"Frischer Wind" is a German television film from 2009, so this one is already over a decade old now. I runs for almost 1.5 hours just like the vast majority of small screen releases here in my country and you could translate it with "fresh breeze" to get through the meaning. It's also not meant literally really, but instead refers to a young woman entering a widower's life and you can see the duo on the photo here on imdb. I will get to that a little later, but first things first now: The director is Imogen Kimmel. She is in her early 60s now, so was in her early 50s back then when this got made and already really experienced as she has been active since the early 1980s with directing movies and series. That does not mean she is good. The opposite is the case. She is a prime example of quantity over quality. It is not only "Verbotene Liebe" that is trash in her body of work, it is everything and she has not improved one bit over the course of her career. The only somewhat interesting thing about her is her first name maybe. The last name not so much as Jimmy Kimmel is a fool, but let's not drift away from this film here now. Kimmel is also a filmmaker who almost never writes the screenplays for her movies, which is absolutely fine as long as her directing than feels like quality. It does not. The writer here is Gabriele Kreis, who has also worked for a long time in the industry, since the early 1990s I think. I am not sure if that acting performance in the 70s was really her or somebody else with the same name, especially as she never acted again. But Kreis is still active and not retired and I think (not entirely sure) this is also true for Kimmel. Anyway, with Kreis I can not be as harsh as I was with Kimmel. The reason is that she worked on quite a few of these modern fairytale remakes and sometimes I like them quite a bit. But yeah well, everything else she has been a part of is also pretty much the oppisite of a creative achievement. So you can certainly say that this film, with these two women in charge, was doomed to become a failure. And it did. Of course, this is an ARD Degeto production, which is also always a safe indicator. They are rushing one uninspired film after the next, all financed by money blackmailed out of the German people (GEZ), and pack them all into their programs. As you see from the fact that this one is pretty old already and still was on national television again today, they also show these films for years afterwards. Truly disgraceful. The best would have been if the movie never had been made. Now, as for the cast, the male lead here is Günther Maria Halmer, the only lead you could say as well. I mean he is an actor who was in Oscar-winning films "Gandhi" and "Sophie's Choice" in his younger years, so again, even if I repeat myself, I must say it is kinda tragic to see where his career is headed. He has been in so many of these terrible Degeto movies. Sad. But also I need to be harsh again and say that nobody forces him to accept these roles and if he knows anything about movies, which I assume he does, then he also knows that there will never be sublime, probably not even decent, quality in any of these films. As a contrast to this male lead, the key supporting players are Weißbach, Daniel and Westphal, all actresses you may have come across on other projects if you are either from Germany or are interested in German films. But none og them makes an impact whatsoever. Then again, this also has to do with how poorly the characters are written. And Ole Tillmann has a pretty small role, even if he plays the protagonist's son. His "Unter Uns" past fits in nicely with the director's "Verbotene Liebe" past you could say. In the worst way imaginable.
