Joschka und Herr Fischer (2011) Reviews

• It's not Joschka and Herr Fischer but Joschka Fischer on post-war history

  Pippi_langstrumpf2011-05-30

  If you expect to learn something new about Joschka Fischer, you should not watch this film. In this documentary he hardly talks about private stuff but rather about post-war events and - a bit - about their impact on him. The entire documentary shows Joschka Fischer in a video installation where he sees scenes of his own live and it streams the scenes themselves. We learn that he grew up in an environment where people voted for the Christian Democratic Union and that he was an altar boy. The film moves on to his early political live, eg the killing of Benno Ohnesorg by the police, the terror by the Red Army Faction and how he finally became minister. Here the film does get a little personal: Fischer describes why he had to wear sneakers and a naff jacket even though he did not like them and how awful it was for him to head a huge administration where he has to learn who is responsible for what. Later on, when he was Foreign Minister, he was responsible for sending German soldiers to former Yugoslavia - without a UN mandate. He tries to explain why he did so but seems rather wishy-washy. After all, he is a "realo", while the fundamentalist Greens nowadays have left Germany's parliament(s). If you want to learn more about him, his motives etc, you should probably read "Mein langer Lauf zu mir selbst" - which I haven't - but if you want to know more about Germany's history after the Second World War, you will get concise information in just 140 minutes. As I am not that much interested in some politician's private live, I liked this film.

• Not as close and personal as I hoped, but still an interesting watch

  Horst_In_Translation2017-09-08

  "Joschka und Herr Fischer" or "Joschka and Sir Fischer" is a German documentary movie from 2011 that had its 5th anniversary last year. It was written and directed by Oscar winner Pepe Danquart and the focus is entirely on former German high profile politician Joschka Fischer. At least you would think so. But in reality, the focus is more on German history really I guess, which is of course closely connected to Fischer's own career, but still moved a bit too much away from the central figure here, even if his narration made sure the film won't lose itself in the off-topic field. Anyway, this was a really long watch at slightly over 2 hours and 15 minutes and I think it could have been kept down at 100 minutes and it would have been a better, more essential watch. Nonetheless, Fischer is still today a figure that you can only miss from German politics. He was always determined when it came to his politics, the exact opposite of our current Chancellor by the way, he is an extremely likable figure and right now there aren't too many guys that fit the description and the 2-3 who maybe do are still several degrees under Fischer in that area. Back to this documentary, I also could have done without the other interviews like Thalbach who seemed really random at times. It should have all been about Fischer I say and when it was, then the film was at its best, but sadly it wasn't often enough, especially if you look at this one running for almost 150 minutes. The general idea with having Fischer sit in a room watch scenes from his past, also long before his years in the government, was a good one as his comments were always insightful, even if they were mostly more about politics than about his own life. I guess it will depend on your personal age and interest in politics which parts will be most memorable to me. The sneakers inauguration is a classic of course and it was interesting to hear people's thoughts on this appearance from right after it happened. And then there is the 9/11 reference of course near the end, a really deep-cutting event still for me today almost 16 years later. Oh yeah, I recommend the watch here. Even people who would never vote for the Green Party cannot deny Fischer's likability and we have an election year in Germany right now with another win for Merkel right ahead of us and maybe this is the right occasion to watch or rewatch this film and understand that we need guys like Joschka, especially if you look at the guys in charge of his former job now. No comment on Steinmeier and Gabriel. More badly then ever we need them. Good film, I give it a thumbs-up, even if I certainly would have wished for better focus.