The Boandlkramer and eternal love
Joseph Vilsmaiers says goodbye with love and humor
Michael Bully Herbig as the title character in “The Boandlkramer and Eternal Love”.
© LEONINE Studios
“The Boandlkramer and Eternal Love” starts on Friday. Anyone who was looking forward to Joseph Vilsmaier’s last work will not be disappointed.
The Bavarian fantasy rom-com “The Boandlkramer and Eternal Love” by cult director Joseph Vilsmaier (1939-2020, “Herbstmilch”) starts on Friday (May 14) exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. “After the cinema release had to be postponed several times, we are of course very happy that the film has finally found a way to the audience,” says Michael Bully Herbig (53).
He had the idea for the film, plays the title role and was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize for the script together with Marcus H. Rosenmüller (47) and Ulrich Limmer (born 1955). The film will still come to the cinema, promises the successful filmmaker. “That’s what it was made for and we owe that to the director Joseph Vilsmaier!”
This is what “The Boandlkramer and Eternal Love” is all about
Something like this has never happened to Boandlkramer (Michael Bully Herbig): For the first time, in thousands of years, he is hit by Cupid’s arrow. When he sees Gefi (Hannah Herzsprung, 39), the mother of Maxl, it happened to him – death fell madly in love. The love-drunk Boandlkramer gets into a more or less wise deal with the devil (Hape Kerkeling, 56) and thereby not only confuses the divine plan – it even threatens absolute chaos …
Loving hug for death
The Boandlkramer is death personified. The Bavarian term is made up of Boandl for bones and Kramer for traveling trader. In the story of “Brandner Kaspar” (play, film, etc.) he plays a large, but not very scary role.
Even in the original, in the novella “Gschicht vom Brandner Kasper” (1871) by Franz von Kobell (1803-1882), that’s exactly the trick, explains actor Sebastian Bezzel (49, Eberhoferkrimis) in an interview with spot on news about the Boandlkramer . “The funniest and most loving character in this story is death.” That is also the great thing about the material that this figure is not portrayed as a dark and evil fellow, “but as a poor pig who belongs nowhere” – not on earth, not in paradise and not in hell either.
And in the new film, the Boandlkramer gets even cuter. When he, as “Beppo Kramer”, makes a fool of himself for his loved one with the flirting tips from the late marriage fraudster Max Gumberger (Bezzel) in the best Karl Valentin manner, one can only cheer as a viewer. “When one person falls in love, when does the other fall in love?” He asks naively. But those who underestimate death have already lost.
“Memento mori – remember that you are mortal,” it says at one point. To another: “All have made a voluntary choice to sin.” Or: “Now that I know how beautiful it is, I would do a lot differently.” The spectators learn this and other wisdom, for example, while the Boandlkramer drives the coffins on the carriage through a rugged and fascinating mountain landscape.
Conclusion
The “Brandner Kaspar” spin-off is a real Vilsmaier and a wonderful farewell film with quotes from his earlier works. It is also funny, charming and impressive how this folk story, which is actually so old, was spun on. The all-star cast – with lots of little surprises and an unusual vocal part that both shocked and fascinated – shines in every scene. And even Joseph Vilsmaier’s three daughters from his marriage to actress Dana Vávrová (1967-2009) – Janina (34), Theresa (31) and Josefina (28) – are represented in different roles in the credits.