Falco - Verdammt, wir leben noch! (2008)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Thomas Roth

Writer:

Thomas Roth (writer)

Release Date:

7 February 2008 (Austria)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Plot:

"Falco - Verdammt wir leben noch" deals with life, work and tragic death of Johann "Falco" Hölzel (Manuel Rubey)...

Plot Keywords:

Exclamation Point In Title | Musician | Punctuation In Title | Character Name In Title

Cast

Manuel Rubey	...	Johann 'Falco' Hölzel
Nicholas Ofczarek	...	Markus Spiegel
Christian Tramitz	...	Horst Bork
Patricia Aulitzky	...	Jacky
Susi Stach	...	Maria Hölzel
Arno Frisch	...	Alois Hölzel
Markus Mössmer	...	Hansi Lang
Martin Loos	...	Billy Filanowski
Christoph von Friedl	...	Thomas Rabitsch
Julian Sharp	...	Robert Ponger
Nina Hartmann	...	Elke
Doris Golpashin	...	Chouchou
Sunnyi Melles	...	Prostituierte
Heribert Sasse	...	Arzt
Michael Kreihsl	...	Kellner

Also Known As:

Falco: Damn It, We're Still Alive! (Europe: English title) (festival title)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

Austria | Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:12 | Czech Republic:12

Filming Locations:

Dominican Republic

Company:

MR Filmproduktion

Trivia:

Manuel Rubey was first set to play Wickerl Adam but after Robert Stadlober left production, he replaced him in the main role as Johann 'Falco' Hölzel.

Uninspired Biopic

After Biopics like "Ray" and "Walk the Line" were successful, Austrian cinema was keen on filming the life of the only international star it had in the past years: Falco.

A nice project for the Austrian market, because it's the 10th anniversary of the death of Falco, but what is the film worth? In fact, it is nothing more than a nice TV-movie, with good actors, trapped in an uninspired biopic, that never happens to be more than a clip-show.

Director/Author Thomas Roth is very good in reproducing the childhood and early years of Johann Hoelzel, when he is becoming a musician and creating his second person. In these scenes Manuel Rubey - who plays Hoelzel/Falco - is also very good and impressive, but after theses scenes, Roth is stuck in the cliché of the usual musician-biopic.

Early success, drugs, depression, family problems. Nothing new happens in this movie and what makes things worse is that Roth only reproduces the famous video clips (and even the less famous) of Falco.

"Falco - Verdammt, wir leben noch" is good in it's first 15/20 minutes, when it shows the relationship of Falco to his mother and also how he created his artificial person. But it ultimately lacks quality when it shows the stations of his career - from Vienna to Hamburg to Hollywood and back - and makes it a bad clip-show. While the actors are good - especially Manuel Rubey as Falco, Christian Tramitz as Horst Bork and Nicholas Ofczarek as Markus Spiegel - the movie is never something special.

A wasted chance.