Oh Boy: A Coffee in Berlin

Slight addition 11-24-21, another small addition, a note about the psychologist, 3-30-22

 

 

I love this 2012 German film with English subtitles. It's original title, "Oh Boy," was changed to "A Coffee in Berlin" only for its release in the United States in 2014. Tom Schilling is superb in the role of the main character, Niko Fischer, and he won the German Film Award (Deutscher Filmpreis) for best actor (this is the German equivalent to the American Academy Awards), and the movie itself won the German best movie award. There is great music throughout the movie, mainly jazz, and the music score also won the German Film Award.

 

Main Cast: 

Tom Schilling as Niko Fischer

Marc Hosemann as Matze

Katharina Schüttler as Elli

Justus von Dohnányi as Karl Speckenbach

Andreas Schröders as the psychologist

Friederike Kempter as Julika Hoffmann 

Katharina Hauck as the coffee shop employee

Arnd Klawitter as Phillip Rauch (actor at the filming site)

Inga Birkenfeld as the actress at the film site

Ulrich Noethen as Walter Fischer (Niko's father)

Michael Gwisdek as Friedrich (older man in the bar)

Theo Trebs as Marcel (the drug dealer)

Sanna Schnapp as the nurse 

Leander Modersohn as Schneider (the father's assistant)

Frederick Lau as Ronny (one of the drunken guys on the street)

Jakob Bieber as Kevin (one of the drunken guys on the street) 

Martin Brambach as train ticket inspector 1

R(olf) P(eter) Kahl as train inspector 2

Lis Böttner as Frau Baumann (Marcel's grandmother)

Steffen Jürgens as Ralf (the author of the stage play with Julika)

 

This film, set in Berlin, is a sort of dramedy with many funny moments about a day in the life of Niko Fischer, a young guy in his late 20s who is unfocused, sulky, brooding and unhappy; otherwise, he's okay. haha! We all have our bad days and we sometimes feel sorry for ourselves, and to me, some of the things in Niko's life on this day help us relate to him. Probably most of us have had people tell us that regardless of what we might be going through at any point in our lives, that there is always someone having a worse time of it. While I've never really felt much comfort in that thought, there is often some truth to it, and Niko, and hopefully all of us, see this truth near the end of the picture, as our perceptions of "bad" are centered around ourselves (no matter how trivial), and not often, if ever, around what is happening to others (no matter how serious). 

 

Nothing really fires Niko up about life; at least, not on a long term basis. Perhaps the best German term I can think of for Niko is "grüblerisch," sort of, "thoughtful in a brooding, melancholy way" (see Word History below). The young man's life comes to be represented by his struggles to get a cup of coffee (you DID read that right), yet he doesn't know how close he is to getting the coffee. The thing is, he misses his chance for the symbolically satisfying cup of coffee when he makes excuses to his girlfriend, a sweet, caring person, so that he won't have to see her again later (she had offered to make him coffee). It doesn't take the Berlin Wall to fall on her, and the young woman angrily leaves the room, ending their relationship. Ah, well the Berlin Wall had already come down, so maybe I need to rethink that line? During the course of this one day, Niko comes into contact with people with their own problems and eccentricities, just like their city, Berlin, and its history. Niko's father is financially well off and he worked to get to that position, but he also seemingly never had many, if any, heart to heart talks with his son to get an understanding of the boy. Niko's father transfers a good sum of money to his son's bank account every month, because the boy had been studying law, but Niko quit school two years before and he didn't let his father know that he had dropped out, fearing that the money would stop flowing into his bank account.

 

Niko is moving into a new apartment, and as he carries in some of his belongings, a man is sitting in the stairway watching him. The two men simply speak to one another. Inside his new apartment, Niko takes a moment to look into some of the boxes he has just brought in, and he looks at some pictures of himself and his (now former) girlfriend vacationing in Paris. Niko showers and goes into the kitchen and uses the toaster to light a cigarette. Niko is so unfocused, although he's a smoker, throughout the picture he always has to get a light from others. He starts opening his mail, which he obviously hasn't done for some time, given the quantity. He seriously reads one piece of mail and he quickly dashes around the kitchen, clearly conveying the message that he's late for an appointment. He meets with a psychologist who is to determine if he should have his driver's license returned after it was confiscated for his driving under the influence of alcohol. The psychologist asks Niko some questions about his life which prove to ruffle Niko's feathers: how he gets along with his parents, whether he is in a relationship, whether he is gay, if his short height bothers him, and Niko's attitude brings the psychologist to turn down the reinstatement of his driver's license; so, public transportation it is. (NOTE: The psychologist could use a ... ah, psychologist.)

