The biopic “Lindenberg! Do your thing” celebrates its TV premiere. This is how the little boy from the provinces became the great Udo Lindenberg.
The biopic “Lindenberg! Do your thing” (2020) about the German rock icon Udo Lindenberg (76, “Stronger than Time”) by director Hermine Huntgeburth (64, “The White Maasai”) celebrates on Monday (July 18) at 8:15 p.m. on the first TV premiere. The artist portrait of the notorious panic rocker is also worthwhile for non-fans.
That’s what “Lindenberg! Do your thing” is about
“Lindenberg! Do your thing” tells the story of a once highly talented jazz drummer from the Westphalian provincial town of Gronau, who, after countless private and professional crises and catastrophes, celebrated his breakthrough at the microphone in a decisive stage performance in Hamburg in 1973. The beginning of his career as Germany’s most famous rock star with hits like “Girls from East Berlin”, “High in the North” or “Andrea Doria”.
In addition to a lot of love, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll in times of turbulent German-German contemporary history, the cast also makes the film worth seeing. Shooting star Jan Bülow (26, “Dogs of Berlin”) in the title role meets Detlev Buck (59) as a record company’s talent scout and Max von der Groeben (30) as Lindenberg’s friend Steffi. Charly Hübner (49) embodies Lindenberg’s constantly drunk and unhappy father and Julia Jentsch (44) the loving mother and first musical sponsor. In addition, Martin Brambach (54) inspires the young Udo Lindenberg to become a waiter.
The musician’s love affairs are one of the major driving forces in the film. These are embodied, for example, by Saskia Rosendahl (29), who plays one of Lindenberg’s great loves, the “Girl from East Berlin”. Ella Rumpf (27) plays his athletic childhood crush Susanne, who can’t get out of the province. A real eye-catcher is also actress Ruby O. Fee (26) as rabid “Paula from St. Pauli, who always undresses”…
The film is also worthwhile for non-fans
“Lindenberg! Do your thing” is of course a must for Udo Lindenberg fans. But the film is also another entertaining highlight for fans of musician biopics after “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018), “Rocketman” (2019) and “Judy” (2020). This flick also shows how unbelievably bad it can be, especially for artists, as long as they haven’t landed in the right place. “We Lindenbergs become plumbers and nothing else” – luckily didn’t come true.
Anyone who would say “I’m not a Lindenberg fan” should be told: You don’t have to be for this film. You and all those born later, who only know Lindenberg as the old rocker with the black hat and pursed lips from the Hamburg hotel, the entertaining film should definitely bring some of the fascination it exerts on his fans closer.
The story of Udo, the drummer, encourages – or to put it in Lindenberg’s poetic words: “Be what you want to be, and then you are.”
