"Rossini" is a German 110-minute film from almost 20 years ago written and directed by the recently deceased filmmaker Helmut Dietl. I wish I could write a more positive review here in his memory, but I have to say I am baffled by this film's success with awards bodies, especially at the German Film Awards, where it also won Best Picture, but did not get chosen as Germany's Oscar submission for the foreign language category. Those got it right and the IMDb rating also seems very accurate. I guess the reason of its success back then is simply the accumulation of big names in the cast here. I will not list them, but you can check out the list here ion IMDb to find proof of that. Even today this would be an outstanding list of actors for a film. None of them particularly impressed me, even if Mario Adorf was fun to watch as usual as the title character who is far from being the protagonist in here. And still, he was kinda wasted with the way his character was written. Style over substance really.
Same can be said about pretty much all the other actors. I know it was not the director's intention obviously to make them look likable with all the sleaze, envy and greed they show us, but they weren't particularly fascinating to watch I have to say. And that was not really the actors' fault or at least not as much as it was flawed in the way they were written. I felt especially sorry for the female actresses as their characters were all really one-dimensional and offered nothing in terms of self-confident modern women. So yeah, being a huge fan of Dietl's "Schtonkh!", mostly because of George I was genuinely disappointed with this film here that he made 5 years later. I do not recommend checking it out. The perfect example of too many cooks spoiling the brother. Thumbs down.
Same can be said about pretty much all the other actors. I know it was not the director's intention obviously to make them look likable with all the sleaze, envy and greed they show us, but they weren't particularly fascinating to watch I have to say. And that was not really the actors' fault or at least not as much as it was flawed in the way they were written. I felt especially sorry for the female actresses as their characters were all really one-dimensional and offered nothing in terms of self-confident modern women. So yeah, being a huge fan of Dietl's "Schtonkh!", mostly because of George I was genuinely disappointed with this film here that he made 5 years later. I do not recommend checking it out. The perfect example of too many cooks spoiling the brother. Thumbs down.