Toni Erdmann · reception & legacy

How Toni Erdmann has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It premiered at Cannes 2016 as the best-reviewed film of the festival — then the jury famously gave it nothing, a snub critics groused about for years. It topped the Sight & Sound and Cahiers du Cinéma polls that year anyway, and Sandra Hüller's later ascent (Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest) keeps sending new viewers back to where international audiences first met her.

What's debated

The eternal question: can a 162-minute German comedy actually be this funny, or is it a critics' in-joke — and was the Cannes shutout the biggest jury blunder of the decade?

Its footprint

The Whitney Houston 'Greatest Love of All' karaoke scene and the giant shaggy Kukeri costume are its two endlessly screenshotted, instantly recognisable images — along with a certain pair of joke-shop false teeth.

Where it stands

A modern-canon lock and a Letterboxd darling — the rare 2010s comedy that cinephiles treat as capital-C cinema.

Named by the director

Influences Maren Ade has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Andy Kaufman — Ade has cited Kaufman — particularly his total commitment to the Tony Clifton alter ego — as an inspiration for the Toni persona.