Fashion Victims

Ariztical Entertainment

R1 DVD

German with English subtitles

Who says the Germans can’t do comedy? Just about everyone, but this film should prove them wrong. It’s a little drawn out but it gets there in the end in a hilarious climax.

Wolfgang is a salesman for a clothing firm that sells fashions for the more mature woman – say, thirty five or over. He has a good steady clientele, a comfortable lifestyle and a new Mercedes of which he is very proud. His company also has a new young owner who feels that they should be selling clothes with a “younger“ image. They will be sold under a separate label and will be cheaply made. They come from North Korea and Wolfgang predicts trouble for the company if the rubbish is put on the market. He has been in the business for so long that he is right, but he has become arrogant and is overruled. He is also given the bad news that when the new label is established “his” older conservative label will be phased out. There is a pushy young salesman in the firm, Steven, who offers to sell the new clothing range. This he does by selling to Wolfgang’s customers. Wolfgang hates him because he is a serious rival and even more because he is also gay.

Wolfgang’s home life is deteriorating too. His spendthrift wife is being targeted by a lesbian friend, Brigitta, for something more than friendship. She is also money hungry and sees Wolfgang and his wife as good targets for donations to her “charity work”. Wolfgang is on the verge of bankruptcy but hasn’t told his wife.

His son Karsten is secretly gay, and one day he meets Steven in a chance encounter and the two hit it off. Karsten is fighting with his father over a holiday he was to take before going to college. Wolfgang has hijacked Karsten to drive him around, as Wolfgang has lost his license for speeding fines. He has omitted telling his wife about this also. He is also running short of money to make his house payments and payments on his new Mercedes, and he loots Karsten’s college fund to make up the difference. Despite his arrogance he is sinking deeper into trouble.

It can’t go on forever, of course. His wife finds out their financial state when she pays Brigitta for damage to her car in an accident with Wolfgang’s Mercedes, and when she makes a large donation to the woman’s “Help Russia” charity. There is no money left in the bank account to pay their taxes and the Tax people confiscate a clock that belonged to her mother.

She leaves Wolfgang and takes refuge in Brigitta’s guesthouse. Coincidentally this is where Steven is staying and on the same night as his mother moves in Karsten pays Steven a visit. Wolfgang tracks down his wife and is astonished to find Steven’s car there with all the samples of the new clothing range. He loses it completely, steals the samples, accidentally drives his car into a lake, finds out his son is gay and having it off with his hated rival, gets shot at by Brigitta, tries to run her over, (I was cheering him on at this point) and looks like being charged with driving while unlicensed.

The humour is a little sad in that it reflects on the difficulty of older people having to change values in a changing world. Even though Wolfgang is not really a likeable character at the start he soon earns our sympathy as he has to deal with the changes and the predatory amoral people around him. I really enjoyed the film.

Reviews appear on the Synergy website with a single cover image. In the digital and print edition, reviews appear with multiple images and with expanded content. We recommend you download the free digital edition (or buy the print edition) to get the most from Synergy Magazine.

This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the front page of Synergy Magazine Website or use the following link: http://www.synergy-magazine.com