who gradually takes a liking for Anzengruber’s lips. For the time being, they are rather sure they’ll be rescued soon. So first they ravenously have a go at the leftovers brought along from the party: herring salad and prosecco. But nothing happens. No one even seems to have missed the grumpy trio.
So they keep up a chatter, they insult each other, they collectively cry for help, they resign, they openly plead guilty to the homoerotic, they secretly nibble the last cookies while other sleep, and they misuse a lady’s little handbag for nature’s call. When suddenly a boy happens on the scene, the torture appears to have reached an end. Deeply moved by their mutually suffered adventure, the men swear eternal friendship and euphorically celebrate with the last prosecco their assumed approaching freedom. But they don’t suspect that the lad is about to busy himself with rats experiments.
Despite this nightmarish situation, it’s an entertaining delight to watch the cranky bouts of the male psyche in a cage. The film always maintains its balance between miserable and grotesque actions of the protagonists. The director and the actors, who really are not actors at all, collaborated together on the screenplay. Stermann and Grissemann are Austrian Kabarett performers and radio moderators. Strunk is a Hamburg writer and comic entertainer.
– Claudia Gedö
ist aus Berlin, die Film wahrhaft zum Leben braucht.
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