All You Need Is Love: Meine Schwiegertochter ist ein Mann

Last updated
All You Need Is Love: Meine Schwiegertochter ist ein Mann
Written by Kerstin Österlin
Jessica Schellack
Directed by Edzard Onneken
Starring Saskia Vester
Jürgen Tonkel
Andreas Helgi Schmid
Jenny Elvers
Manuel Witting
Franziska Taub
Johannes Herrschmann
Theme music composer Michael Kadelbach
Country of originGermany
Original languageGerman
Production
Producers Frank Kaminski
Anna Karlstedt
Ulrich Stiehm
Cinematography Marco Uggiano
Editor Dietrich Toellner
Running time94 minutes
Release
Original releaseNovember 3, 2009 (2009-11-03)

All You Need Is Love: Meine Schwiegertochter ist ein Mann (English: My Daughter-In-Law Is A Man) is a German romantic comedy television film, that first aired on November 3, 2009, on the German channel Sat.1. [1] [2]

Contents

The film deals with a young man who has sent news of his upcoming nuptials and his plans to get married in his hometown to his parents and the people of hometown he speaks of. However, the woman they think he is going to bring with him is actually a man.

Plot

In an Alpine village in Bavaria, divorcee Katharina Remminger lives alone. Her husband had long ago left her for another woman, and her only son Hans lives in Berlin where he studies architecture. She receives a letter from her son Hans one day, informing her that he is engaged and wants to get married in his home town, and that he and his fiancé Nicki will be visiting in the upcoming week. Having never heard or even seen a picture of Nicki, Katharina assumes that it's a female name and becomes elated at the thought of her son getting married and that she should one day become a grandmother, and in her excitement tells the whole town of Hans' news, and soon the town is abuzz about the upcoming nuptials.

When Hans and Nicki arrive at Katharina's doorstep however, Katharina is shocked to say the least. She has never had to deal with homosexuality before and isn't quite sure how to. She lets them in, but after a neighbor who sees Hans comes in asking where the bride to be is, Katharina tells her that Nicki is the best man, and that the bride is sick and stayed in Berlin. When the neighbor leaves, Hans argues with his mother which leads to Katharina kicking them out of her house. It's Hans' dream to get married in his hometown however, so with Nicki's support they decide to stay and check into a hotel until they can come up with a plan to bring Hans' mother to her senses and still get married in Hans' hometown.

In the meantime, Hans shows Nicki around town, which leads to a local spotting the couple kissing while out on the lake. Soon news of Hans being gay becomes the talk of the town, and the prejudices of the citizens begins to show.

When Hans runs into his estranged father, Christian who is an auto dealer, he informs him of his homosexuality to which Christian doesn't react well and simply walks away. Christian tells his second wife Vera about Hans' news, and she is shocked and then worried because Christian is about to open a second car dealership, and she is worried that his having a gay son will keep customers away.

More obstacles come and go, Katharina's friends avoid her and she has been kicked off the church choir, and Christian's friends constantly make gay jokes behind his back and in front of him, and when Hans shows Nicki the place he wants to get married at, an old friend gets into a fight with him which leads to a large brawl in which almost everyone comes out bruised. This drives NIcki to give up and go back to Berlin.

Things begin to look all right for Hans and his relationship with his parents however. Slowly they are beginning to accept him and his orientation. However they eventually get into another argument because they said that Hans was being unfair to them by never telling them about his homosexuality and then just showing up and expecting them to be 100% ok with everything.

Soon after this, Hans also returns to Berlin, and they believe that it was because of that argument. However it soon comes out that Christian's second wife Vera, had been spreading a rumor that Hans was not Christian's biological son, and that he only ever said that he was to protect Katharina's honor. Hans had heard this rumor and this is what had driven him to leave.

It is only sometime afterward at the opening of Christian's second auto dealership that he hears of the rumor, and makes an announcement telling everyone that despite what he had heard he is Hans' birth father. He then goes to Katharina (who had also just learned of the rumor and went to confront him about it) and apologizes, telling her it was Vera who started the lie. Vera then begins arguing with them both. Furious, Kathrina punches Vera, and Katharina and Christian drive to Berlin together to talk to Hans.

They meet and apologize for everything, and tell the couple that they have their support and that they would host a wedding for them. And they do indeed, getting everyone who previously were against them (except Vera) to show up and give Hans the wedding he always wanted. The events of the film also brought Christian and Katharina back together again, so the ending is especially happy for Hans. The movie then ends with the very same church choir that temporarily kicked off Kathrina, giving a surprise performance of "All You Need Is Love" by The Beatles.

