Shark-like corporate go-getter Ines (a brilliant and brave Sandra Hüller, later of Anatomy of a Fall) has a testy relationship with her prank-playing father, retired music teacher Winfried (Peter Simonischek), in part because he does things like dress up in a costume and false teeth to play someone called Toni Erdmann, and in part because he keeps asking impossible questions like, “Are you happy?” Ines accepts a position in Bucharest, and soon gets an unwanted surprise: an impulsive visit from the father she’d rather avoid…
When Maren Ade’s debut The Forest for the Trees played VIFF in 2004, everyone who saw it knew she was destined for big things. Well, the very funny and yet deeply poignant Toni Erdmann is that big thing: a sui generis slice of bravura filmmaking, with a depth and a range of feeling — from the hilarious to the profoundly moving — that are extraordinarily rare. It is no secret that many critics and festival programmers thought the film deserved the Palme d’Or at Cannes — it is, in a word, a masterpiece.
A thrilling act of defiance against the toxicity of doing what is expected, on film, at work and out in the world. Toni Erdmann, proceeding in a perfectly straightforward manner, from one awkward, heartfelt, hilarious scene to the next, wraps itself around some of the thorniest complexities of contemporary reality. There are things you will look at differently after seeing Toni Erdmann. A short list might include petits fours, cheese graters, team-building exercises and a certain song immortalized by Whitney Houston. Also German comedies, Bulgarian costumes, Romanian hotels, fatherhood and the anxious, absurd state of the human race in the 21st century.
AO Scott, New York Times
An immensely rich, deeply felt exploration of human relationships that draws you in and holds you fast for nearly three hours.
Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelpha Inquirer
One of the most stirring cinematic experiences to come around in a long time.
Giovanni Marchini Camia, The Film Stage
A stunningly singular third feature by Ade that transports the intricately magnified human observation of her previous work to a rich, unexpected comic realm… A humane, hilarious triumph.
Guy Lodge, Variety
Maren Ade
Sandra Hüller, Peter Simonischek, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl, Trystan Pütter, Hadewych Minis
Germany/Austria
2016
In German and English with English subtitles
Film of the Year: Film Comment; Sight & Sound; Cahiers du Cinema magazines
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Credits
Producer
Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Maren Ade, Michel Merkt
Screenwriter
Maren Ade
Cinematography
Patrick Orth
Editor
Heike Parplies
Production Design
Silke Fischer
Original Music
Patrick Veigel
Also in This Series
These movies speak to our times and push the boundaries of the art form — the true modern classics we’re confident will withstand the test of time.
In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.
Paprika
A device capable of transmitting dreams falls into the wrong hands in this dazzling anime meta-movie from visionary filmmaker Satoshi Kon. The imagery here is never less than overwhelming; it's probably the greatest scifi movie of our times.
Margaret
Seventeen-year-old Lisa is rocked with guilt after a woman is killed in a traffic accident. But that’s only one thread in a teeming social tapestry this intense, passionate teen must negotiate as she comes of age in a time of contradiction and confusion.
Certain Women
Spare, incisive portraits of four Montana women (Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone) brushing up against the everyday wears and tears of difficult men, their own circumstances, and the desire for something better.
Melancholia
Lars von Trier squares up to the end times with this grandly luxuriant but surprisingly punky sci-fi, set in an imposing country mansion house, where Justine (Kirsten Dunst) blows up what's supposed to be the happiest day of her life.
Moonlight
Moonlight is many things -- a portrait of a young black man coming of age in Miami in the 1980s, a film about fathers and sons, about mentorship and about the scourge of drugs -- but it is also one of the most piercing movie romances of the last decade.
Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig's first film as writer-director is a delightful, painful comedy about "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a Sacramento teen on the point of swapping high school for college, and her hard-working mom, Marion (Laurie Metcalf).
Silence
This sober, probing examination of faith, ego, cruelty and compassion is the most underrated film from the often under-valued latter half of Martin Scorsese's brilliant career; a passion project, about Catholic missionaries in 17th Century Japan.
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- all great, all successful -- then turned director with Synecdoche, which is a masterpiece and which basically went unseen. It's overdue rediscovery.