St. Pauli Nacht (1999) User Reviews

Worthwhile episode film, picturing the darker side of Hamburg.

[EnvyYouProductions · 7/10 · 27 December 2000]

Sönke Worthmann usually shoots contemporary comedies - mostly highly entertaining. this time he tries successfully to change the genres. His episode film set in one of Europe's most notorious quarters shows sensitivity, sense for pace and rhythm, and genuine interest in the lives of ordinary people who live slightly off the track. An almost quiet film that could slightly change the perspective on German cinema.

St. Pauli is not the ghetto

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 15 March 2017]

"St. Pauli Nacht" is a German movie from 1999, so two more years and it will have its 20th anniversary. The script is by Frank Göhre and he adapted his own novel for the screen here, which brought him even a German Film Award. But the big name is the director: Sönke Wortmann is still known to every German film buff, even if his very best works may go back a bit already. The fact that this film here is far from his earliest efforts also shows how long he has been in movies. Now about the film itself, it runs for slightly over 90 minutes and takes place at St. Pauli, a district of the city of Hamburg that is mostly known for all the erotics and prostitution stuff taking place there. But if you watch this film, you may think it is somehow the center of the German crime scene. People get killed, lots of shooting, even a pretty big fire and nobody seems to be afraid of murdering anybody else. The cast includes names like Rohde, Lukas, Fürmann, Milberg and Redl, so nothing bad really. I am still not sure if I would say any of the cast members is awards-worthy here, Lukas and maybe Rohde may come the closest and fittingly these two also are the ones that won awards for their portrayals.

So yeah, this is a pretty bold and loud movie, not scared of breaking taboos or going over the top on many more than one occasion. I may have enjoyed the outrageousness at times, but did I enjoy the movie as a whole? I don't think so. One reason would be that I felt that eventually it was just all too much over the top. It is okay for entertainment purposes, but in terms of realism and authenticity it had nothing to do with the real world or the real life in St. Pauli. Let me tell you that as a German. Sure there may be more action going on than in most other parts of Germany, but honestly the way it seems here, you could almost think that this is like the ghetto of a big American city where crime in all sizes and shapes happens on a daily basis. It was just like a really sugary dish. You may like the first bite, but it's impossible to stomach the entire meal and feel good afterwards. Quite a shame as there are some parts in this film where the talent by everybody involved was undeniable. So yeah, this film is absolutely not a failure, but the bad outweighs the negative and I give it a thumbs-down. Shows me again how big of a star/prospect Florian Lukas was back then. A bit of a shame he did not manage to build on this success in the long term and have a Hollywood career like some other German actors of the same age roughly.

You'd better spend your money on the Reeperbahn

[Joker-36 · 2/10 · 25 July 2003]

Don't leave your money at the local video store to rent "St. Pauli Nacht`, you'd better take a walk on the wild side of Hamburgs Reeperbahn - it's much more worth the deal. This episode movie lacks everything you would commonly expect from a Sönke Wortmann film, but offers a truck load of clichés, poor acting and little boring stories (writing credits: Frank Göhre) that seem to be taken from a script writing school's waste basket or from leaflets of the Hamburg Chamber of Tourism. Certainly Sönke Wortmann has watched Jarmusch's "Night on Earth` and Altman's "Short Cuts`, but did he pay attention? Maybe it's because it has been over 10 years (!) when they came out that Wortmann fails to create an authentic atmosphere where we can really sympathize with the characters like we could in the forerunner films. The connections between the episodes are uninspired and - though unbelievable - predictable as Hamburg weather conditions one minute from now. Dramaturgy - what's that?

The fun that isn't already spoilt by these deficiencies is scared away by the cast and the camera. If I wanted to portrait a specific social setting or regional atmosphere like you find it in Hamburg's unique working class neighbourhood St. Pauli, why would I cast actors that can't even disguise their native accents and then let them try to over-pronounce in a fake northern sound? Secondly I think it's okay to reminisce Edward Hopper's work in the production design, but if I wanted to enjoy "Nighthawk` for incredible 3 minutes in a single shot, I'd go to a museum and glue my back to a chair in front of the painting. I thought movies were motion pictures... This flick is a terrible waste of time that one better tries to avoid. 2 points out of ten.