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Gib Gas - Ich will Spass!
Hangin' Out
À Fond les Ballons / Nena, eres un Problema
West Germany 1982
produced by Bernd Eichinger, Hans Weth, Peter Zenk for Solaris Film, Capri-Film, Balance Film/Constantin Film
directed by Wolfgang Büld
starring Nena, Markus (= Markus Mörl), Enny Gerber, Karl Dall, Extrabreit, Peter Lengauer, Cornelia Kraus, Horst Pasderski, Helga Tölle, Michael Fluehme, Norbert Hahn, Thilo Bohatsch, Wolfgang Zölck, Axel Klopprogge, Gernot Duda, Cora Roberts, Fryderick Gabowicz, Wolfgang Büld, Silvio del Favero, Martin Semmelrogge (voice)
idea by Wolfgang Büld, Georg Seitz, Peter Zemann, screenplay by Wolfgang Büld, Georg Seitz, music by Nena, Markus (= Markus Mörl), Extrabreit, Morgenrot
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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When Robby (Markus) arrives at his new school, he pretty much
immediately falls in love with Tina (Nena) - only, Tina is more into bad
boys, and especially Tino (Enny Gerber), who works at a travelling funfair
... until he's fired. Tino promises Nena to take her with him on a trip
wherever, but then she can't make it on time to their meeting point and he
leaves without her. Needing a shoulder to cry on, she bumps into Robby,
who has at least a scooter, so she persuades him to take her away to
wherever, but it's soon clear she's just going after Tino, only Robby
doesn't notice it because he just can't believe his own luck. Thing is,
Tina is nothing but problems, she causes them to lose their scooter,
breaks into a cabin where they spend the night, steals a car (even though
she can't drive), and constantly takes advantage of Robby - and all for
nothing it seems as when she has almost caught up with Robby, she sees him
leave for Venice in a small aircraft. First she wants to go there, but
then she actually falls for Robby, they spend a romantic night together,
next morning hop onto a train - and before they know it they're in Venice,
and rather by accident she runs into Tino. But as these movies go, there
of course is a happy ending for Tina and Robby ... In pure
writing, Gib Gas - Ich will Spass! sounds like the right movie for
the right time: The Neue Deutsche Welle (short NDW), as in German
new wave music, has just hit mainstream success, and with Nena and Markus
the film has two of NDW's most popular protagonists as its leads, with the
band Extrabreit making a weird guest appearance as superheroes even, and
they all perform some of their most popular musical numbers. The problem
is though, while all of this sounds very hip, the film is anything but, as
the filmmakers seem to misunderstand what the music's about. So all the
coolness and in-the-now feeling is taken out of the NDW phenomenon and
replaced with pop musical and musical comedy mainstays in place since at
least the 1950's, not only in terms of story as such, but also the whole
opening sequence with Markus racing his scooter through town is nothing
more than a well-executed slapstick routine almost as old as cinema
itself, and the frequent appearance of old school comedian Karl Dall in
various roles, who has been doing his shtick with little variations since
the 1960s, dates the film beyond age. That all said though, for some
reason the film's still more fun than it's supposed to be, a wonderful
time capsule and a somewhat anachronistic look at the early 1980s. Plus, a
very unexpected reference to the classic Venice horror Don't Look Now
comes across as almost inspired.
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