Sugar Baby (1985) User Reviews

OK, not a great film, but...

[jonr-3 · 7/10 · 23 February 2004]

...still, there's something about this movie that is extremely appealing. The strange, offbeat colors underscore the fantasy nature of the story. For the first twenty minutes or so, I just watched with wide-eyed disbelief, expecting something atrocious to happen; then as the story developed I found myself drawn into an unexpectedly tender and touching, yet still fantastic, affair. When the film was over, I found myself reflecting on the characters' motivations and personalities. Trivial films don't have that effect.

Not trivial, then--but not wonderful, either, in any conventional way. Too specialized? I don't know. I plan to watch it again. It's worth that.

I gave it a vote of "seven."

Very sad and funny German relationship comedy

[Mikew3001 · 8/10 · 24 September 2002]

The German 1984 comedy "Zuckerbaby" ("Sugarbaby") is the debut film of American director and German resident Percy Adlon who became famous with his following productions like like "Out of Rosenheim" (1987) and "Rosalie goes shopping" (1988), all of them featuring actress Marianne Saegebrecht. In this very sad, bleak but also very touching Bavarian comedy Saegebrecht plays a lonely, over-weight woman in the big city of Munich in her late thirties who works as an udertaker. Her life consist of her sad work, watching TV and eating loads of sweets and cakes. One day, she's falling in love with the voice of a subway driver (played by popular comedian Eisi Gulp), announcing the train stations. She stalking him until he falls in love with her, but their intense romance is only short-lived.

Together with Doris Doerrie's "Maenner" ("Men"), released the same year, "Zuckerbaby" was a blueprint for the very popular German movie genre of the "Beziehungskomoedien" (relationship comedies) in the eighties and nineties. It is shot in a typical colorful 1980's neon style, reflecting the bright lights and loneliness of modern life in the big cities. There are not much dialogues, and the real conversations only start with the beginning of the romance in the middle of the film. There is also a creepy, sad atmosphere of death, loneliness and the longing for love, but the movie works perfect as a human drama as well as a campy love comedy.

The actors are doing a great job, and the minimal harmonica tunes in the background are adding a great atmosphere to the picture. By the way, "Zuckerbaby" was a famous German Rock'n'Roll song from the fifties by Peter Kraus which is constantly played during the movie. If you want to watch one of the best German films of the eighties, "Zuckerbaby" is a good example to recommend.

This is for all the fat girls....

[acrisisblog · 8/10 · 19 July 2005]

Camryn Manheim held up the Emmy Award she won for her role as Ellenor Frutt on The Practice and said..."This is for all the fat girls!" This film liberates "fat girls" in a similar way. Marianne Sägebrecht is "Marianne" the mortician's assistant whose life is as dead as her customers. She rides to work on the subway, listens to the negative comments about her by ladies in the local shops, and takes an occasional swim at the local pool when she needs to just get away and think. All that changes the day she spots Huber, the young handsome subway driver. What chance would a fat middle aged mortician's assistant have of seducing a young handsome blonde man? Marianne proves that hope springs eternal. I enjoyed this film when it was played on Showtime in the late 1980's and I recently tracked down a copy to see it again.

like its heroine, unexpectedly appealing

[mjneu59 · 7/10 · 5 January 2011]

A lonely and obese assistant mortician becomes infatuated with a handsome young subway driver and goes to great lengths to meet him in this oddly exuberant German import. It sounds like someone's idea of a bad joke, and likely would have become just that if ever remade for a dumbed-down American market. But the single-minded determination of the heroine's pursuit (and the apparent ease with which she wins her dream lover) keeps the film light and sunny, despite an unexpected tragic ending. Director Percy Adlon's fantastic, hallucinogenic color scheme is an acquired taste, however. It's either a pretentious art house mannerism, or a stroke of necessary style adding the perfect touch of unreality to an already far-fetched romance.

The fascination of weirdness

[Mort-31 · 7/10 · 3 February 2001]

Most of you will know Percy Adlon only for "Out of Rosenheim`, a film that is weird enough for the American taste. This movie is just as weird but there are fewer people involved. The story is quite simple to tell: A woman falls in love with the voice of an underground announcer and begins an affair with him.

The weird thing is how the story is directed. The colours and moods suggest that there is something mysterious and frightening going on behind the scenes but there isn't. The dialogue and the characters, especially Marianne Sägebrecht's are to take more seriously as the direction which seems to me somewhat playful, not in any way relevant for the development of the plot.

At least, this connection of story and direction brings some fascination. Directed by anyone else then Percy Adlon, "Zuckerbaby` would be not more than another of these unconventional love stories that have been modern since the seventies ("Harold and Maude`, "Spider and Rose`).

An Adult Love Story for Adults

[Tahhh · 10/10 · 31 December 2006]

I've known this film for many, many years, and it's high on my list of favorites to return to and enjoy again. First, let me warn you that there's a truly disappointing American remake of it, in English, known as "Babycakes," but, unlike this travesty of the original film, I'd say the single adjective which characterizes it for me is "ADULT." The humor--for the first half of the film is hilariously funny--is very grown-up humor; and the actual love story which it becomes, with its tensions and tendernesses, is also very, very mature--I think it quite likely that the movie will only appeal to people who are at least 35, but that they will find considerable truth in the way lust, infatuation, and, eventually, tenderness and caring love--and loss--are portrayed.

