Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2000


Forklift Driver Klaus The First Day on the Job

Buy Forklift Driver Klaus The First Day on the Job now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Forklift Driver Klaus The First Day on the Job' is a German short film from 2000 about the first day of Klaus' work as a forklift driver. The film is a parody of work safety films from the 1980s.

The film was written and directed by Stefan Prehn and Jrg Wagner and stars Konstantin Graudus as the title role of Klaus. The narration was provided by Egon Hoegen, who was known in Germany for narrating road safety films.

The film quickly became famous, thanks in part to its splatter film violence, which fans regard as comical due to its extreme and obviously fake nature. The film received several awards and was made available on DVD by Anolis Entertainment in 2003, dubbed in English, French, and Spanish.

Plot



The film is presented as a safety instruction video for forklift truck drivers and shows the first day of work for newly qualified forklift truck driver Klaus. The film highlights, in a gory manner, the dangers of unsafe operation of machinery, as well as inattention as a result of chitchatting and distraction by a female coworker passing by.

Shortly after Klaus' first operation of the forklift, he nearly hit a co-worker who left the warehouse by walking through the garage door where walking is forbidden, instead of the pedestrian exit door. While this caused no injury, it is a hint for what would be coming. As the film progresses the injuries/deaths become more brutal, beginning with things like a man falling from the forklift after he was lifted without a safety cage to hold onto but a bare wooden platform, and closing with the most violent: ending in a stray chainsaw being driven around by a severed arm on the floor, reaching and ripping through a man who had already been cut in half waist-down due to Klaus' previous accident. A gory POV shot of the chainsaw chopping through the man is shown. The warehouse's alarm bell ends up falling from its mount due to corrosion from blood stains, and lands on a head as apparent from a screaming sound. The film ends as Klaus is decapitated by the chainsaw and two men are left impaled onto the forklift prongs, screaming. The forklift drives off into the sunset as the impaled men continue to scream with the chainsaw racing after them.

The closing musical theme, "Happyland", was written by French composer Laurent Lombard.

Cast



* Konstantin Graudus as Forklift Driver Klaus

* Egon Hoegen as narrator

* Snke Korres as Plummetting Helmut

* Erik Rossbander as Werner the Knife

* Till Huster as No Hands Gnther

* Dieter Dost as Bisected Herbert

* Jrgen Kossel as Chainsaw Rudi

* Douglas Welbat as Headphone Paul

* Gustav Adolph Artz as Seminar Instructor

* Clarissa Schrter as Secretary

Usage as a safety film



Although the film is not officially part of the German training and education system for forklift trucks, it has been shown by some instructors as an example of what forklift drivers should not do.

Awards



The film has won many awards, including:

* The 'Canal+ International Award for Best Short Film' at the Cinema Jove Festival Internacional de Cine Valncia in 2001

* The 'Jury Award for Best Short Film' and the 'Audience Award for Best Short Film' at the San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival in 2001

* The 'Audience Award for Short Film' and the 'Special Prize of the European Broadcasters Jury for Best Original Idea' at the 'Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film' in 2002

* The 'Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Award' at the 'Day of the German Short Film' awards in 2002

* The 'German Film Critics Award for Best Short Film' at the 'German Film Critics Association Awards' in 2002

* The 'Jury Prize for Best Short Film' at the 'Fantasia Film Festival' in 2003 (where it also won 3rd place in the 'Best Short Film' category)

References




Buy Forklift Driver Klaus The First Day on the Job now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 2000



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1097148665.