One would expect a professional, up-beat and eminently marketable film from production team which brought us Lola rennt (Run Lola Run); and that is exactly what Sebastian Schipper's Absolute Giganten (Gigantic, 1999) is.
The opening sequence of the film sets the pace of excitement and fun to follow. Three friends - Floyd, Walter and Ricco - get involved in a car race between Walter's souped up old Ford and someone else's sports car. The excitement and humour bounce off the screen. The friends meander from place to place without a real purpose, until Floyd announces that he has signed up to work on a cargo ship that is leaving the next day. The atmosphere completely changes, as Ricco and Walter adjust to the news. Eventually, they all decide to make this final big night out together a real event.
This is unequivocally a teen road movie, though it does have a difference. These three guys (Frank Giering as Floyd, Florian Lucas as Ricco and Antoine Monot Jr as Walter) are not drugged out, gun happy, thieving or mean. They are pleasant, humorous and "normal." They are also determined to have a good time on their last night out together as a trio.
When I spoke to Schipper at the Berlin Film Festival, he said that this was exactly what he intended. He wanted to show through the development of the three friends' characters that they are truly heroes, or "gigantic." The story was meant to be an organic development from their characters and their relationship with each other, rather than the other way round.
Schipper searched through drama schools and interviewed many young actors before finding a cast he was happy with. It was important for him that they worked well together as friends, so he tried actors out in various combinations to make sure that the chemistry was right.
During the shoot, Walter, Ricco and Floyd's relationship with each other developed mostly on screen. The time Schipper invested in the casting process has obviously paid off, as the friendship is totally believable.
My only criticism about this set up is that there were quite a few films in the Neue Deutsche Filme section at the Berlin Film Festival where the action takes place either during one whole day or one whole night. Almost as if scriptwriters have suddenly decided that filmgoers do not have the patience to sit through plots which span months or years. As such, sitting amongst so many films in the genre, Absolute Giganten comes over as rather too modish.
This criticism aside, Absolute Giganten is simply enjoyable. It is not pretentious. The script is funny. It has the right mixture of humour, excitement and pathos. The stand-off between Snake (Jochen Nickel)and the three guys over a game of table football is worth waiting for: it successfully combines suspense with comedy and has echoes of a Clint Eastwood showdown. Most importantly, Absolute Giganten, without being sentimental, leaves you feeling positive about life - a rarity.
Elke de Wit, 10 April 2000
Veit Helmer's Tuvalu |
Frieder Schlaich's Otomo |
Bernd Eichinger's Der Große Bagarozy |
Thorsten Schmidt's Schnee In Der Neujahrsnacht |
Doris Dörrie's Erleuchtung Garantiert |
Leander Haußmann's Sonnenallee |
Maren-Kea Freese's Zoe |
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