Now, I will just mention a few speficic scenes, moments and inclusions here that make sure this film was always going to be a terrible one. I would not even blame Halmer. He still has his moments and shows that he is better than the material. So I suppose it is just the money he makes it for because I think these films don't pay badly and most of the time he plays the love interest to the female lead and is not the lead himself, so this one here paid even better perhaps. Anyway, his table screaming scene when he realizes he has been played was decent. But that is the only positive thing I can think of. Everything else is terrible. This also includes the struggling father-son relationship here. They really want the utmost emotion from us here, but what they are giving us in exchange with the wway it is depicted and elaborated on is just a joke and not a good one. Of course, in the end the two get along well with each other again and solve some of their conflicts and the son will have the chance to have his own restaurant what he has been dreaming of etc. Feel-good ending very fake and for the sake of it. There is also an implication that the son could end up in a relationship with the female protagonist, even if this is not elaborated on any further. But the one thing that seems safe is that the old man will not get together with a woman half his age. Obviously not. It is only acceptable if it happens in many other Degeto films the other way around with women being courted by considerably younger men and still the elderly women are playing hard to get. Here the man of course needs to be with a woman his age and that is what happens in the end. By the way, Westphal, the actress who plays this character, died only a few years after this film came out. halmer is still alive closing in on 80. Anyway, what else can I say here. There is a famous Aretha Franklin song attached to this movie? Can they not sue them for copyright reasons or so and make sure this film will never be shown again this way? It would be a service to audiences. Anyway, the irregularities in terms of realism start right away here. You can ask 100 barkeepers how many of them take a drunk fella home with them and let them sleep on the sofa (no sexual reference there). Maybe it happened to one of them. probably. Zero. Yet here we are supposed to take this for granted and see it as accurate. Oh wait, it only was because the two are clicking right away no? I am not buying any of it. Same is true when it comes the family conflict about living your dream and studying what feels right for you. I mean the idea is okay and I support that, but the execution is as shoddy as it gets, which also may have to do with Tillmann absolutely having zero acting talent. I remembered him better. And here and there we also get an insight into the protagonist's daughter's life, with how she struggles with his father's new acquaintance, even insults her, but also with how she loses a sponsor because she would not agree to exhibit the paintings he wants her to exhibit. But there this man is the mean one and we are supposed to see the daughter in positive light because of her dedication to art and for not agreeing to trade her values for money. Okay, so much for the story. I think I have made myself very clear with how I see this film as the exact opposite of an artistic achievement. Major thumbs-down and if we go by the vocabulary used in the title, I say the outcome here is a real stinker. Absolutely not recommended.
Now, I will just mention a few speficic scenes, moments and inclusions here that make sure this film was always going to be a terrible one. I would not even blame Halmer. He still has his moments and shows that he is better than the material. So I suppose it is just the money he makes it for because I think these films don't pay badly and most of the time he plays the love interest to the female lead and is not the lead himself, so this one here paid even better perhaps. Anyway, his table screaming scene when he realizes he has been played was decent. But that is the only positive thing I can think of. Everything else is terrible. This also includes the struggling father-son relationship here. They really want the utmost emotion from us here, but what they are giving us in exchange with the wway it is depicted and elaborated on is just a joke and not a good one. Of course, in the end the two get along well with each other again and solve some of their conflicts and the son will have the chance to have his own restaurant what he has been dreaming of etc. Feel-good ending very fake and for the sake of it. There is also an implication that the son could end up in a relationship with the female protagonist, even if this is not elaborated on any further. But the one thing that seems safe is that the old man will not get together with a woman half his age. Obviously not. It is only acceptable if it happens in many other Degeto films the other way around with women being courted by considerably younger men and still the elderly women are playing hard to get. Here the man of course needs to be with a woman his age and that is what happens in the end. By the way, Westphal, the actress who plays this character, died only a few years after this film came out. halmer is still alive closing in on 80. Anyway, what else can I say here. There is a famous Aretha Franklin song attached to this movie? Can they not sue them for copyright reasons or so and make sure this film will never be shown again this way? It would be a service to audiences. Anyway, the irregularities in terms of realism start right away here. You can ask 100 barkeepers how many of them take a drunk fella home with them and let them sleep on the sofa (no sexual reference there). Maybe it happened to one of them. probably. Zero. Yet here we are supposed to take this for granted and see it as accurate. Oh wait, it only was because the two are clicking right away no? I am not buying any of it. Same is true when it comes the family conflict about living your dream and studying what feels right for you. I mean the idea is okay and I support that, but the execution is as shoddy as it gets, which also may have to do with Tillmann absolutely having zero acting talent. I remembered him better. And here and there we also get an insight into the protagonist's daughter's life, with how she struggles with his father's new acquaintance, even insults her, but also with how she loses a sponsor because she would not agree to exhibit the paintings he wants her to exhibit. But there this man is the mean one and we are supposed to see the daughter in positive light because of her dedication to art and for not agreeing to trade her values for money. Okay, so much for the story. I think I have made myself very clear with how I see this film as the exact opposite of an artistic achievement. Major thumbs-down and if we go by the vocabulary used in the title, I say the outcome here is a real stinker. Absolutely not recommended.
