Jazzclub - Der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm (2004)

The film depicts the everyday life of fishmonger Teddy Schu. To keep himself and his wife, Jacqueline, afloat, he also has to work for the Señora Fuck agency under the name Rodriguez Faszanatas as a male escort, as well as delivering newspapers in the early hours of the morning. In the evenings, he sometimes meets a nameless homeless man who has lost his memory beneath a bridge, and they philosophize about the hopelessness of everyday life. Teddy’s relationship with his wife is in ruins. She accuses him of being a talentless good-for-nothing and visits the office hours of a brilliant psychologist, Professor Henry. In the pedestrian zone, Schu keeps encountering a down-at-heel seller of adhesive bandage tape, who confronts reality with a stubborn “Bandage tape! Two meters for two marks!” Teddy, however, prefers to spend his scant free time with his friends, drummer Howard and bassist Steinberg. Together they form a jazz trio and play night after night in a small jazz club, almost always to empty seats and without pay, since the club is threatened with closure. The three friends’ dream of one day playing with the great (fictional) jazz drummer Earl Mobileh seems unattainable. Then Willi, the jazz club’s owner, dies of an alcohol overdose, and jazz music seems finished for good. A ray of hope in the form of the business card of music producer Mies van de Kalb, who has taken an interest in the trio, is dashed when he cannot be reached by phone. Desperate for money, Steinberg decides to sell his beloved double bass—his “Lady”—but in the end he cannot bring himself to do it. They meet in the homeless man’s “apartment” beneath the arch of the bridge and discuss what to do next. Suddenly, a UFO lands right in front of them. Its occupants—dull-witted, laughing green aliens—invite the trio, along with the homeless man and Theo, Willi’s simple-minded brother, to accompany them to their planet and make music there. On the way there, the homeless man regains his memory: he is Earl Mobileh.