Rabbit Without Ears

Rabbit Without Ears (German title: Keinohrhasen, lit. "No Ear Rabbits"), is a 2007 German romantic comedy film, written, produced and directed by Til Schweiger. Co-written by Anika Decker, [1] and starring Nora Tschirner and Schweiger himself, the plot revolves around yellow press reporter Ludo and his ex-classmate Anna, who reconnect after many years when he is sentenced to 300 hours of community service at her day-care facility.

Rabbit Without Ears
(Keinohrhasen)
German promotional picture
Directed byTil Schweiger
Written byTil Schweiger
Anika Decker
Produced byTil Schweiger
Thomas Zickler
StarringTil Schweiger
Nora Tschirner
Edited byCharles Ladmiral
Music byStefan Hansen
Dirk Reichardt
Mirko Schaffer
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
SevenOne International
Release date
  • 20 December 2007 (2007-12-20)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman
Budget€4,200,000
Box office$74,000,000

Produced by Barefoot Films and Warner Bros., the film premiered in theaters across Germany on 20 December 2007, and became a surprise box-office hit, eventually grossing $74,000,000, mostly from its domestic run. By 20 April 2008, Keinohrhasen had reached over six million viewers, ranking it sixth on the list of the most successful German films in Germany since the beginning of the audience census in 1968.[2] Also a critical success,[3] the film was awarded the Goldene Leinwand, a Bogey Award, the Deutscher Comedypreis and a Bambi and received a nomination for the Audience Award at the European Film Awards 2008.[4]

A sequel, entitled Rabbit Without Ears 2, was released on 3 December 2009.

Plot

Ludo Decker (Schweiger) is a Berlin-based yellow press reporter. With photographer Moritz, his daily routine is to spy on celebrities for the tabloid Das Blatt. He also uses his work for frequent sexual contacts with his objects of interest.

Ludo and Moritz are on scene at the engagement party of heavyweight boxer and celebrity Wladimir Klitschko and Yvonne Catterfeld. As Klitschko raises his glass to toast his fiancée, Ludo breaks through the glass dome roof and tumbles into the cake, to the great consternation of the guests. For this offense he is sentenced to three hundred hours of community service at a local Kindergarten (daycare).

There he encounters Kindergarten director Anna Gotzlowski (Tschirner), who grew up in the same neighborhood as Ludo and frequently endured his pranks and mockery. She exacts revenge for these childhood torments by assigning him to perform humiliating tasks. With his parole at stake, Ludo has no choice but to comply. Nevertheless, he remains interested in one-night stands and has an affair with Nina, mother of Cheyenne Blue, one of the children in his charge.

Eventually tensions between Anna and Ludo dissipate and the two become friends. When Anna's date with another man goes awry, she appears at Ludo's flat seeking comfort. The two of them end up in bed, yet Anna's hopes that this will develop into something more serious are dashed, as Ludo sees her only as a friend. Anna subsequently meets actor Jürgen Vogel in a park and starts dating him. When she accompanies Vogel to the German Film Awards ceremony, Ludo reports that she is the most beautiful woman in attendance, instead of covering female celebrities his editor-in-chief deems more newsworthy. The editor summarily fires him.

Ludo comes to realize that he feels more for Anna than he had previously thought. During a children's festival at a local theatre, he crashes a performance and professes his love for her, as sits in the audience with the children. Having lost his job at the tabloid, he takes a position at the Kindergarten.

Cast

Soundtrack

Music from the Motion Picture album

Keinohrhasen
Soundtrack album by
various artists
Released7 December 2007
GenrePop, rock, film music
Length68:47
LabelUniversal Music
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
CDStars[7]

Track listing

  1. "Mr. Brightside" (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix) (The Killers) – 8:48
  2. "Deepest Blue" (Deepest Blue) – 3:24
  3. "Is It Love" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 2:18
  4. "Anna & Ludo – Hold Me Now" (Rea Garvey) – 1:47
  5. "Springtimes" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 2:56
  6. "Lifeline" (Angels & Airwaves) – 4:16
  7. "Autumn Leaves" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:42
  8. "Everybody's Changing" (Keane) – 3:35
  9. "Looking for Atlantis" (Prefab Sprout) – 4:03
  10. "Rain" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:18
  11. "I Still Remember" (Bloc Party) – 4:20
  12. "Liquid" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:43
  13. "Everything's Magic" (Angels & Airwaves) – 3:51
  14. "Some Time" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:59
  15. "Sad Song" (Au Revoir Simone) – 4:07
  16. "Apologize (Timbaland presents OneRepublic) – 3:04
  17. "A Rainy Day in Vancouver" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:38
  18. "Rocket Brothers" (Kashmir) – 5:27
  19. "Perfect Circle" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 2:57
  20. "Cheyenne Blue" (Stefan Hansen, Dirk Reichardt, Mirko Schaffer) – 1:40
  21. "Der Zauberlehrling" (Junge Dichter & Denker) – 3:54

Charts

Chart (2007)Peak
position
Austrian Albums Chart[8] 13
European Top 100 Albums[9] 14
German Albums Chart[8] 2
Swiss Albums Chart[8] 46

Year-end charts

Chart (2008) Rank
German Albums Chart[10] 17

Certifications

Country Certifications
(sales thresholds)
Germany Platinum[11]

The title

While doing handicraft at the daycare centre, Ludo sews a stuffed rabbit without ears. As Anna criticises him for it, he points at the fact that another rabbit made by the child Cheyenne-Blue has no ears as well. Anna thereupon claims that it is a Keinohrhase, a no-ears rabbit, which is able to hear through its nose. This scene was also used for the first teaser trailer.

A rare earless rabbit born in February 2012 at a zoo in Limbach-Oberfrohna, Saxony was named "Til", in reference to this film's title and its director. The baby rabbit was accidentally crushed when a television cameraman stepped on him, an event that was briefly the subject of international media coverage.[12][13][14]

American remake

In January 2010, Schweiger sold the rights for the US remake of Keinohrhasen to Newmarket Entertainment; he stated he hoped to direct the film and engage Ben Affleck as leading man.[15]

Awards

  • 2008: Goldene Leinwand mit Stern for more than 6 million viewers
  • 2008: Bogey Awards in gold for 3 million viewers within 30 days
  • 2008: Ernst Lubitsch Prize
  • 2010: Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival[16]

References

  1. "German Screenwriter Anika Decker Wins Residual Lawsuit Against Til Schweiger, Warner Bros". Hollywood Reporter.
  2. "Keinohrhasen feiert sechs Millionen Zuschauer". Kinozeit. 21 April 2008. Archived from the original on 16 October 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2008.
  3. Carsten Baumgardt. "Keinohrhasen review". Filmstarts (in German). Retrieved 29 December 2008.
  4. "Awards for Keinohrhasen". IMDb. Retrieved 29 December 2008.
  5. "Film". Official website. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  6. "Prouktion". Official website. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
  7. "Soundtrack – Keinohrhasen – Musik (CD)". CDstarts.de. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  8. "Keinohrhasen Performance". A-Charts.us. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  9. "Chart Archive". Billboard.biz. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  10. Archived 18 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Archive index at the Wayback Machine
  12. Scally, Derek (19 March 2012). "Curse of fame strikes again as earless rabbit is crushed". Irish Times. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  13. "Til Bunny Dead: Cameraman Steps On German Celebrity Rabbit, Animal Meets Untimely Demise". Huffington Post. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  14. "Rare Bunny With No Ears Crushed by Cameraman". Spiegel Online International. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  15. Meza, Ed (25 February 2010). "Schweiger aims for U.S". Variety.
  16. Archived 19 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
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