Germany: A Summer's Fairytale (2006)

In summer, I watched the World Championship with enthusiasm. Having heard that director Sönke Wortmann were with the German team and would make a movie, I was really interested and expected fascinating impressions "from back office". But the result is disappointing: Jürgen Klinsmann is shouting and motivating the team all the time, the players are really engaged, joking around or answering simple questions and the games are repeated once again in short versions with all goals. But there are no views on the players' relations (except the competition between Lehmann and Kahn), moments of conflicts or controversies have found no way into the movie (perhaphs, there was nothing than harmony...) and no one in the film is really portrayed as an individual. The movie is an documentary which could have been made by any DFB official (German Football Association) who wants to produce a big seized promotion video. Maybe, Sönke Wortmann earns enough money to work on a better movie in the following time...

I saw this movie on Friday and I found it to be very amusing and interesting. I consider myself as a huge fan so I was thrilled to see a halftime speak of the coach during a game or how the team management successfully created a brilliant team spirit. Meanwhile people in the cinema cheered when Germany scored or Lehmann saved a penalty, it was a little bit like during the world cup. Wortmann did a great job in silently observing the German team, so you really felt as you were a part of this whole great event. Finally I'd like to say that everybody that enjoy the world cup as much as I did and who took part in the whole public viewing thing should go and watch this movie. It brings back the feelings and memories of the wonderful (soccer) summer. It was really a summer-fairy tail.

I remember watching sort of a similar movie concerning France winning the WC in 1998. It was a phenomenal movie and I thought, french players are something special in terms of still being in a "growing-up" phase, making fun with others and just having a good time while earning their money.This movie is great, it reveals, that all of this guys, even though most of them a millionaires, are still humans, who live their life like u and me. Although I am half German too, I never thought my fellow men could behave like the multicultural team of France, but they do ! I think u get a great view of the German Team, if u don't already know it. If you watch this movie, i think you will understand, why this Team had such a great success. Wortmann shows and mixture of guys, who perfectly match up. Young guns like Schweinsteiger and Podolski, making jokes all the time, just like the young boys do, when I go out of my house and ol' "rabbits" (Thats the way we call it in Germany) like Nowotny and Kahn, supporting the Team whenever they can.The movie makes you feel connected to these guys, because it takes away some prejudices and wipes away the cut and dried opinions of them working wonders. Jürgen Klinsmann puts up the same statements like a 7th league coach, talking to a defender ("He will smell your breath all the time, Arne!").In a nutshell, after watching the movie, I think if I would meet Podolski on the street court next to my house, and if he really had time for it, he would never reject playing some One on One soccer games with me and joking about passing girls ..

Wortmann's "Deutschland. Ein Sommermärchen" does not really contain anything you would've missed watching the World Cup on TV (in Germany), it does not contribute additional in-depth information about tactics or any other part of the German team's methods - yet it does a good job at summing up an event millions won't forget. Its arguably strongest scene is right at the beginning, showing the team crushed in the dressing room right after losing the semi-finals to Italy. Other than that it follows the German team throughout the 2006 World Cup, showing many nice anecdotes and avoiding any criticism of the team itself, true to Klinsmann's spirit.