Two Germany filmmakers have both lashed out at film critics in their home country questioning their relevance, and sheer importance to the film medium after endless bashing on their projects "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," and "Mein Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler."
I'm not entirely sure what the etiquette is over in Germany in regards to the film industry and Germany. Are film critics more or less in tune with filmmakers, or are they average Joes who love film like yours truly?
Regardless, German filmmakers and producers have lashed at film critics bashing them and their elitism insisting they have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to film.
"Do we even need them, these elite self-promoters who turn pirouettes around our films?" Guenter Rohrbach, producer of "Das Boot" wrote. "Is the meager praise they occasionally give worth all the suffering they inflict, all the damage they do to us?"
Rohrbach's lashing out was prompted after his two films "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" and Dani Levy's comedy "Mein Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler" were bashed mercilessly by film critics in spite of the high box office grossing.
"Perfume" isn't faring too well either here, in the States, where it's received mixed reviews, most of which have bordered on pure hatred by many critics from reputable print, and online review circuits.
In spite of the sheer endless bashing on both films, "Perfume" and "Mein Fuhrer" have done well at the box office, selling more than 5.5 Million tickets. Rohrbach pleads his case of outrage, referring to critics in Germany with derogatory terms such as "autistic" and "elitist."
But the bigger issue is merely much more misconceptions on both filmmakers, and critics.
Levy, director of "Mein Fuhrer" insists that critics in Germany have done the film harm, while Rohrbach insists the films are hits so the critics are impossibly out of tune with modern audiences. In actuality, box office has no bearing on a films quality, and it's been proven that critical response, good or bad, does not affect box office performance.
While, it's understandable for both artists to protect their projects, their fears are utterly misguided, as proven by much of the States' same series of affairs.
If you remember, critics bashed the teen thriller 'The Covenant,' the dance romance 'Step Up,' and the awful comedy 'Little Man' mercilessly, yet all three films earned impressive box office and home video numbers. While films like 'Children of Men,' 'The Queen,' and 'The Descent' were praised endlessly without making much of a large dent in the box office.
Josef Schnelle, president of Germany's association of film critics concurs stating "When it comes to big-budget or Hollywood films, the critics have virtually no influence on the box office because," he says, "the audience for these films rarely read reviews."
Sad, but very true.