The Pharmacist (1997) User Reviews

Lacks in several departments

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 18 August 2016]

"Die Apothekerin" or "The Pharmacist" is possibly the most known works by director Rainer Kaufmann and like in several of his other works he worked with Katja Riemann here. The script is by Ralf Hertwig and Kathrin Richter and is based on a novel by Ingrid Noll. I wonder a bit what she thought about this one and she is still alive today in her 80s. I personally cannot say what my problem with the story here is, if it is the adaptation or the original material, but I must say this film never felt really authentic to me. Then again, I have never been a fan of Katja Riemann. I like her co-lead Jürgen Vogel more, but the two had zero chemistry and I never had the impression that Riemann's character would really fall for Vogel's. The other way around seemed much more realistic. So yeah, Riemann is the heart and should of the film here and if you are not a fan (like myself), then it's tough to appreciate it, especially as I found her far from convincing during these 105 minutes. The script is not helping either as these constant plots about killing and murder don't feel credible and the relationship struggles and inheritance references were not interesting enough either to make it work. And I really had the feeling that this movie lacked focus considerably. More and more characters were added as quickly as others disappeared without getting proper elaboration why they were in this one as well. I see this film received some decent awards attention back in the 1990s and I am surprised by that. No idea what the German Film Awards saw in this one or in Riemann's performance, who really plays the same character in almost all her films. This one has not aged well at all I must say. I recommend to stay away and watch something else instead.

Made me look at the story from another point of view

[Mort-31 · 8/10 · 6 January 2002]

Wow! This is the first time I find that a movie and the book it is based upon perfectly complement one another. I read Ingrid Noll's novel and I liked it but something disturbed me. Now I know what it is. The book had an unnecessary feminist undertone, it tried to demonstrate female power a bit too explicitly.

By leaving out the frame story with the old woman in hospital whom Hella tells her story to, this undertone disappears in Rainer Kaufmann's excellent film version. The two guys, Levin and Dieter, are still the losers, of course, and Hella is the triumphant but that alone doesn't make her out to be some female heroine. I was able to see the same story from a completely different point of view: as nothing else but simply a dark, cruel crime drama, full of suspense and some humour, not unauthentic but still rather un-German (in fact, German humour is not exactly what Austrians like).

Romantic comedy star Katja Riemann may have been a complete failure but she gives quite a convincing performance. Jürgen Vogel overacts a little bit, but for Richy Müller the perfectly unlikeable prole Dieter could have been his best role ever.

I don't know whether the movie was released in the United States and if it was kind of successful, but I'd like to recommend it to everybody. I think even Americans who don't normally like European movies could enjoy it. Only if you get sick easily, you should at least look away once or twice. There are some really disgusting scenes.

A genuine pleasure

[Blamu · 8/10 · 4 April 1999]

" Die Apothekerin " - a film, which stands out against some German productions of the last years doing good. The three main persons of the action were greatly filled: The cool Katja Riemann as pharmacist, which is rather innocently entangled into the events, Jürgen Vogel as a somewhat eccentric and sometimes calculating medical student Levin and Richy Müller as convict and its friend lets arise at no time boredom. The film is characterised not only by interesting characters, but also by its great black humor. Result: A genuine pleasure.