Die Copiloten (2007) (TV)

Director:

Thomas Jauch

Writers:

Marion Gaedicke (writer)
Michael Illner (writer)

Release Date:

25 May 2007 (Germany)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Friendship Between Men | Garden Swing | Co Pilot | Bat | Lawn Sprinkler

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Udo Wachtveitl	...	Lothar Kirschneck
Miroslav Nemec	...	Milan Franolic
Nicole R. Beutler	...	Amelie Kirschneck (as Nicole Beutler)
Friederike Kempter	...	Jenny Franolic
Ulrike C. Tscharre	...	Ghost of Maria Franolic (as Ulrike Tscharre)
Marc Schulze	...	Brian Conlan (as Marc Oliver Schulze)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Neshe Demir	...	Freundin von Jelly
Sophie Engert	...	Personalchefin
Carolin Fink	...	Journalistin
Gotthard Lange	...	Tankwart
Claudia Lössl	...	Schöne Witwe
Andreas Lukoschik	...	Prüfer
Wolfgang Mondon	...	Sepp Schwab
Oliver Nägele	...	Alois Reithmeyer
Antje Schmidt	...	Schwester Thekla

Runtime:

88 min | 89 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Bavaria Film

Well made lightweight fare from the home of feel good TV

I watched this mild mannered comedy of manners primarily because the two leads have been working together since the beginning of the 90s as the Munich end of the Tatort franchise and are a familiar in the roles of 'tough but fair but flawed' detectives. Udo Wachtveitl and Miro Nemec turn in competent performances in their respective roles of airline pilot widower and under achieving commercial photographer whose love lives take on a surprisingly interrelated quality after various surprising turns of event. Due to their long standing partnership and the ground they have covered in the last decade and a half, it was always going to be difficult for them to change the dynamic - and, in the end, I guess the director didn't ask them to. Well, so what, I enjoyed it and this is their take on police work anyway, so it would have been hard to change the vibe.

Maybe I'm getting soft, but as a Brit who has worked outside the UK since '93, I've become quite addicted to pleasant German comedies of manners and look on them as a blessed relief from the relentless 'presentation over content everyone in each others faces posturing Hollywood wannabe' contemporary British fare.

(Continuity error: Why don't continuity people apply the same standards to machinery as actor's hairstyles and clothes? E.g. pilot Franolic's plane grows engines on finals, not a big thing but it's so easy to avoid.)