"Stadtgespräch" or "Talk of the Town" is a German 90-minute film from 1995, so it had its 20th anniversary last year. The director is Rainer Kaufmann, the script comes from Ben Taylor and this film actually received quite a bit of awards recognition back then (also at the German Film Awards), so I was kinda curious about it. My hopes were smashed. Thsi film is mostly comedy, but it's really never ever funny. Some of the moments they intended as funny were downright embarrassing because you could see they tried so hard, but it turned out a big mess. There are dramatic moments in here as well, but really that's just minor. I think Gedeck was fine in these moments and she is the somewhat only occasionally decent part of this film. The male actors are entirely forgettable which is not really due to their performances, but the way they were written. Stereotypical, over-the-top and yet extremely uninteresting. Certainly a missed opportunity given the fact that guys like Zirner and Bleibtreu were on board. Don't care much about Wiesinger. Now lets talk about Riemann. She won a German Film Award for her performance here (and for another) and she was among Germany's most successful actresses back then, still is very well-known today. I have no idea why though. With her work here, she proved to me that she has zero talent in terms of comedy acting. The romance parts weren't much better, you have to say in her favor that's mostly because of the writing, but hey at least she showed everybody their breasts. The absolute negative highlight of the film was the ending with this weird phone conference at the radio stating. Extremely cringeworthy. Also characters are randomly mad at each other, then immediately best friends again and they keep falling in and out of love with several characters and I just cannot take this film seriously from a dramatic perspective. A contender for Worst 10 1990s films from Germany. Stay far far away.
Review of Talk of the Town
