''Affengeil'' ( English title: ''Life is Like a Cucumber'') is a

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

semi-documentarian

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous LGBT social move ...

. The film was shown at the 1991

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

and 1992 at the

Frameline Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (also known as San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and formerly known as San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) is an annual event that ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, among others.Murray, ''Images in the Dark'', p. 109

Plot

Film about the life of

Lotti Huber Lotti Huber (; 16 October 1912 - 31 May 1998) was a German actress. She appeared in more than twenty films from 1978 to 1999. She became famous in Germany for her roles in Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radt ...

, who was discovered by Rosa von Praunheim for the big stage when she was almost 70 years old. The multi-talented artist tells a moving story about catastrophes and successes that she has experienced.

Reception

"Lotti is an ingenious grotesque and a consummate performer." (

The Motion Picture Guide ''The Motion Picture Guide'' is a film reference work first published by Cinebooks in 1985. It was written by Jay Robert Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross, and Robert B. Connelly. It was annually updated through new volumes and had a CD-ROM version, whi ...

, 1993) The German

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

wrote: "Praunheim's fictional documentaries or documentary fictions, however one may categorize the works of the auteur filmmaker, are characterized on the one hand by an amazingly self-deprecating sincerity and on the other hand by a deeply affectionate description of the people in his worlds. ..Legendary are his portraits of the maternal muse Lotti Huber. He erected monuments to the extravagant actress, dancer and diseuse of the Berlin underground .."

Notes

References

*Murray, Raymond. ''Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video Guide''. TLA Publications, 1994,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Affengeil 1990 films West German films Films directed by Rosa von Praunheim 1990 documentary films German documentary films 1990s German-language films 1990s German films