“Franz, he can do it!”, the fans chant and hold up posters. A beautiful dream! The reality is different: Whenever Franz feels stressed, for example by the strict teacher Zigzag, he gets a high, squeaky voice and makes himself the laughing stock of the class. It can’t stay like this. The “Tales of Franz”, which will be shown in cinemas from Friday, are stories of self-empowerment.
Christine Nstlinger’s “Tales of Franz”, told in 19 volumes between 1984 and 2011, accompanied millions of children and adults. The image of the nice boy, who, to his annoyance, is repeatedly mistaken for a girl because of his blond curls, was shaped at least as much by the illustrator Erhard Dietl as by the author herself.
Jossi Jantschitsch, who was born in 2010, fits this image surprisingly well – and his bosom friend, the good-natured Eberhard (Leo Wacha), and his bright girlfriend Gabi (Nora Reidinger) are also well cast by the Bavarian director Johannes Schmid. That’s half the battle. Sarah Wassermair from Upper Austria took characters and motifs from Nstlinger’s “Tales of Franz”, but otherwise wrote a completely independent and contemporary screenplay. Communication via smartphones is a matter of course for the children.
The supposed solution to the nine-year-old’s ego problem also comes from the Internet. Influencer Hank Haberer (Philipp Dornauer) tells the losers how to “go from zero to hero” and has a training program ready with which Franz wants to become a muscleman. And thus more in line with the stereotypical male role model than Papa Frstl (Simon Schwarz), who, as a house husband, spoils his wife (Ursula Strauss) with home-baked goods.
No Viennese film
The story is endearing and entertaining, has some really nice scenes (like Franz, Gabi and Eberhard visiting the gym together), a snappy soundtrack by Marco Wanda and should be fun for the whole family. “Tales of Franz” did not become a Viennese film. It is set in the Karmeliterviertel and offers some local color with a Wilhelminian style residential building, the market and the Danube Canal. However, Viennese is not spoken, nor is Vienna, which is shaped by people from families of the most diverse nations, depicted. The grumpy neighbor (Maria Bill) also seems like a quote from a Vienna that hardly exists anymore. But there are good prerequisites for “Tales of Franz” to also hit the German cinema market. The film will be released there in parallel with the start in Austria. A second part is already in preparation.