Cast

Production

Production took place between April 28, 2009, and May 28, 2009. The film was shot in the cities of Bad Bayersoien and Munich, of the Bavaria region of Germany.

Music

The original music in the film was composed by Michael Kadelbach. The film soundtrack includes a performance of The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" performed by Franziska Taub, and features many other uncredited songs such as:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monika Mann</span> German author and feature writer

Monika Mann was a German author and feature writer. She was born in Munich, Germany, the fourth of six children of the Nobel Prize–winning author Thomas Mann and Katia, née Katharina Pringsheim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Albers</span> German actor and singer (1891–1960)

Hans Philipp August Albers was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.

<i>Making Love</i> 1982 film by Arthur Hiller

Making Love is a 1982 American drama film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Kate Jackson, Harry Hamlin and Michael Ontkean. The film tells the story of a married man coming to terms with his homosexuality and the love triangle that develops between him, his wife and another man.

<i>Mephisto</i> (novel) 1936 novel by Klaus Mann

Mephisto – Novel of a Career is the sixth novel by German-born writer Klaus Mann, published in 1936 whilst he was in exile in Amsterdam. It was published for the first time in Germany in the East Berlin Aufbau-Verlag in 1956. The novel, a thinly disguised portrait of German actor Gustaf Gründgens, adapts the Faustian theme by having the main character, Hendrik Höfgen, abandon his conscience and continue to act and ingratiate himself with the Nazi Party to keep and improve his job and social position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharina Thalbach</span> German actress and stage director

Katharina Thalbach is a German actress and stage director. She played theatre at the Berliner Ensemble and at the Volksbühne Berlin, and was actress in the film The Tin Drum. She worked as a theatre and opera director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hape Kerkeling</span> German comedian

Hans Peter Wilhelm "Hape" Kerkeling is a German comedian, TV presenter, author, and actor.

<i>Water Drops on Burning Rocks</i> 2000 French film

Water Drops on Burning Rocks is a 2000 French romantic comedy drama film directed by François Ozon, based on Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play Tropfen auf heißen Steinen. The plot concerns a 50 year old businessman in 1970s Germany, who becomes infatuated with a man 30 years his junior.

"All You Need Is Love" is a song by The Beatles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willi Forst</span> Austrian actor

Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Filme. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records label owned by Carl Lindström AG.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Käthe Dorsch</span> German actress

Katharina "Käthe" Dorsch was a German stage and film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Thurnau</span> French-German fine artist and actress

Julia Thurnau is a French-German fine artist and actress. She is working in the field of fine arts as a part of the collective ClaudeHilde as such she developed the social Sculpture "artist at work" together with Margarita Breitkreiz for the Volksbuehne am Rosa-Luxemburg Platz in Berlin in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Knuth</span> German actor

Gustav Knuth was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1935 and 1982 and starred in the TV series Alle meine Tiere. He was married to the actress Elisabeth Lennartz.

<i>Bombs on Monte Carlo</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Bombs on Monte Carlo is a 1931 German musical comedy film directed by Hanns Schwarz and starring Hans Albers, Anna Sten, and Heinz Rühmann. The film is based on the novel Bomben auf Monte Carlo (1930) by Fritz Reck-Malleczewen. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in August 1931.

Hans Heinz Zerlett was a German screenwriter and film director.

Franziska Traub is a German actress.

Meine Schwester und ich is a musical comedy in two acts with prelude and postlude. Ralph Benatzky composed the music and also wrote the libretto together with Robert Blum. Benatzky based the work on a contemporary comedy by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil. The work was premiered on 29 March 1930 in Berlin, Germany, at the Theater am Gendarmenmarkt, also known as Komödie.

<i>Impossible Love</i> (film) 1932 film

Impossible Love is a 1932 German drama film directed by Erich Waschneck and starring Asta Nielsen, Ery Bos and Ellen Schwanneke. It was the final film of Nielsen, and the only sound film she appeared in. It premiered at the Mozartsaal in Berlin. Neilsen had been a major star during the First World War and the early 1920s but her screen career gradually declined and she hadn't appeared in a film since That Dangerous Age in 1927. Four years after making Impossible Love she returned to her native Denmark. It is also known by the alternative title of Crown of Thorns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Elvers</span> German actress

Jenny Elvers, is a German actress and television personality. She studied acting in Berlin, Hamburg and Chicago, and has worked as an actress and hostess since the early 1990s. She was married to her agent.

Saskia Vester is a German actress and author.

References

  1. "All you need is love - Meine Schwiegertochter ist ein Mann – Kritik zum Film bei Tittelbach.tv".
  2. "All You Need is Love – Meine Schwiegertochter ist ein Mann (2009) - Film | cinema.de".