Sunday, February 17, 2008

11 October: Der Wixxer

I went over to Evelyne’s this afternoon for coffee and showed her and Oda some pictures from Michigan, California, and Washington. They especially liked seeing our house and also some pictures of me when I was around Oda’s age. They showed me the first half-hour or so of a German comedy called Der Wixxer, which is a spoof of an Edgar Wallace horror film (the German equivalent of Edgar Allen Poe meets Sherlock Holmes). Evelyne turned on the German subtitles (they were speaking with a Saxon accent that I could barely comprehend) and I was amazed at how many of the jokes I could understand. Part of the film takes place in a mansion called Castle Blackwhite, and all of the scenes in the castle are filmed in, naturally, black & white. There’s a butler named Alfons Hatler who bears an uncanny resemblance to Hitler and he has some particularly funny lines:

Butler Alfons Hatler: I could be your Führer...

Butler Alfons Hatler: [After the Wixxer poisons himself] Rogues killing themselves, only because their plans to rule the world went down the drain…

There were also lots of funny insider German jokes:

Sir John: This is Dieter Dubinsky. He's from East Germany.
Chief Inspector Even Longer: I'm sorry to hear that.

We didn’t watch the whole thing because I had to take Cody for his afternoon walk. I really should be watching more German TV and films, but it is incredibly draining.

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