Heiners Filmseiten – How I Taught Myself to Be a Child (en)

How I Taught Myself to Be a Child (Wie ich lernte, bei mir selbst Kind zu sein)

Original title: Wie ich lernte, bei mir selbst Kind zu sein

Tragicomedy – Austria, Germany
Production year: 2017
Movie length: 135 minutes

Director: Rupert Henning
Writer: Uli Brée, Rupert Henning, André Heller
Cinematograph: Josef Mittendorfer
Music: Kyrre Kvam

Movie description:

Paul Silberstein, youngest son of an urbane but deeply strange old Austrian dynasty of confectionery millionaires, discovers the power of love and humor – and also his own extraordinary ability to shape his realities.

Paul Silberstein lives with his affluent family in a prestigious villa in Vienna. His Jewish father, Roman, owns a sweets factory, has converted to Catholicism, suffered under the Nazis, and is addicted to opium. His mother Emma copes with this husband while staying in the background. The older brother Johannes makes plans to work for Uncle Theo in Copenhagen. During school vacation, Paul fails to convince his parents that his Catholic boys’ boarding school is not the right education. Back at school, he squirms under the impaling eyes of the priests, witnesses his comrades suffering physical punishments, and hides in a secret room in the attic where he writes in his diary. His parents teach »Love your father and your mother«. The priests seem to know the entire Bible by heart, which they quote repeatedly. Paul lives by his own Commandment, namely, »I have other plans for myself«. He survives this pressing life by escaping into a fantasy world. He writes love letters to a young girl on a white horse and throws them out the window. But does she really exist? Eventually Paul capitulates to this daily pressure; he lies in bed, refusing to eat or talk. Luckily, his mother rescues him from the boarding school, announcing that »father has died«. At the funeral Paul meets Uncle Bel, Uncle Monte, and Uncle Lewis, who advise him about life, according to their own experiences: having an orgasm, what really happened during the war, etc. His mother turns into the original merry widow.

Boy Actors