The protagonist is a fat, middle-aged, old-maid spinster, who works as a mortician in Munich and, one day, unexpectedly mesmerized by the gentle voice of a youthful, handsome, athletic driver of the Munich U-Bahn (subway, metro), rushes to see the owner of the lovely voice, and becomes obsessed and infatuated with him. The first half of the film tells us the hilarious adventures and desperate measures she goes through to identify him, stalk him, and, ultimately, snare him and seduce him.

*SPOILERS FOLLOW* It is here that the film turns from a trivial farce into a film of depth and true interest; a relation that started as an infatuation driven, on her side by lust and a desire for life and youth in her colorless and depressing life, and, on his side, by a nagging and unpleasant wife who drives him into the arms of a love-affair--this relation CHANGES into one of true affection, caring and tenderness, and the two, who were lusting for one another's surface qualities, slowly discover the real human beings underneath the flesh--and discover that there is more than simply lust and "fun" in their relationship.

The film moves toward a deliberately ambiguous ending that raises questions--many of them--and leaves us haunted by the lives of the two main characters, and their experience.

There are two moments of sexually explicit activity in the film, for people who are touchy about such things, but none of it seems gratuitous "sex for the sake of sex scene" and such scenes are conducted within the bounds of taste, good (not smutty) humor, and leave us with a sense of INTIMACY rather than PORNOGRAPHY.

The real adult nature of the film is in the departure from any sort of expected scenario: like Hitchcock's "Psycho" it is a film which starts off going decidedly in ONE direction, and then takes a sudden, and wonderful turn into a totally unexpected and different direction--we stop laughing, and we start identifying, strongly, and at times, painfully, with the main characters and their brief taste of an escape from their respective lonelinesses.

Can't recommend it highly enough--it's a big favorite of mine.

THE OBESE GET NO BASIC HUMAN RESPECT IF THEY ARE FEMALE

[a_athanas · 7/10 · 29 October 2022]

The tall, handsome, young, fit, blonde, sexy man she is stalking is married to his female equivalent. However, she barks orders at him and is demanding and cold to him. But he puts up with it because she's gorgeous.

Conversely, Sugarbaby has to be super sweet, accommodating, giving, complimentary, and self-sacrificing just to keep his attentions for 10 days. After which, he doesn't even intervene to keep his wife from beating her to the floor and kicking her at a disco. He just stands there and watches. Then, when his wife has beaten her up and left her on the floor, she hits him and grabs him to take him home. Presumably, they live "happily" ever after.

Sugarbaby goes back to her miserable life, hoping to entice another lover who is out of her league for a short, unfulfilling affair with a candy bar.

Predictably, the movie shows Sugarbaby stuffing her face with treats in her apartment each night. However, since 1985 we have learned lots of medical conditions can lead to weight gain (without eating 24/7 junk). Also, since 1985 science/medicine/naturopathy have offered helpful methods to reverse these conditions and cause weight loss. Sugarbaby could have had one of those conditions, but the writers had to show her eating junk because they made wrong assumptions about fat people. (BTW fat MEN are never scorned to the level of fat WOMEN.)

It isn't the fact Sugarbaby works at a mortuary that she gets no respect from the general public and can't find a significant relationship with a decent man. (Most ppl who mistreated her didn't even KNOW where she worked.) If she looked like Huber's wife, no one would care what her job was. They probably would have thought it was hot, in a twisted way.

Huber's job wasn't anything special either.

Sugarbaby, in her current unfortunate state, sets her sights too high for the norms of society in 1985. Yet, she ignored a bona fide offer of romance from a polite widowed subway official several years her senior who most likely had a high salary. She could have realized her romantic goal, not had to work anymore, and had the time to work on her weight and health. She could have even had children with him. So Sugarbaby was just as shallow as everyone else, but not about weight but rather about AGE.

$, The Sign of the Beast? 4

[roig27 · 9/10 · 21 January 2008]

Thsi is an excellent film. You will enjoy the ride, if you like sex, roll and subway stations: the plot is simple. A woman falls in for the train conductor while knowing that she is a fat, over-weight persona. Her aura is splendid though and the conductor falls in for the German: intriguing scenes include the calculus used for the regulations of the train: the workers inside calculations for the work, very difficile work, they do. The train conductor is a fit, young professional. The swimmer, the German, is an obsessed persona looking for sugar, hence the tittle -Sugarbaby-. This art movie, not to be confused with technical films of mental -Altered States- or mechanical reproduction, was made close to the end of the Cold War between the two Hemispheres: the West and the East. It was made in Germany but I am not certain which Germany - in any case there is a cameo of the infamous -Luxemburg- station, the second most reputed m'etro station in Europe. You will enjoy it.

