Is German TV really that bad - I mean worse than Australian?
We've had this one and Helmut Dietle's LATE SHOW in quick succession here, both showing the programs as sensationalised twaddle and the programmers as randy, ego maniac nut cases.
This one has Kurt as a current affairs host who specializes in ruining the lives of his guests. Well, if we think about Nick Broomfield and Fred Wiseman that's not so unlikely. However while he's making out with his P.A. (the personable blonde Frauline Jacobi) against the second hand, before he goes on air, a sinister leather gloved type kidnaps his wife and locks her up in a spooky building.
The rest of the picture is spent with every one trying to track down the abductor with aforesaid Miss Jacobi doing all the work despite the efforts of the leather coated, chiseled featured cop who has the hots for her, while the TV industry workers put all their efforts into humiliating one another and pushing up the ratings.
The cast suggest talent & experience not being given much scope and while they all look for the media savvy heavy there's reasonable tension. When we find out how dumb the plotting really is that evaporates, with a couple of reels of the film still to go.
Production values are showy and make us wonder why we don't get trash TV as well staged as the lead's `Hour of the Wolf.'.
We've had this one and Helmut Dietle's LATE SHOW in quick succession here, both showing the programs as sensationalised twaddle and the programmers as randy, ego maniac nut cases.
This one has Kurt as a current affairs host who specializes in ruining the lives of his guests. Well, if we think about Nick Broomfield and Fred Wiseman that's not so unlikely. However while he's making out with his P.A. (the personable blonde Frauline Jacobi) against the second hand, before he goes on air, a sinister leather gloved type kidnaps his wife and locks her up in a spooky building.
The rest of the picture is spent with every one trying to track down the abductor with aforesaid Miss Jacobi doing all the work despite the efforts of the leather coated, chiseled featured cop who has the hots for her, while the TV industry workers put all their efforts into humiliating one another and pushing up the ratings.
The cast suggest talent & experience not being given much scope and while they all look for the media savvy heavy there's reasonable tension. When we find out how dumb the plotting really is that evaporates, with a couple of reels of the film still to go.
Production values are showy and make us wonder why we don't get trash TV as well staged as the lead's `Hour of the Wolf.'.