''Surprise!'' is a 1995 short film by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

director

Veit Helmer Veit Helmer (born 24 April 1968) is a German film director and screenwriter. He started shooting films at the age of fourteen. After finishing school he was trainee at German TV station NDR. Two month before the wall came down, he moved to East-Be ...

. The film had 48 festival invitations and 26 awards, including a Golden Space Needle award at the 1995

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is a film festival held annually in Seattle, Washington, United States, since 1976. It usually takes place in late May and/or early June. It is one of the largest festivals in the world, and feature ...

. The story centers on a

Rube Goldberg Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), better known as Rube Goldberg (), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated ...

device.

Plot

A man gets up in the morning before his girlfriend, still asleep naked in bed. He begins to set up various devices.. When he leaves the house, he sets off several fuses that put the devices in motion. The woman is catapulted out of bed, showered, dressed and taken to the breakfast table, where coffee is automatically poured for her and toast flies onto her plate. A crossbow opens the breakfast egg and a device delivers a photo of the man containing a love message. However, the woman is not very impressed as most of the actions have gone wrong.

Production

Interviewing Helmer for ''Filmmaker'', Nick Dawson recalls that the first "studied at Munich’s School of Television and Film, and made quirky shorts throughout his time there" including what he calls the "highly inventive ''Surprise!"''.

Reception

A contemporary Italian reviewer judged that "the taste, in (their) personal opinion, (was) a little too heavy German style". The film has been described as "quirky".

Screening and awards

Filmdienst ''Filmdienst'' (also spelled ''Film-Dienst'') is the oldest German-language film magazine, with fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days" ...

'' recalls the short has received 32 awards while the Danish journal ''Kosmorama'' numbers 130 screenings in festivals (for more than 40 awards garnered).

References

External links

1995 films German drama short films {{Short-film-stub ja:Surprise!