Drei D (1988)

Film student Mathias Hinz is making his graduation film at the Munich University of Television and Film (HFF), titled Zwei D, about a film student making his graduation film. The shoot is progressing only very slowly. The film equipment, which is barely adequate because of the tight budget, often breaks down; the crew is amateurish and overwhelmed by the demands of a film-within-a-film production; and Mathias is unhappily in love with Eva, his pretty but talentless leading lady. He falls into a crisis and escapes into daydreams in which he is happy with Eva. He remembers his childhood in the Ruhr region, when he was in love with his older cousin Angelika and watched Godzilla movies at the cinema, and he relives his entrance exam in flashbacks. During the exam, he is unable to answer the examiners’ questions about his opinion of film in general and, more specifically, why he wants to study directing. One day, when Eva arrives on set with a black eye given to her by her boyfriend Robert, Mathias has to change plans for lack of a suitable makeup artist and turn the project, which he had intended as a serious film, into a comedy (“Better a comedy than no film at all.”). Mathias reproaches Eva for not standing up to her boyfriend. He wants to go to the cinema with her, but she would rather spend the time with Robert. So Mathias goes alone to see his great idol Woody Allen’s Play It Again, Sam. After several days in which the production lurches along, a young journalist from a Munich magazine covering contemporary culture wants to interview Mathias. He reluctantly agrees, since he does not understand all the fuss about him or filmmaking in general. He gives Françoise evasive and unsatisfying answers, explaining that he makes films for fun and has no deeper motives or messages he wants to convey. The two therefore stop the interview and sleep together instead. When the crew reviews the footage shot so far and considers it pretty much unusable, Mathias is deeply disheartened. Then Eva tells him that she has only one day left, because her boyfriend has accepted a job in Geneva and she intends to go with him. Mathias is now completely beside himself. He tries to salvage something by rearranging the shooting schedule, but is still convinced that his film was doomed to fail from the outset. He blames Eva, insults her, and drives her away. After she storms off in a huff, he dreams of the Academy Awards, where he beats Francis Ford Coppola, Alan Parker, and Woody Allen to win the award for Best Picture. Finally, he comes to his senses and rushes to the airport, where he catches up with Eva. He apologizes and quotes the final scene from Casablanca and Play It Again, Sam. After Eva boards the plane with Robert and Mathias is left alone, someone suddenly calls “Cut!” from offscreen, revealing that Mathias, too, is merely a character in Sönke Wortmann’s graduation film.