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Monaco Franze - Der ewige Stenz: Ein ernsthafter älterer Herr
episode 7
West Germany 1983
produced by Peter Frötschl for Balance Film/BR
directed by Helmut Dietl
starring Helmut Fischer, Ruth-Maria Kubitschek, Karl Obermayr, Christine Kaufmann, Erni Singerl, Olivia Pascal, Harald Leipnitz, Hans Brenner, Martin Sperr, Wilfried Klaus, Axel Regnier, Manfred Hugel, Peter Kuhnert, Marie Bardischewski, Mandy Hausenberger, Renate Muhri, Margit Geissler
written and created by Helmut Dietl, music by Dario Farina, Gian Piero Reverberi
TV-series Monaco Franze
review by Mike Haberfelner
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At the scrapyard where he disposes of the furniture of his terminated
office, Franz (Helmut Fischer) meets a man (Harald Leipnitz) who pretty
much throws away his whole (second) youth to become, as he puts it, a
"serious elderly gentleman" - which is something Franz, 49 by
now, doesn't want for himself at all. So he darkens his hair, starts doing
sports with an emphasis on boxing, and gets a young girlfriend, 19 year
old cosmetics student Jacqueline (Olivia Pascal), for whom he promises to
pay "everything". Of course she takes that a little too literal,
and when he can't pay for the whole beauty shop she wants to run, she's
quick to leave him for a richer man (Axel Regnier). This only makes Franz
focussing on his other project even more, a prizefight against King Ludwig
(Manfred Hugel), fiercest fighter at the club Franz trains at. Now of
course, everybody around Franz knows this is madness as Franz lacks
strength, talent and experience to win, heck, to survive a fight against
Ludwig, but despite his best friend Manni (Karl Obermayr) and his wife
Annette (Ruth-Maria Kubitschek) advising against it, Franz goes through
with it. Now for the fight, Ludwig has been told by the boxing club's
owner to tone it down, so at first Ludwig's on the defense and lets Franz
land ineffective blow after ineffective blow, but in round two his boxing
instincts get the better of Ludwig and he sends Franz to the floor ... and
when he awakens in the hospital much much later, he has forgotten
everything that has happened in this episode ... So far the
most dramatic episode of the series as it tones down the humour (even if
it's at times still pretty darn funny) for a rather tragic depiction of a
midlife crisis gone bad - or pathetic. And that the story still works in
the context of a comedy series serves as a proof for the quality of the
series as a whole, as well as of its ensemble. A little side
note, when Franz describes his fascination of Jacqueline to Manni, his
lines sound exactly like what's come to be a recurring motif in Der
Kommissar in pretty much every episode concerning older men
and younger women, episodes like Dr.
Meinhardts trauriges Ende. If this was at all a conscious quote or
mere coincidence can't be determined though.
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