Härte (2015) Reviews

• Had a lot more to offer than it delivered

  Horst_In_Translation2017-02-13

  "Härte" or "Tough Love" is a German 90-minute movie from 2017, so still relatively new. This one gained a solid deal of awards attention for writer and director Rosa von Praunheim and lead actor Hanno Koffler. The film is probably 80% fictionalized story-telling and 20% documentary. This is the story of Andreas Marquardt, a pimp and karate champion in his younger years. As a consequence of his violent behavior, he had to go to jail for a while too, but now that he is out he seems reformed and the way he is working with young children, it actually seems to be true. On the one hand, you can discuss if you think that Marquardt deserves his own movie. But if all we find out in here is true, then I would say yes. The problem is really the approach. von Praunheim is known for his films in terms of how explicit they are, be it either in terms of vulgar verbal language or sexually explicit scenes. This one is not an exception and this becomes very clear early on with Katy Karrenbauer's performance. It sure is interesting that it even got recognition at the German Film Awards. It is definitely on the edge of pornography, but really not too surprising with von Praunheim. Anyway. I think Koffler does a good job and he is deserving of his German Film Award nomination. The reason why I did not end up appreciating the film is because of the general approach. I think they could have done so so much more with the protagonist's career as an athlete, but apart from the real Marquardt gloating about his successes early on, it is basically left out completely. Instead, the focus is on the sexual abuse, the relationship to his girlfriend, the violence etc. Also all important subjects, but they have been overdone here in my opinion. Nonetheless I am not surprised really on what RvP puts the focus here and nobody really can be if they have seen anything else from him. This is a bit of a pity as I believe that he is a somewhat decent filmmaker in terms of talent (as he should be with his experience) and also not a bad writer, he just does not use the right focus in several of his movies. Finally, it needs to be said that this one also has documentary aspects as, like I wrote earlier, the real protagonist as of today is seen on more than just a handful occasions. But these parts (only parts in color actually) aren't good enough either (or informative enough) to let me recommend this one. I give it a thumbs-down.