"Tag der Idioten" or "Day of the Idiots" is a West German German-language film from 1981, so it has its 35th anniversary this year. It is among the more known works by director Werner Schroeter and as always he also wrote the script here, with the help of Dana Horaková. The film runs for over 100 minutes and takes place during an insane asylum from start to finish basically. The title indicates a slightly comedic note too and you may think the same when you read the title of my review, but nope: This is 100% drama, occasionally thriller even. Schroeter's most known works, including this one, mostly focus on the female psyche and it is fitting that he has actresses Carole Bouquet, Ingrid Caven and Christine Kaufmann play main characters in here. Marie Luise Marjan ("Lindenstraße" is in it too. Of course, there are also male characters in here, but neither the male actors are known, nor they play a role as big as the female ones.
Schroeter won a German Film Award for his direction here and the movie was also nominated at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. I cannot share these awards bodies's support I have to say. It baffles me how it has a fairly good rating here on IMDb and received many strong reviews. I personally cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all. The first half hour was still somewhat decent, but honestly I felt all the supporting characters were so uninteresting that I never managed to make a connection to any of them or the film in general. The best thing about the film? Certainly Bouquet's absolutely gorgeous looks and there is even full frontal nudity in here involving her, actually in the very first seconds already, which means basically that you can turn it off after minute 5. No surprise Bouquet starred in a Bond film the very same year this was made. She must have been among the most attractive people of the planet in the early 1980s. But her looks and somewhat decent performance alone cannot save this film from being ultimately very forgettable. Occasionally, like Schroeter's works, it has a touch of being too theatrical and more suitable for a stage play than a screen movie. Then again, I am not impressed in general by what I have seen from the filmmaker so far. If you like, Schroeter's works in general, then maybe you may like this one too. It is certainly not his worst. I still give it a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.
Schroeter won a German Film Award for his direction here and the movie was also nominated at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. I cannot share these awards bodies's support I have to say. It baffles me how it has a fairly good rating here on IMDb and received many strong reviews. I personally cannot say I enjoyed the watch at all. The first half hour was still somewhat decent, but honestly I felt all the supporting characters were so uninteresting that I never managed to make a connection to any of them or the film in general. The best thing about the film? Certainly Bouquet's absolutely gorgeous looks and there is even full frontal nudity in here involving her, actually in the very first seconds already, which means basically that you can turn it off after minute 5. No surprise Bouquet starred in a Bond film the very same year this was made. She must have been among the most attractive people of the planet in the early 1980s. But her looks and somewhat decent performance alone cannot save this film from being ultimately very forgettable. Occasionally, like Schroeter's works, it has a touch of being too theatrical and more suitable for a stage play than a screen movie. Then again, I am not impressed in general by what I have seen from the filmmaker so far. If you like, Schroeter's works in general, then maybe you may like this one too. It is certainly not his worst. I still give it a thumbs-down though. Not recommended.