Sachertorte - Cute movie set in Vienna on Prime

wouldn't just watching a slice sitting there get kind of boring after a while?

Emily, thanks for the heads-up. I’m going to find the movie on Prime, sounds enjoyable!

Nigel, spoiler alert, but I understand there’s an intense scene when a Linzertorte challenges the protagonist Sachertorte. Then the evil Tiramisu comes up from Italy to try and ruin the party - lots of suspense, and hardly boring!

Cyn -LOL!!!

Thanks for the recommendation (and laughs, Nigel and Cyn) for the movie. We will be in Vienna for several weeks this summer and have already bookmarked some Travel Forum threads on this debate/hot topic to do some research ourselves.

Thanks Emily! I love Vienna and can't wait to watch this movie - thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for the heads up. I just finished watching it. It was sweet enough to make your teeth itch, but well done and I enjoyed it more than a lot of the Hallmark or Lifetime Christmas movies. Worth watching.

Emily, thank you, again! I just finished watching the movie, and besides the enjoyable plot, learned/realized/was reminded of several things. First, for anyone who’s going to be watching it, put on the subtitles, unless you’re fluent in German. There’s a smattering of English (and other languages), but the dialogue is chiefly German. That being said:

1) The lead male character is a Berliner German, and apparently speaks “real” German. Apparently, Austrians are hard to understand. He thinks one guy is speaking Norwegian, not German, and that Austrian tells him, “That's right - you Germans need subtitles to understand Austrian!” Actually the actor is Swiss, but that’s another story.

2) The subtitles took a few liberties. In one case, an actor says “danke,” but “thank you” doesn’t appear in the subtitles. Are Austrians more polite than English speakers, or did the subtitle translator just miss that? The same actor refers to “crème de la crème,” but the subtitles say, “the best people.” Apparently the Austrian using a French term gets loosely translated in English subtitles.

3) There are lots of what I thought were English terms, but they’re used by the German-speakng characters, instead of German words. Or are they actually German phrases, and have we English speakers appropriated them? “Social media,” “Okay,” “Let’s go,” so many others, and so many others!

4) The female lead always said “Ciao” for goodbye, and the subtitles translated that as, “bye.” So is that a common Austrian word in Vienna these days, or was Italian creeping into the dialogue, just as it seemed that some things were, apparently, best said in English?

5) It was surprising, although probably shouldn’t have been, to see euros being used as currency. The last time I was in Vienna was before the euro, and maybe subconsciously, I still associated schillings with Austria. So this brought me - just a smidge - more into modern times. And I’m long overdue for another visit to Austria. But Sacher Torte still comes with that little chocolate “coin” on top … some classic things haven’t changed.

Cyn - regarding #1, that character was described as coming from Vorarlberg, the westernmost region of Austria cut off by the Alps. People from Vorarlberg are very hard for even Viennese to understand.

thanks for the subtitle suggestion - my German's ok, Austrian fair, Swiss German awful. There are so many changes of language it confuses me so the subtitles helps. Besides my wife knows very little German so we can watch together....

I understand Austrian and Bavarian German, but northern Germany german, not so much. I can see that others might have trouble, too.

My Austrian relatives (in Carinthia), especially the younger ones, do seem to use "ciao."

And yes, English words are not uncommon these days. I was in Austria briefly in September and there were English words all over on retail signs/buildings.

Ha! The discussion about the different Germans makes me think of my first trip to Germany. We had a family reunion in the Black Forest with the American branch and the German branch of the family. My aunt (my American uncle’s ex-wife) was born in Hannover and has lived there most of her life except for 10 years she spent in the U.S. We all stayed at a farmhouse and the farmer struck up a conversation with my aunt. She later confessed to me that she had trouble understanding him because of his very thick southern accent.