Directed by:
Helmut KäutnerCinematography:
Heinz PehlkeComposer:
Bernhard EichhornCast:
Romy Schneider, Horst Buchholz, Bum Krüger, Boy Gobert, Hans Hermann Schaufuss, Edith Heerdegen, Helmut Käutner, Joseph Offenbach, Mara Lane, Eva Vaitl (more)Plots(1)
By the Mid-50s, the axis Bonn-Paris had successfully been established as the defining political force of the slowly uniting Europe. Accordingly, German cinema was looking closely at the erstwhile Erbfeind (= hereditary foe) turned best friend by the tides of the ages, resulting in several films where the locals played French – as if to try and feel what it means to be that particular other; usually, this ended in splendid caricatures and whimsical fantasies – rare is the hint of feelings more darkly. In this general spirit of playfulness, Monpti opens with a cheeky meta-film-joke: Horst "Hotte" Buchholz and Romy Schneider are introduced speaking French for they play a French couple in love (of course) – only to start speaking German the moment the omniscient narrator explains the movie miracle of dubbing; things is: the moment the film claims that foreigner were made understandable for German-only speakers, it's un boche and une autrichienne using their own voices. Topsy-turvy, hurly-burly everything goes – but then, what else to expect from a film whose title is a corruption of mon petit (pronounced MONpti and not monP'ti by just-about every German-speaker...), and which imagines a Paris to end all visions of Paris: totally stylized, idealized, etherealized the way only a German melancholic could on the basis of a theatre piece by a Hungarian cosmopolitan of the old Hapsburg school? Dreams are their reality... (OM) (Midnight Sun Film Festival)
(more)Cast
Romy Schneider
German Empire
Best movies:
La Belle et l'empereur (1959)
The Old Gun (1975)
Un amour de pluie (1974)
Horst Buchholz
German Empire
Best movies:
Les Sept Mercenaires (1960)
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Tiger Bay (1959)
Bum Krüger
German Empire
Best movies:
The Captain from Köpenick (1956)
The Lower Depths (1957)
Monpti (1957)
Boy Gobert
German Empire
Best movies:
Kamikaze 89 (1982)
Monpti (1957)
Die wilden Fünfziger (1983)
Hans Hermann Schaufuss
German Empire
Best movies:
Der große König (1942)
The Star of Africa (1957)
Monpti (1957)
Edith Heerdegen
German Empire
Best movies:
The Serpent's Egg (1977)
Monpti (1957)
Helmut Käutner
German Empire
Best movies:
Great Freedom No. 7 (1944)
Karl May (1974)
Monpti (1957)
Joseph Offenbach
German Empire
Best movies:
The Captain from Köpenick (1956)
Dark Eyes of London (1961)
The Girl and the Legend (1957)
Mara Lane
Austria
Best movies:
Innocents in Paris (1953)
Monpti (1957)
American Night (2021)
Eva Vaitl
German Empire
Best movies:
The Bridge (1959)
Monpti (1957)
Otto Brüggemann
German Empire
Best movies:
Die vertauschte Braut (1934)
Wir Wunderkinder (1958)
Monpti (1957)
Bobby Todd
German Empire
Best movies:
Dark Eyes of London (1961)
Monpti (1957)
Madame Sans-Gêne (1961)
Olive Moorefield
USA
Best movies:
Monpti (1957)