 

Niko stops at a coffee shop for a cup of coffee, and the scene should get at least a chuckle from most people. Niko simply orders a cup of regular black coffee, but the waitress-clerk tries to sell him the special of the day, which includes a doughnut or a sweet roll, but Niko tells her he just wants a cup of coffee. Then she asks what kind of coffee, to which he answers, "Just regular." That still doesn't get him coffee, because she explains they have two kinds of coffee that are like "regular," one a Colombian and one an Arabica. Niko tries to be patient and he asks her which one tastes more like regular, but obviously he's still not said the magic word, as she tells him she likes both, so he finally says "Colombian." She makes the coffee and she asks if he wants milk, and he declines, but then she asks if he wants soy milk, which brings another decline. She tells him the amount, and it is above the typical amount for coffee, so he tells her this, but she replies, "You chose Colombian" (the implication being that Colombian costs more), to which he says, "You could have mentioned that." Niko counts out his money and he is a little short (ah, besides his height), and he asks if she will accept the lesser amount as an exception. The owner is sitting a short distance away and he shakes his head to indicate "no." The girl tells Niko if they make an exception, that every bum will want to pay less than full price. Niko is stunned by her terminology and he repeats the word "Bum?' (She uses the word "Penner," one of the German words for bum). Niko takes his money and leaves. 

  

Niko goes to an ATM (GERMAN: Geldautomat). This scene is hilarious, and I literally laughed out loud. A few feet away from the ATM a homeless man is sleeping, and he has a cup sitting out for passersby to drop in change. Niko decides to give the homeless man the money he took back at the coffee shop, and he drops the coins into the cup, but when he puts his card into the bank machine, the machine eats his card! Now he's got NO MONEY! In a moment of utter disgust, he looks around, and he glances down at the homeless man's cup. Niko decides to get his change back, so he tries to be inconspicuous as he moves over to the cup and squats down to get his money. He puts his hand into the cup, but a lady comes up, stops, and just glares down at him. Niko drops the coins back into the cup and leaves, even poorer for having been there. hahahaha! The thing is, we see that Niko has some sense of awareness about people in need, but he then got caught being the bad guy as he sought to undo his good deed. Remember too, he is taking money from his father under a false pretense. By the way, Niko calls his father for help about the bank machine having taken his card, but he has to wait for his father to return the call.

 

Niko goes home and he hears a noise on the stairway and he then catches a glimpse of the man he had seen earlier on the stairs. Niko goes into his apartment and lies down, and the door buzzer sounds. When he opens the door, it's the man from the stairway, who tells Niko he is a neighbor from upstairs. He presents Niko with a bowl of meatballs (Fleischbällchen) made by his wife as a sort of welcoming gift for Niko's move into the building. The man introduces himself as Karl Speckenbach and he keeps peeping into Niko's apartment from the doorway. Niko really doesn't want to be bothered with the guy, and he nicely tells him since he has just moved in, he has nothing to offer him to drink. Karl quickly pulls out a bottle of liquor, so he and Niko have a drink inside and the pushy Karl looks around the apartment, even looking into boxes still packed with Niko's belongings. Karl tells Niko of his basement room that is set up with entertainment devices to watch soccer and to play games. The two chat a little, but when Niko asks if Karl and his wife have any kids, the man turns serious and tells Niko that his wife had breast cancer 5 years before and that he and his wife don't have sex anymore. He tells Niko she had to have both breasts removed, and that he just can't be intimate with his wife anymore, so she just cooks and cooks and cooks. Karl begins to sob and Niko asks him if he has talked with friends about his situation, but he indicates he doesn't have anyone to talk with. Niko somewhat awkwardly tries to comfort him, and Karl finally leaves. Niko flushes the meatballs down the toilet and he gets a call from his friend Matze, a sometimes actor, who wants to land a big important role, but who hasn't paid his dues by moving up the ranks. Needless to say, Matze is often unemployed. 

 

The two friends go to a restaurant where Matze eats up a storm, including using a butter knife to get ketchup out of the bottom of a bottle, and squeezing the little packets of mayo until the mayo is all over his hand. Niko orders a coffee, only to be told that the machine is broken. A young woman sits down nearby and she and Niko look at one another, but for different reasons. He finds her attractive, but she actually recognizes Niko, and she calls him by name. She comes over to the table and refreshes Niko's memory that the two of them went to school together in their young teenage years, a time when she was much overweight, and that Niko and others made fun of her size. Her name is Julika, and she tells how Niko and other kids called her "Julika Schmulika" (it equates to English "Big Bertha" or "roly poly"). She said she often felt really bad about herself and that she attempted suicide. Julika has slimmed down in the years since school, and she tells Niko and Matze that she is an actress; and in fact, she invites them to a theater that evening where she will be appearing in a live performance. She will leave two free tickets at the box office for them. She also tells Niko that she had a crush on him when they were in school, in spite of how he humiliated her about her weight. 

