Wiesn: "Nights in Paradise" tells of the madness of the Oktoberfest
Created: 09/26/2022, 09:07
By: Michael Schleicher
Wiesn madness: Oktoberfest guests crowd like zombies to the taxi in “Nights in Paradise”.
© Frank Schmolke/Edition Moderne
Oktoberfest alert!
In his comic “Nachts im Paradies”, which was published in 2019, Frank Schmolke tells of his time as a taxi driver in Munich and at the time of the Oktoberfest.
The book is now being made into a film.
In the summer of 2022, Starzplay, the streaming platform of the Hollywood studio Lionsgate, filmed the comic novel "Nights in Paradise" by the Munich artist Frank Schmolke.
To be experienced in the role of the taxi driver Jürgen Vogel.
A broadcast date is not yet known.
Read our review of Frank Schmolke's comic "Nachts im Paradies" from July 2, 2019 here:
Waldorf and Statler can spoil the night.
The two businessmen on the way to the airport are much too late – now the taxi driver should fix it: “The streets are clear and the police are already asleep.
Then there's more tips.” No way – on the Ring, not far from the Donnersbergerbrücke, a speed camera flashes, a few meters further on the police ask you to pay immediately: Vincent, the driver, gets 125 euros and a point in Flensburg.
Nevertheless, he delivers the stress owls on his back seat to the airport on time.
The announced tip?
A gusset.
"Ass fiddles," exclaims Vincent when he's alone in the car again.
"Nights in Paradise" was released in 2019
He is real, as are Waldorf and Statler.
Of course, the two suit wearers are not named like the old grumblers from the "Muppet Show" - Frank Schmolke gave them the appropriate names in his 2019 comic novel "Nachts im Paradies"
(Frank Schmolke: "Nachts im Paradies". Edition Moderne, Zurich , 360 pages; 29.80 euros.).
In 2014 he actually drove the two to the airport.
Schmolke, born in Munich in 1967, has had a taxi license since 1989.
Today he lives as a comic artist and illustrator with his family just outside of the city.
In the past, he occasionally drove a taxi “when there was a slump in orders or financial crises,” as he writes in the afterword to his book.
Sketches for "Nights in Paradise" were created during the Oktoberfest 2014
This was also the case five years ago: “My plan was to make as much sales as possible with Speed-Taxln in two weeks.
The Oktoberfest was just around the corner, the most lucrative time for Munich taxi drivers.
The plan didn't quite work out, I'd been out of business for too long.
I had lost the routine of a well-established taxi driver.” Instead, Schmolke had something else with him behind the wheel of his Mercedes: his ear for good stories and his eye for exciting characters.
Of course, he changed the name and appearance of his passengers – but the basis for “Nights in Paradise” was created during his trips during the 2014 Oktoberfest;
Schmolke usually made the first drawings in the car.
After all, his sketchbook always went with him.
Schmolke's approach is reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's "Night on Earth".
They are nightshades, stranded and dangerous, seekers and self-satisfied, revelers and exhausted, that Vincent drives through dark Munich.
Schmolke talks about them in an exciting way – and full of empathy.
His approach is reminiscent of "Night on Earth" (1991), but while Jim Jarmusch had his Taxider episodes set in various cities, Schmolke remains true to his hometown.
And that's worth it for the reader.
Because the graphic novel “Trabanten” (2013) by the illustrator and author was also an apt portrait of Munich in the 1980s.
Now Schmolke shows again how closely he observes the city, its appearance and mood.
This happens en passant - at the center of the pictorial narrative are figures such as the pimp Igor with his tempting offer, Valerie, the mysterious woman, the drunks,
who turn every tour into a hygienic risk game, and like Anna, Vincent's daughter, whom he is determined to protect from the dangers of the city.
"Taxi driving and drawing have certain parallels," says Schmolke.
“Finding a route is similar to drawing a line with a pen.
Sometimes perfect and sometimes scrawled and full of mistakes.
And the passenger is like a white piece of paper.
Neutral for now.
The leaf fills up more and more as you drive.”
Neutral for now.
The leaf fills up more and more as you drive.”
Neutral for now.
The leaf fills up more and more as you drive.”
Schmolke realized Sebastian Fitzek's “Der Augensammler” (The Eye Collector) as a comic
Schmolke has continued to develop his style since "Trabanten".
Today his line is rougher, more accurate and therefore more lively;
the rhythm of the Munich nights also pulses on the pages.
It's particularly nice that he stays true to black and white - with a book that mainly takes place in the dark, that's a good thing, of course.
But Schmolke also shows how colorful a story can be when you limit yourself to two colors.
The artist is working in color for the first time in his graphic novel “Der Augensammler”, which will be published in 2021 and is based on the thriller by Sebastian Fitzek.
also read
Michael Patrick Kelly in Munich: An evening among friends
Max Raabe in Munich: Two evenings in the "Isarphilharmoniepalast"
He drove a taxi for hundreds of hours.
"Today I'm really glad when I don't have to spend my time in the middle of the night, in the middle of the street, with complete strangers." Nevertheless, Frank Schmolke has respect for this "extraordinarily demanding profession" - and that's why he asks at the end of his remarkable book readers: "If you're about to get into a cab, be polite and leave a good tip."
