This major German film is currently streaming free on All4 in the UK for the next 18 days. I remember noting on its release in August 2021 that I wanted to see it but at that stage I was not yet back in cinemas full time. The narrative is straightforward. Alma (Maren Eggert) is a scientist researching forms of cuneiform texts. She is attached to a Museum as leader of a team and also teaches. Currently single and in her late forties, she has been chosen to ‘road test’ a new male robot who might be a possible romantic partner (or chef’ or manager or any other form of professional). She appears to have accepted the task as a favour for her boss who controls her research budget rather than because she is interested in finding a partner. The project is fronted by an ever-smiling and rather creepy Sandra Hüller who introduces Alma to Thomas (Dan Stevens) a handsome younger man. The introduction is in a bar with dancing and later Alma learns that many of the dancers are actually holograms. The setting is a very clean and rather empty Berlin in the near future.
Thomas has been designed as a man who speaks German with an English accent – because Alma must have provided information about her preferences which include men with a foreign background. Thomas knows all the ‘right’ things to say, but of course this tends to irritate Alma who finds a little friction to be attractive. She doesn’t want a yes man – at the moment she doesn’t want a man at all. Thomas acually malfunctions on the night they meet, but he is soon put right and after that the disruptions are more in terms of the developing relationship rather than machine malfunctions. Some of these are indeed comedic moments but mostly they are subtle commentaries on ideas about human behaviour and machine logic. The film generally avoids too much slapstick humour. However, there is a familiar sequence of typical romantic drama/comedy developments even if they lead to as much philosophising as sexual banter. Other aspects of Alma’s work are brought into the plot and her family – a younger sister, her little nephew and her 80 year-old father who has some form of dementia – offer a different milieu in which to test out Thomas. She will have to write a report on him/it after three weeks. Gradually Alma realises that Thomas has either been programmed with most of her personal history or has picked it up through interactions during family and work events.
I’m Your Man has been categorised by critics and promotion material as a science fiction/SF mix with a romantic comedy. It is based on a short story by Emma Braslavsky, adapted by Jan Schomberg and Maria Schrader, who is also the director. The film has been seen as covering similar territory to Weird Science (US 1985) or Making Mr. Right (US 1987) directed by Susan Seidelman. The latter film seems to point in the same direction with a woman directing a film about male ‘robot’ and featuring a woman who tries to make the robot more ‘normal’. The German film is more interesting, I think. I’ve also seen references to Her (US 2013) which is slightly different in one sense, but similar in others.
One point that intrigues me is that Thomas is always referred to as a ‘robot’, whereas in similar British or American films, terms like Philip K. Dick’s ‘simulacram’ or ‘android’ are more common (as in Blade Runner or Ex Machina (UK 2015)). In many of these examples there are political/subplots in which the non-humans are often persecuted or forced to group together for protection as in the Swedish/UK TV series Real Humans/Humans (UK-US 2015) in which the non-humans are ‘synths’. Is ‘Robot’ a more German/Mittel Europe concept, dating back to Metropolis (Germany 1927) and the ‘false Maria’, the Machinenmensch? Or does it derive from R.U.R. the 1920 play by the Czech, Karel Čapek? (R.U.R. refers to ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’.) In fact I’m Your Man is one of the many English titles that loses some meaning from the original language. It should be ‘I’m Your Human’ and the narrative is less about the gender of the robot and more about questions of ‘what it is to be human?’
I think the film works for several reasons. Firstly the two leads are excellent. I’m a big fan of Maren Eggert who I’ve seen in two films by Angela Schanelec, The Dreamed Path (Germany 2016) and I Was at Home, But . . . (Germany 2019) and another interesting arthouse film Giraffe (Germany-Denmark (2019). These three films suggest a connection to the women associated with the ‘Berlin School’ of German Cinema. Some reviewers who aren’t familiar with her think she is miscast, but for me she is just right, especially in her slightly waspish irritation. Because she is slightly older and more intelligent than the sometimes ‘ditzy’ women of traditional romantic comedies, she offers a stiffer challenge for seduction by Thomas. I was also impressed by Dan Stevens who I haven’t seen before but I know was famous for the TV series Downton Abbey. I’ve learned he is fluent in German (and French) and he manages the presentation of non-human very well, mainly through his smile and alarming eyes. There is a good joke when he ‘plays’ robotic to confuse one of Alma’s acquaintances. Sandra Hüller appears only infrequently, but each time is startling. She’s probably much more recognisable to audiences in the UK and US now than she was in 2021. The direction from Maria Schrader is very good, especially in terms of allowing the narrative to develop through careful pacing. At 108 minutes the film is arguably a little longer than many more conventional genre films and this allows for periods of reflection.
Finally a note for Keith. This film, shot on a RED camera is presented in a 2.00:1 aspect ratio which seems to be a developing new standard but I’m not sure about the Film 4 presentation. Just Watch UK tells me that Ich bin dein Mensch is available to rent or buy on a wide range of streamers as well as currently on All4. Here’s the trailer from US distributor Bleeker Street (subbed apart from Dan Stevens opening line.)
The Case for Global Film 