Even a Percht needs a break from time to time. The Bavarian spooky figure is smoking in front of the door, he has taken off his mask and wrapped his spear in fur. It rattles and rattles with every movement, otherwise this horror figure doesn’t look particularly scary. More like a cosplayer or an extra from a Mad Max movie. The traditional habitat of the Perchten, the rough nights in winter, could not be further away on this early summer evening. But the discrepancy has a concept here: in front of the cinema entrance, the Perchten actor (“I come from Passau and have been doing this since my childhood”) meets posing Prada youths, Botox beauties and Cologne comedians. Guests eat scary eyes and enter through a papier-mâché gate. In the cinema, people laugh, chew and even cry a little.
For the premiere of the series “Kohlrabenschwarz” the makers have invited to the Arri cinema in Munich, the six-part series is announced as a “bad night story”. At first glance, not much fits together here, the series mixes genres such as mystery, horror, thriller, crime and comedy. “I don’t know what it is either,” series creator and showrunner Tommy Krappweis will later say on stage; it doesn’t sound like justification, more like inventiveness.
And the man from Otterfing (“Bernd das Brot”, “RTL Saturday Night”) can also be proud: he managed to launch his radio play series of the same name about a Rosenheim police psychologist who deals with Bavarian myths and legendary figures Hollywood studio for sale. “Kohlrabenschwarz” was created for the Paramount+ streaming service and will be available there from June 8th.
“Wow, you’re Fancy Nancy” greet the influencers in their sponsored luxury outfits, which should definitely be meant as a compliment. The Passau Percht has finished smoking and meets a junior Percht who, in his shaggy fur costume, is reminiscent of the Kukeri from “Toni Erdmann”. Just doesn’t interest anyone, because now the actors of the series are arriving, like Michael Kessler, Bettina Zimmermann, Axel Milberg, Bettina Lamprecht or Jürgen Tonkel. They pull up in jet-black limousines, take pictures with the scary creatures outside and spurn the scary eyes that are offered. Those are made out of chewing gum. By Munich cinema premiere standards, it’s a rather cozy event, the photographers behave in a civilized manner, the actors are in a chatty mood.
Plays a nasty police chief: Axel Milberg, with his wife Judith.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Axel Milberg, for example, plays a nasty police chief, so he talks about extra nasty role models: “These are superiors who don’t listen carefully, express themselves in a complicated way and end up claiming everything for themselves.” One knows. Bettina Zimmermann talks about the differences to the radio play and her broken fax machine, while Bettina Lamprecht remembers her own bad night stories: “I told my son about the little man in the forest for a long time,” she says, “of course the stories are always good went out.” Only the Cologne actor and comedian Michael Kessler, who was announced as “wonderful and always in a good mood” on stage, is not in such a good mood when he is asked about his experiences with Til Schweiger on the “Manta Manta” set: “No, there I have I don’t feel like it at all now.”
Stop crying, Tommy: A few tears flow later in the evening with series inventor Thomas Krappweis.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
Understandable, Schweiger is a completely different construction site. This is supposed to be about horror figures from Bavaria, and in the end it even gets terribly emotional: After the final applause and the usual praise of the producers, Tommy Krappweis makes a public declaration of love to his wife, who is unable to attend due to illness, via a zoom conference, and even a few tears roll down. The moment is touching and just a little uncomfortable, but comedy-hardened Bettina Lamprecht knows how to save the situation: “Stop crying, Tommy.”