‘The Tobacconist’ Released Theatrically in the USA July 10
Both the film itself and its theatrical and day and date streaming releases are of interest to cinephiles and cineastes.
The Tobacconist, a film by Nikolau Leytner based on the international bestseller by Robert Seethaler, is an idealistic story of a seventeen-year-old man who leaves his home in the countryside of Austria where his single mother works as a housekeeper. He journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop where he meets Sigmund Freud, a regular customer. Over time, as the Nazis move in to occupy Vienna, the two very different men form a singular friendship.
The young friend, played by Simon Morzé, succeeds in convincing Freud to leave Vienna and while in real life, this may not have actually happened, the story is a good one in that it illustrates the innate goodness and real friendship that is possible to cultivate during times as dire as the Nazi era, and perhaps, during this time of the Corona Virus as well.
There are two competing aspects to this story of young Franz falling desperately in love with the music-hall dancer Anezka (Emma Drogunova) and seeking advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that the female sex is as big a mystery to him as it is to Franz.
One is the poetic development of Franz’s perception of life which is depicted in dreams that fuel his development into a man. Watching the dire reality of his life alternate with his dreams brings a dénouement that is particularly satisfying. As in Hitchcock’s Spellbound with its dream sequence written by Salvador Dali, the dreams may not be exactly Freudian in their depiction; in fact, they are perhaps more poetic than dream-realistic, but as a sort of surrelistc cinema, they are beautiful.
The other competing aspect of this film is in watching the late acclaimed actor Bruno Ganz in his final filmed star role as Sigmund Freud. We feel like a witness on two levels. We know Freud left an increasingly Anti-Semitic Vienna under duress; we know that in London he died from cancer of the jaw resulting from his excessive cigar smoking. We also know Bruno Ganz, a prominent figure in German language film and television for over fifty years, who has played on our hearts in so many previous films, is filming his last movie. In February 2019, he died from cancer in his home in the village of Au, in Wädenswil, Switzerland.
Ganz is internationally renowned for his role as the Angel Damiel in Wings of Desire and for portraying Adolf Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall (2004).
His performance in Wings of Desire (1987) became so iconic that he could make a short and silent appearance as the same character in Children of Nature — Eine Reise (1991) without confusing the audience. Later, he would reprise the role in the sequel Faraway, So Close! (1993).
Recounting how people ascribed special powers to him when they recognized him in public because of playing the angel Damiel in Wings of Desire (1987), he said, “People in planes said: ‘Ah, no need to be afraid, because with you here, nothing can happen. Now we are safe.’ Or a mother said to her child: ‘Look, there’s your guardian angel.’ They weren’t joking.” [Danish film journal ‘P.O.V.’]
And the Hitler Rants scene in Downfall has been mashed up a record number of times on YouTube, from Hitler ranting against the traffic jams on US freeway 405 in Los Angeles to him ranting against Trump and blaming everything and everyone else for failure to make America Great Again. All of these mashups starring Bruno Ganz are seen over and over to the endless delight of his audiences.
Bruno Ganz is as deeply inscribed in the minds of those who watched his movies as is Freud is in the minds of those who understand the least thing about human psychology.
As we live through this unprecedented time of Corona Virus, our view of movies in general and in the particular watching of this one is slanted differently from how we would normally watch. Watching this film today, the time of Hitler seems almost quaint (ignoring the atrocious genocidal part). Here the poetry of the story telling delivers us from a cynical fear born of the confluence of the body politic and the human body at risk today. It is a pleasantly escapist movie at the same time that it is a reminder of what life can be even in the direst of times.
The other part of great interest to me is how the film is being released “theatrically” by its distributor Menemsha’s Niel Friedman as theaters reopen and by Richard Lorber’s Kino Marquee in which online streaming revenues are shared with theaters purporting to be exhibiting the film but which are closed. By this revenue-sharing, they are able for the first time to partake in online streaming, whose revenues exceed the theatrical revenues of films. I plan to write more on Richard Lorber’s idea and creation of theatrical and streaming day and date revenue-sharing plan.
For emerging filmmakers, this hybrid form of digital and theatrical exhibition should give hope and the realization that you need no longer worry about distribution because a film today can always find a way to be distributed.
Watch this film as it brings in audiences who are supporting filmmaking and film distribution in new ways. And watch it for the beauty of a young man’s perception of life even in the direst of times.
ISA: Beta Films licensed to Austria-Constantin Theatrical, Australia-Moving Story, Czech Republic-Film Europe, Germany-Tobis Theatrical, ARD TV, Universum; Japan-Kino International, Poland-Aurora, Russia-Cascade, Slovakia-Film Europe, Spain-Vercine, Netherlands-Just Film
