“Tatort” commissioner hits it
“Leitmayr” condemns “Trübsinnskitsch” and
12/07/2022, 8:13 p.m
For more than 30 years, Udo Wachtveitl has been in front of the camera as Commissioner Franz Leitmayr for the Munich crime scene. So his word should carry weight. He now attests to some developments in the ARD crime series that “got on my nerves a lot”.
One of the longest-serving “Tatort” commissioners opposes two trends he has observed in the popular ARD Sunday thriller. Two things got on his nerves “a lot,” said actor Udo Wachtveitl, who has played Franz Leitmayr in Munich’s “Tatort” since 1991, of the magazine “TV Digital”.
“There is a tendency to teach, so to speak, the ‘crime scene’ as popular education qua picture story. In these films, social issues are not negotiated, but lectured – and the characters are as narrowly schematized as in Punch and Judy,” says the 64-year-old .
In addition, there is also “gloomy kitsch”. What does Wachtveitl mean by that? “Bad mood as a sign of quality, as a pose, often illustrated with desaturated, dark colors, but lacking the depth of classic film noir.” The image of man is “just as cliched as with Rosamunde Pilcher – just dark,” says the actor. “Dullness is here confused with profundity.”
Experiment for Christmas
The Munich “Tatort” allows itself an experiment at Christmas – “a homage to Agatha Christie”. Wachtveitl and his colleague, the actor Miroslav Nemec in the role of Commissioner Ivo Batic, go on a murder hunt as British investigators – in 1922.
Wachtveitl emphasizes: “The fact that we – editors, authors, directors and actors – allow ourselves such fun following more than 90 episodes is perfectly fine. However, you have to be careful that the ‘crime scene’ doesn’t dilute its brand core overall. The balanced one The relationship between legitimate viewer expectations following a good crime story and surprise must be preserved.”
