“Unorthodox” director Maria Schrader on Monday premiered her sci-fi comedy “I’m Your Man” starring Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens as a robot ready to beat human rivals in the game of love.
The Emmy winner’s soulful futurist romp is one of 15 contenders for the Golden Bear top prize on Friday at the 71st Berlin film festival, which has gone all-virtual due to the pandemic.
“I’m Your Man” (Ich bin dein Mensch) sees Stevens, who is British, use his fluent German to play Tom, a remarkably lifelike Romeo custom-designed to win the heart of Berlin antiquities researcher Alma (Maren Eggert).
A company that has developed humanoids for discerning lonely hearts asks Alma if she will test out the man-machine for three weeks and then report back on her customer satisfaction.
Like any romantic comedy heroine, Alma is reluctant and sceptical at first, especially as Tom has a habit of delivering corny pick-up lines about the “deep pools of her eyes”.
Although he can dance a mean rumba, he’s also unfortunately incapable of understanding the humour Alma sees in slapstick YouTube videos.
But as they spend more time with each other, his algorithms become more finely tuned to Alma’s tastes and desires, ironing out the flaws that doomed her past relationships.
Willing to be exciting
Director-actress Schrader is one of the driving forces between a recent renaissance of German entertainment that has captured audiences across the world.
“Unorthodox” about a woman who fled her ultra-Orthodox home in New York for Berlin was one of Netflix’s biggest hit series of last year, and Schrader starred in the wildly popular “Deutschland 83/86/89” series.
The Berlinale, which features new movies from around the globe, has selected an unusual four homegrown pictures for the competition, including Daniel Bruehl’s directorial debut “Next Door” which premiered Monday to rave reviews.
Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter, said German movies and shows were finally coming into their own, by being willing to play around with genres like sci-fi, thrillers and romantic comedies.
“It’s not just long shots of emptiness and people discussing philosophy’’, Roxborough said, poking fun at stereotypical German preoccupations.
“It’s a new generation of German directors coming up that is willing to do things a bit differently, that are willing to be exciting, not just politically correct.” — AFP
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