Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein (2012)

Tiffany Blechschmid is inconspicuous, a little superstitious, and single. Although her delicatessen sells homemade fortune cookies, she deeply distrusts luck herself, since every success in her life has so far been followed by a disaster. Tiffany is always getting in her own way with her negative thoughts. One day, Hans Luboschinski, a famous pianist, moves in across the street from the delicatessen. Tiffany and her employees watch with bated breath as a grand piano crashes to the ground and breaks apart. Luboschinski immediately comes over to check that nobody else has been hurt, and Tiffany recognizes him as her childhood piano teacher. This immediately brings back memories of the old days: even as a child, she had felt that everyone else was better than her. Still, she managed to open a shop of her own. When Luboschinski buys a little something and seems not to recognize her after twenty years, she is convinced, just as she was back then, that she is merely average and therefore not memorable. However, she takes it as a good sign that the Roma man begging for alms in the street has survived the war; that must be a stroke of luck. Sure enough, that evening the police officer Frank approaches her and asks her out. He sees her as a princess, but reality—in the form of her late mother—catches up with her very quickly. Her mother appears in her dreams at night to give her a talking-to. She had always wanted to raise her daughter as a vegetarian and disapproved when Tiffany opened a delicatessen. Her mother also accompanies her in her daydreams, appearing at the most inappropriate moments and tormenting her with advice. The next day, Hans Luboschinski visits the delicatessen. Tiffany is surprised to discover that he does recognize her after all. He compliments her and encourages her to play the piano again, but she is immediately reminded of her domineering mother. That evening she has a dinner date with the police officer Frank, who makes serious advances toward her. But he also talks a lot about his job, sees potential crimes everywhere, and gets on her nerves with his excessive preoccupation with safety. So after their date, Tiffany goes back to her apartment alone after all. The next day, the young photographer Thomas Paulson catches her interest when he happens to come into the shop. To avoid giving in to her feelings, she treats him rather coldly, but that does not stop him from inviting her to dinner that evening. She has to turn him down, though, because she already has plans with Frank, whom she takes back to her apartment this time. But she cannot enjoy their intimacy, because her mother appears again and keeps interrupting them. The evening ends unsatisfactorily for both of them, and Frank leaves the apartment after Tiffany, meaning her mother, says aloud, “Get out of my life once and for all.” The next day, Thomas Paulson visits the delicatessen again and complains that Tiffany is in such a bad mood, saying that it does not suit such a beautiful woman. She does not pursue the matter, and Thomas heads back to his photography studio empty-handed. Unexpectedly, Tiffany gets into a conversation with her new neighbor. It turns out to be a very serious one, because Luboschinski clearly has major problems. Tiffany’s landlord, Paul, managed to stop him from attempting suicide. Luboschinski confesses that he did not move back near her by chance. After spending years in America, he had hoped to see Tiffany’s mother again, and is devastated to learn that she has been dead for three years. He had been involved with Tiffany’s mother and had always hoped in vain that she would leave her husband for him. But Tiffany, too, suffers another blow: the police officer Frank accidentally shoots himself while cleaning his gun. She blames herself, thinking it may have happened because of the disastrous evening they had together. Once again, Tiffany is convinced that she somehow magically attracts misfortune. But she also becomes newly aware of how finite life is. At last, she is ready to forgive her father, whom she has not seen for years. When she visits him, they talk things through. She had always blamed him for leaving her and her mother years ago. Now that she knows her mother was the one who had been unfaithful, she finally sees things as they really were. Suddenly, she is able to see the positive side of things and is happy when the Roma man reappears in front of her delicatessen after having been gone for days. Full of energy and in a cheerful mood, she throws herself into her work and starts baking fortune cookies again. When photographer Thomas Paulson orders a large cake from her shop, she personally delivers it to him. She talks without stopping, while Thomas simply listens. And so, in the end, she stumbles upon the greatest happiness of all. Her employees and customers hear just how happy she is when she plays the piano with feeling and joy in the shop. She is no longer single, and at last sees life from the right perspective, no longer looking at it from behind.