Altes Geld

Last updated

Altes Geld
Genre Dark comedy
Created by David Schalko
Country of originAustria
Original languageGerman
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes8
Production
Running time60 minutes (including commercials)
Release
Original network ORF eins
Original release2015 (2015) 
2015 (2015)

Altes Geld (German: Old Money) is an Austrian TV dark comedy series created by David Schalko, revolving around the dysfunctions of a wealthy Viennese family.

Contents

Plot

When Rolf Rauchensteiner, patriarch of a rich Viennese dynasty, discovers that he will die soon unless he receives a new liver, he decides that his inheritance will go to whoever finds him a new liver. This creates havoc in the dysfunctional family, as everyone scrambles to find a liver and the head doctor who could help him refuses to do so. There are also other issues, since his wife Liane is having affairs with both her stepson Zeno and the family doctor, his Jewish sister decides to sue for restitution and his daughter Jana is infatuated with his son Jakob. Over the course of the eight episodes, other storylines develop such as Jakob's girlfriend Kerstin being arrested for murder, Zeno gambling his wealth away and Rolf's assistant Brunner losing the trust of his wife Barbara.

Main Cast

Background and production

Altes Geld was originally broadcast on Flimmit, ORF's online platform in early 2015, before being aired on ORF eins in Austria in November. Subsequently, it aired on RTL Crime in Germany in February 2016. [1] It also screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2016. [2]

The main role of Rolf Rauchensteiner was played by Udo Kier. It was originally supposed to be acted by Gert Voss, before his sudden death. [3] Like Voss, most of the other actors were from the Burgtheater in Vienna. [4]

Episodes

Season 1
No.
overall
TitleOriginal air date
1"Buschtrommeln"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
Rolf Rauchensteiner is the patriarch of a rich Viennese dynasty. When he discovers that he will die soon unless he receives a new liver, his wife is distraught and they decide to bring the family together for a conference.
2"Alpha"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
Rolf Rauchensteiner announces to the gathered family that whoever brings him a new liver will then receive his inheritance.
3"Lederhaut"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
The mayor is threatened with blackmail, Zeno's gambling lands him in hot water, Rauchsteiner's assistant Brunner is unable to hide his double life from his wife.
4"Unter Löwen"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
Rauchensteiner's sister decides to sue him, Zeno's gambling gets him into hotter water, and Jakob and Jana remake their acquaintance.
5"Der Biber"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
Rauchensteiner's condition becomes much worse, Zeno is kidnapped, Brunner speaks to his wife, Jakob discovers a potential liver donor.
6"Der Mensch im Tier"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
The search for a liver continues. Kerstin leaves jail then is arrested for murder. The Commander's wife urges him not to kill Zeno.
7"Chloroform"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
Zeno is lobotomized, Doctor Shober and his wife decide to blackmail the Rauchensteiners, Rolf Rauchensteiner receives a liver transplant.
8"Schneeweisses Herz"March 27, 2015 (2015-03-27)
The series ends with Rolf Rauchensteiner alive and well after the transplant, as Jakob reluctantly steps into his shoes. Tina's attempt to marry Zeno is stymied, Jana has a miscarriage, Kerstin is still in jail.

Reception

Screen Anarchy reviewed the series after it played at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, saying "Altes Geld is a caustic satire, a hilarious thriller, and a spectacularly sadistic soap all in one". [5] The Guardian said "the deadpan style recalls the work of Yorgos Lanthimos". [6] For Wunschliste the series was fascinating but the unlikeable characters made it hard to watch. [7]

Altes Geld won a silver medal at the New York TV and Film Awards and a Gold Panda at the Sichuan Television Festival. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Coates</span> Canadian actor

Kim F. Coates is a Canadian–American actor who has worked in both Canadian and American films and television series. He has worked on Broadway portraying Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and in the lead role of Macbeth performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He is best known for his role as Alexander "Tig" Trager in the FX series Sons of Anarchy and as Declan Gardiner in the Citytv series Bad Blood, as well as his recurring roles in Prison Break, Cold Case, CSI and CSI: Miami. He has also had film roles in The Last Boy Scout (1991), Bad Boys (1995), King of Sorrow (2006), Goon (2011).

<i>The Kingdom</i> (miniseries) Danish television series

Riget is a Danish absurdist supernatural horror miniseries trilogy created by Lars von Trier and Tómas Gislason. Set in the neurosurgical ward of Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet, each episode of the show takes place over a single day, and follows the hospital's eccentric staff and patients as they encounter bizarre and sometimes supernatural phenomena. The series is notable for its wry humor, its muted sepia colour scheme, and the appearance of a chorus of dishwashers with Down syndrome, who discuss in intimate detail the strange occurrences in the hospital. The main theme's song was written by von Trier himself.

<i>The Adventures of Pinocchio</i> (1996 film) 1996 film

The Adventures of Pinocchio is a 1996 fantasy family film, directed by Steve Barron and based on the original 1883 novel of the same name by Carlo Collodi. Barron collaborated with Sherry Mills, Tom Benedek and Barry Berman on the screenplay. The film was an American, British, French, Czech, and German venture produced by New Line Cinema, The Kushner-Locke Company, Savoy Pictures, Pangaea Holdings and Twin Continental Films. The film stars Martin Landau, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Rob Schneider, Udo Kier, Bebe Neuwirth, David Doyle and Geneviève Bujold. The film was both a critical and commercial failure although a direct to video sequel was made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Layke Anderson</span> British film director and former actor

Layke Anderson is a British film director and former actor.

