inception
Action thriller, RTL 2, Sunday, 8:15 p.m
If anyone knows about mental cinema, it’s Christopher Nolan. So far, he’s consistently pushed the limits of human imagination in his films. The furious thought experiment from 2010 is about the threshold between illusion and reality, which a professional like Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) apparently takes playfully. He is a specialist in penetrating the subconscious of others and manipulating it for his purposes. Things are different when it comes to his own psyche, he doesn’t act as confidently there. Nolan takes this conflict to a dizzying extreme: entire worlds arise and fall apart before the protagonist’s inner eye, and he ultimately has to ask himself which of them is a dream and which is reality.
clean out
Satire, BR, Sunday night, midnight
When carnival was still relevant and meaningful: 40 years ago, Gerhard Polt took the foolish time as an opportunity for a tough social criticism. The story of forklift driver Ferdinand Weitel (Polt himself) who was ripped off by the insurance company is a slap in the face. Desperately he runs after his money in a Kafkaesque way on Shrove Tuesday, while the company’s employees and managers only have celebrations in mind. Of course, it’s also up to them, that’s the logic of Polt’s portrayal of morals. The merrymaking brings out the worst in people, including brute force. Although humor is of course not lacking, the cabaret master’s first feature film is his most bitter work. After all, Ferdinand Weitel forms a pretty couple with secretary Annerose Waguscheit (Gisela Schneeberger).
Clueless – What else!
Love Comedy, RTL 2, Saturday, 8:15 p.m
What does Alicia Silverstone actually do? In the early 1990s, she starred in rock band Aerosmith’s memorable music videos (such as ‘Crazy’ in 1993), earning her a cult lead two years later. Amy Heckerling cast the Californian as a teenage matchmaker in the tradition of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, the novel based on the comedy. However, the spoiled Cher doesn’t ply her trade among English landed gentry, but at a high school in Beverly Hills. The matchmaking principle remains the same, and it works because Heckerling captures the world of young people with wit, heart and mind. Reese Witherspoon also made her way in with wits Naturally blond (RTL 2, Saturday, 10:05 p.m.). Today she is one of the most powerful women in Hollywood.
Topkapi
Comedy, RBB, Saturday, 11:30 p.m
Peter Ustinov was always a bit clumsy, even as the astute master detective Hercule Poirot in the Agatha Christie films. In his role as good-natured petty crook Arthur, his clumsiness is even more pronounced. He has no idea what is happening to him when two overconfident burglars (Maximilian Schell and Melina Mercouri) recruit him for their latest coup. The goal is a valuable dagger in a museum in Istanbul. They only rely on amateurs so that the police don’t get wind of the matter. Which of course remains a pious wish. Like all Heist Movies, this one by Jules Dassin from 1964 thrives on the sophistication and coolness of the thieves. But more than with stylish gangsters like Ocean & Co., there is always the danger that everything could go wrong.