 

Matze takes Niko to a site where a low-budget film is being shot and where he personally knows the main actor, Phillip Rauch. Once there, Matze wants to see if he can perhaps get a part in the picture; after all, some income beats no income. Matze's friend is playing a World War Two officer who is in love with a Jewish woman whom he hides from the Nazis in his basement. In the meantime, Niko goes to a table on the set with a coffee dispenser, but when he tries to pour a cup of coffee, the dispenser is empty; so frustrated again, he walks away, and seconds later a young man brings over a new full dispenser of coffee, so Niko misses out again. While at the movie set, Niko's father returns his call, and Niko lies to him by saying that he's at the library (implying that he's studying). His father sets up a meeting with Niko at a golf course, and when Niko arrives there, his father introduces Niko as his favorite son to his new assistant, Schneider. Niko interjects that he's his father's only son, but his father says that's not a known certainty. Later, Niko's father tells his son (ah, the known son) that Schneider has already received his law degree, and that he is slightly younger than Niko (ouch!). Niko's golf game is awful and his father criticizes Niko and tries to correct his mistakes. Afterward, the three go to the restaurant at the golf course. Niko orders coffee, but his father says it's too late for coffee, and the father insists they have schnapps. Mr. Fischer sends Schneider to get the car and he then tells Niko that, by chance, he met Niko's law professor at a recent meeting in Zurich. The father bluntly asks Niko why he has been lying to him about school and he asks further, what Niko has been doing for two years since he quit law school. Niko meekly answers that he's been thinking about himself, his father and everything. The father goes down a list of things Niko started in his life, but then dropped, with law school now added to the list. The father tells Niko he closed his bank account (that's why the machine took the card), but he gives his son some money, tells him to clean up and to get a job like others, and he leaves with the parting words that he feels the best way to help his son is to stop helping him. 

Matze picks up Niko and on their way to the theater to see Julika's play, Matze stops at the house of a young drug dealer named Marcel. They meet the dealer's elderly grandmother, who seems oblivious to what her grandson is doing. She is kind and offers to fix sandwiches. As Marcel sells to Matze, Niko goes to talk with the the grandmother in another room, where she sits all alone. She is sitting in a nice reclining armchair, and she tells Niko that her grandson bought it for her. She has Niko sit in the chair to see how comfortable it is, and then she even has him tilt back, and Niko closes his eyes, as the old lady now sits on the couch. Matze comes for Niko, who gives the old lady a hug before he leaves. She kindly tells Niko to take care of himself.   

 

Later on, Matze and Niko go to the theater, although the performance has already started. The man at the box office finds the tickets and lets them go in. The audience is not terribly happy about the two men coming in late and interrupting their view of the show. This isn't your typical play, but a modern interpretive piece where Julika seems to devour herself and then vomits. The scene brings laughter from Matze, which draws a scowl from the author of the play. Afterwards, the author makes it pretty clear that he doesn't like it when others aren't as understanding and enlightened as he sees himself. Niko goes outside to smoke a cigarette (he has to stop a couple walking by to get a light). Julika comes out, but some drunken young men approach and begin to harass her. Niko tries to avert a physical confrontation with the young guys, but Julika goes right at the main guy, and when Niko tries to step in, he is knocked to the ground. Julika humiliates the seeming leader of the band of men. Niko and Julika go inside and Julika tends to his injuries, and she tells him that while he got knocked down, at least he stepped in and tried to help her. This all leads to a situation of "near" sex between the two former schoolmates, but Julika wants Niko to say humiliating things to her, and Niko stops the whole situation, which brings Julika to order him to leave, which he does. Her past still haunts her.