<i>Paranoia 1.0</i> 2004 American film

Paranoia: 1.0 is a 2004 cyberpunk dystopian horror mystery written and directed by Jeff Renfroe and Marteinn Thorsson. The film is a Kafkaesque nightmare in which a young computer programmer is an unwitting guinea pig in a corporate experiment to test a new advertising scheme. The film stars Jeremy Sisto and Deborah Unger and features Lance Henriksen, Eugene Byrd, Bruce Payne and Udo Kier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hubschmid</span> Swiss actor

Paul Hubschmid was a Swiss actor. He was most notable for his role as Henry Higgins in a production of My Fair Lady. In some of his Hollywood films he used the name Paul Christian. He appeared in dozens of films and television series between 1938 and 1991. Many of these were German and International productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mavie Hörbiger</span> German-Austrian actress

Mavie Hörbiger is a German-Austrian actress. Since 2009, she belongs to the ensemble of Vienna's Burgtheater.

<i>71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance</i> 1994 Austrian film

71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance is a 1994 Austrian drama film directed by Michael Haneke. It has a fragmented storyline as the title suggests, and chronicles several seemingly unrelated stories in parallel, but these separate narrative lines intersect in an incident at the end of the film. The film is set in Vienna from October to December 1993. Haneke refers to 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance as the last part of his "glaciation trilogy", the other parts of which are his preceding two films The Seventh Continent and Benny's Video.

<i>Modigliani</i> (film) 2004 American film

Modigliani is a 2004 drama biographical film written and directed by Mick Davis and starring Andy García, Elsa Zylberstein, Omid Djalili, Hippolyte Girardot, Eva Herzigova and Udo Kier. It is based on the life of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cologne Conference</span> Annual film festival held in Cologne, Germany

The Film Festival Cologne is an international Film and Television Festival that takes place annually in Cologne, Germany. With about 10.000 visitors, the Film Festival Cologne is considered as the best attended festival of its kind worldwide. Screenings of independent films as well as debates on media politics and media aesthetic complement the event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liane Curtis</span> American actress

Liane Alexandra Curtis is an American film and television actress and musician, known for her appearances in B movies as Critters 2: The Main Course and Girlfriend from Hell, as well as smaller roles in films such as Sixteen Candles.

Fred Kelemen is a Hungarian-German film and theater director, cinematographer and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erni Mangold</span> Austrian actress

Erni Mangold is an Austrian actress and stage director. Since 1948, she had appeared in more than 75 films and TV productions.

<i>A Trick of Light</i> 1995 German film

A Trick of Light is a 1995 German film directed by Wim Wenders. The film was made with the students of the University of Television and Film Munich and is a combination of docudrama, fictional reenactment, and experimental photography to show the birth of cinema in Berlin where Max Skladanowsky and his brother Emil built a projector they called the Bioscop.

<i>The Theatre Bizarre</i> 2011 American film

The Theatre Bizarre is a 2011 American horror anthology film. The six segments are directed by Douglas Buck, Buddy Giovinazzo, David Gregory, Karim Hussain, Tom Savini and Richard Stanley. The wraparound segments featuring Udo Kier were directed by Jeremy Kasten.

<i>Keyhole</i> (film) 2011 Canadian film

Keyhole is a 2011 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin, starring Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier and Kevin McDonald. A surreal combination of gangster film and haunted house film, which draws on Homer's Odyssey as well, Keyhole tells the story of a Ulysses Pick (Patric), who returns to his home and embarks on an odyssey through the house, one room at a time. Filming began in Winnipeg on July 6, 2010. Maddin shot Keyhole digitally rather than his usual method of shooting on 16mm or Super-8mm.

Men in the City is a 2009 German comedy film directed by Simon Verhoeven with Christian Ulmen, Nadja Uhl and Wotan Wilke Möhring. The film was followed by Men in the City 2 in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kier-La Janisse</span> Canadian screenwriter, director, producer and programmer

Kier-La Janisse is a Canadian film writer, programmer, producer, and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Her best-known work as a writer is House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films which many critics consider an important milestone in both confessional film writing and the study of female madness onscreen. Video Watchdog’s Tim Lucas referred to it as one of the 10 “most vital” horror film books of all time, and Ian MacAllister-McDonald of the LA Review of Books called it “the next step in genre theory, as well as the most frightening and heart-rending memoir I’ve read in years.” Her debut feature as a filmmaker, the three-hour documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, premiered at SXSW 2021 where it won the Midnighters Audience Award.

Woman in Car is a 2021 Canadian psychological thriller film, written, produced, and directed by Vanya Rose. The film stars Hélène Joy as Anne, a former archer who has happily settled into life as the trophy wife of a wealthy businessman, but who feels threatened and lapses into obsession when her stepson David brings home his new girlfriend Safiye for the first time.

References

  1. "Braunschlag: Interview mit Autor David Schalko | Seite 2". serienjunkies.de. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  2. "Rotterdam fest tunes back into TV | News". Screen. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  3. "David Schalko: "Altes Geld" ist eine großartige Serie". WELT. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  4. Kudlac, Martin (25 February 2016). "Rotterdam 2016 Interview: Udo Kier Talks Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Lars von Trier And Past And Present Roles". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  5. Vijn, Ard (7 March 2016). "Rotterdam 2016 Review: ALTES GELD Is Deliciously Devious". Screen Anarchy. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  6. Seale, Jack (15 February 2020). "Taiwanese sci-fi and Spanish superheroes: the best global TV you can stream". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  7. "TV-Kritik/Review: Altes Geld". TV Wunschliste (in German). Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  8. "Old Money". www.psfilmfest.org. Palm Springs International Film Festival. Retrieved 3 December 2021.