Not really a comedy, but memorable

[kopachuk · 7/10 · 24 March 2024]

This film has a definite 80s feel and a Scandinavian/German dark undercurrent beneath the whimsy. Definitely not a romcom if that's what you like. It has a somewhat disturbing quality as it examines the nature of life - mostly mundane, with dreams rarely realized - as it maintains a tense undercurrent of death themes.

The main character, Marianne (who is so isolated no one refers to her by her actual name), is portrayed beautifully by Sagebrecht. In the opening scene she is floating in water, which is the way human life begins. Her life is dreary and lonely as a plain, overweight mortuary assistant who is only able to extend love and tenderness to corpses. Her bleak apartment is devoid of much decoration except a large old photograph showing a woman next to a man with a blacked out face. It is obvious from the age of the photo that these people are likely deceased, and it is later revealed that they are her parents. Marianne's mother is in fact dead. Her father was cruel and has been dead to her for most of her life.

Marianne hears a song from her adolescence in which a man is saying he will stay with his sugarbaby if she brings her love to him. While riding the subway, surrounded by people yet alone, she becomes infatuated with the young driver and stalks him. She learns that his wife is going out of town for a funeral (another death reference). She changes her appearance from bland to sexy, genuinely caring for herself for once instead of numbing out her pain with food. She becomes more confident and attractive and ends up seducing him.

In the beginning he is nearly as lifeless as the corpses she encounters, unresponsive to her touch, but through her caring and her sexuality he comes to life. They have both been existing in unfulfilling lives until they begin their relationship, and this dramatically transforms both of them. They hypomanically ride on his motorcycle as though flirting with death. Her apartment is now saturated in a rosy hue (rose colored glasses?) and they spend hours loving each other. She buys him fun clothes and, recalling his adolescent love of football, buys a foosball table. The relationship is dreamlike, and they don't even call each other by their first names. However, in one lengthy monologue after they make love, Marianne comes down to earth as she shares the story of her loneliness and how she came to extend tenderness to people after death, at the peak of their rejection by others.

Later they go out dancing and for perhaps the first time in her life she is the center of attention. They both seem to forget that his wife is returning. When she does, beating Marianne and dehumanizing her by repeating "disgrace", the crowd silently watches, allowing her to return to her isolated, lowly status. Even her lover has returned to his numbness as he allows his wife to beat her and then himself without protest. He has returned to his bland, passive life as an ignored spouse and a civil servant who does his routine job as he is told.

Marianne is now battered and returns to float in the water, but recognizes she cannot return to the life she had before. In the end we don't know who she is reaching out to, but it seems certain that she will not allow her eros (life force and sexuality) to remain dormant.

There are some intriguing ideas in this film, though some elements are distracting. The pace is deliberately slow and some will probably find it tedious and plodding. This is not meant to be a light comedy with action and witty dialogue. The camera work is strange, swaying at times and shaking at other times, as though the director needs to remind us that this is a film. It made me nauseous at one point.

Overall, it's definitely worth watching, but know that this is German, existential, and arthouse fantasy, not a laugh-out-loud romp by any stretch.

Likable main character, but nothing more

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 2 August 2016]

"Zuckerbaby" or "Sugarbaby" is a West German German-language film from 1985, so it had its 30th anniversary last year. the writer and director is Percy Adlon (turned 80 last year) and this was the beginning of a trilogy of films he made with actress Marianne Sägebrecht. The other two are in English language though and include an Academy Award nominee. Sägebrecht herself was nominated for a German Film Award here and same goes for her co-lead Eisi Gulp, who for whatever wrong reason was nominated in the supporting category. Neither of the duo won the award. These two basically are the film, especially Sägebrecht. She probably was a good casting decision for this one and I believe this film would have been worse without her. This is not supposed to say the film was particularly interesting though. It is a two-man show and the two actors make a solid job, but the script never really made me care for either of them or allowed me to make an emotional connection here. Sägebrecht always plays characters who somewhat define themselves through their weight, but are not negative people, rather likable. I do believe she is a very physical actress. She frequently plays the nice friendly obese woman from next door who struggles with life and human relationships a bit, but it does not take away from how likable she is. Anyway, all in all I am glad this film only ran for slightly over 80 minutes. It dragged for me on several occasions and sometimes I also felt it was style over substance, may have worked better and been more essential as a short film of around 40 minutes. I don't recommend the watch, or only if you really loved "Outt of Rosenheim". Maybe I also did not like it that much because Bavarian culture and humor are absolutely not my thing. Thumbs down.

Not obese by today's standards

[rhu-84864 · 4/10 · 9 December 2021]

It's rather odd to start watching this film after reading the description of the main character as an "obese" woman, whose weight is supposed to define her. I mean, look at the film's poster. I suppose in 1985 it would have been unusual to see someone her size, but there are now people walking around who are twice her size, some of them even claiming to be "models", so it takes some steam out of the film's believability. In any case I was uncomfortable with the stalking aspect of the film...if the genders were reversed, this film would be suspense, not light comedy, so it's somehow funny if a woman stalks a man. Double standards? In any case, the film overall moves way too slowly to be interesting or engaging, scenes go on and on for far longer than they should. Boring.