 

It is later in the evening, and Niko walks around Berlin and he decides to go into a bar. He asks if they still have coffee, but the bartender tells him they have already cleaned the coffee machine for the day, so Niko orders a beer and a shot of vodka. In a powerful scene, an elderly man comes up to him telling Niko how he doesn't understand people in modern times. At first Niko is disinterested and asks to be left alone, but the man persists and he begins to get the young man's attention, as he tells him he is from this very neighborhood, and how decades before he learned to ride a bicycle by first falling on his face numerous times. Eventually the older man tells Niko, and the nearby bartender, that he has been gone from this neighborhood for a long time, but that when he was a child, his father came into the house one night and told him to come outside with him. Once outside, the father picked up a stone and shoved it into his son's hand and then told him to throw it. The father too threw a stone that smashed a window of a business at the very spot where the bar is now. The old man continues to tell how the street was full of people throwing stones at businesses that night, and that fires were set in some shops. Sometimes as we look back on our lives, we see and understand things much differently than we did when these things actually happened, especially if the events happened when we were children. The elderly man who witnessed Kristallnacht* that night long ago as a little boy tells Niko how he was not concerned with Nazi hooligans and complicit Berliners and how they affected the lives of his then neighbors, but rather he was upset that he wouldn't be able to ride his bicycle in all of the broken glass. (Note: That was a child's perspective of that night, but sadly we've allowed generations after Hitler and Mussolini to continue slipping away from how important it is to understand those times. Even worse, some people have not just failed to understand that, but they have become rock throwers themselves, and complicit in evil. And some have perverted religion and allowed themselves to be manipulated in the pursuit of political agendas.)

 

The old man gets up and goes out the door, but he collapses onto the sidewalk. Niko rushes out to him and the bartender calls for an ambulance. Niko goes to the hospital emergency room with the man, and he waits for any information about the man's condition. He goes to a coffee vending machine, inserts the money and presses the button, but the machine displays "out of order" (German: ausser Betrieb). Niko lies down and falls asleep on one of the benches in the waiting room. Finally a nurse comes out, awakens him and tells Niko that the old man has passed away. She says he had no known family, but she tells Niko his first name was Friedrich. Niko is sad, but we next see him, 24 hours after we first met him, sitting drinking a cup of coffee.                    

 

* Kristallnacht was the term given to a highly evil act of Nazi persecution against German Jews, as it shifted Nazi persecution to outright physical violence against Jews, and German law enforcement did not intervene to halt it. "Kristallnacht" literally means "crystal night," but it's underlying meaning for this Nazi evil was because of the broken glass from the Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, and how the glass shards sparkled in the night from the fires set to Jewish properties. Kristallnacht was the prelude to names that have come to symbolize far greater evil: Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno, Babi Yar, Dachau, Buchenwald and unfortunately far too many more. 

For more on "Kristallnacht," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-twenty_03.html

 

 

Photo is of the Music Box Films 2014 U.S. DVD release ...

WORD HISTORY:

Grave-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this is for the noun and the related, but now antiquated, verb (the adjective form meaning "serious, solemn," is unrelated and I'll try to cover it in the near future). "Grave" is related to "grub," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "groove," another word of Germanic derivation, and likely right from the Germanic roots of English, but perhaps borrowed into Old English from one of the closely related Germanic cousins of English in northwestern Europe, like Old Dutch, Old Frisian or Old Saxon. The verb form is now antiquated, as its expanded form, "engrave," essentially replaced it, although "engrave" lost the actual "to dig" sense, as "engrave" means "to carve, scratch or cut into a surface" (its German cousin is "eingraben," which means "to dig in, to entrench"). "Grave" goes back to Indo European "ghrebh," which meant "to dig, to scratch, to scrape," and this gave Old Germanic the verb "grabanan," meaning "to dig, to scratch," and this produced the Old Germanic noun "graba" which meant "a hole made for a dead body, a tomb." There seems to have been a strong variant that developed in the Old Germanic form that replaced the "b" in several forms with an "f"; thus, "grafa." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "græf," meaning "a hole dug as a place of burial, a grave." This then became "grafe" and then "grave." Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Grab" (pronounced "grahp/grawp," the capital 'G' is because all standard German and Low German nouns are capitalized), Low German has "Graff," Dutch has "graf," West Frisian has "grêf," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "grav," and Icelandic has "gröf." All mean "grave," or sometimes "tomb." NOTE: The German word "grüblerisch" means "thoughtful in a brooding, melancholy way," and I mentioned it in the article above. It is related to "grave." It is from the German verb "grübeln," meaning "to brood, to think over strenuously and seriously," and its ancestor originally was derived from the same Old Germanic form that gave German the modern verb "graben," meaning "to dig," and which gave English "grave," the noun, and also originally the verb, which then became "engrave." The original notion of the German verb "grübeln" was "to dig around into, to dig or bore into," and this provided the figurative meaning of "digging into one's mind, think things over."