What is the mouse doing in the bathhouse? Some people would probably place this question in the animated film series “Tom & Jerry”. In fact, that is the title of a film from 1975, which the magazine Filmdienst, which was still heavily influenced by Catholics at the time, described as a “silly, viscous sexual comedy that tries to make ends meet with mix-ups, primitive sex scenes and silly, embarrassing jokes.” The film was directed by Siggi Götz, who also wrote works such as “Keep Drilling, Buddy” and “Alpenglüh’n im Dirndlrock”. Both lederhosen sex films, and real box office hits at the time, but which the actors and viewers were often ashamed of afterwards. It was similar with Siggi Götz, who was actually called Sigi Rothemund and has now died at the age of 79.
“Looking back, the films are funny, but at the time I didn’t think it was funny at all, I suffered from it and had complexes because of it.” This is how the Munich native explained it in one of his very rare interviews in 2007 tz, why he distanced himself from his second self “Siggi Götz” for years and never actually spoke about the films made under a pseudonym. It wasn’t just the sex comedies that, from today’s perspective, were rather harmless. But also the films “Piratensender Powerplay” and “Die Einsteiger” made in the eighties with Thomas Gottschalk and Mike Krüger. Well, the film service didn’t like them either, but they were also very successful at the box office and even enjoy cult status today.
But, as already said: Apart from perhaps Rinaldo Talamonti, many Siggi Götz actors have also distanced themselves from the sex comedies created for Lisa Film GmbH. And for Rothemund himself, who began his career as an assistant director to Franz Marischka, Zbyněk Brynych and Peter Weck, this certainly had something to do with the second career he started on television under his own name. It began in 1979 with the successful ZDF Christmas series “Timm Thaler” based on James Krüss with Thomas Ohrner in the lead role. Rothemund also directed the Christmas series “Silas” (1981) and “Jack Holborn” (1982) with Patrick Bach. This was followed by films such as “Night Frost Affair” (1989). Gudrun Landgrebe and Hansjörg Felmy. And he worked on crime series such as “Peter Strohm” and “The Clown”.
In retrospect, the high workload that Rothemund put in was impressive
From 2002 to 2019, the ARD film series “Donna Leon” was his main job. And in retrospect, the high workload that Rothemund put in as a filmmaker is impressive. That’s why some called him a “routiner”. Ulrich Mannes puts it like this: “It was often just a matter of turning things down. There is no handwriting to be discovered.” Mannes has been running the film magazine “in Munich” since 2001.Siggi Götz Entertainment“, which is primarily dedicated to the overlooked part of German film history. The magazine name, says Mannes, was actually only intended to sound enigmatic and not a direct homage. The fact that he is nevertheless an expert is demonstrated by the booklet “Alpenglühn 2011” published by the criminal publisher “, in which he deals with the Siggi Götz films in fictional dialogue form.
In it you learn that you can recognize François Truffaut influences in the erotic romance “It Wasn’t the Nightingale” from 1974 with Sylvia Kristel. Quentin Tarantino, in turn, compared the film to Eric Rohmer. There probably won’t be a subsequent Oscar nomination, like the one his son, director Marc Rothemund, received in 2005 for “Sophie Scholl.” How he saw that unbiased cineastes re-evaluate the Siggi Götz films would be interesting to find out. What was most recently learned was that the director, who lived in the Bogenhausen district for 30 years, suffered from a spinal displacement. Then came the cancer, to which Rothemund, as his daughters Dany and Nina Rothemund confirmed, succumbed to on January 13th in Menorca.