Cult comedy - "American Pie" turns 25 - can you still watch the movie today?
The Apple Pie. The flute "this one time" at the summer camp. And of course: "Stifler's Mom". Anyone who must admit to themselves that images are popping up in their consciousness that they had long forgotten, was probably around 25 years ago - or at least not quite as old as they are now. In 1999, in July, a quarter of a century ago, the teenage comedy "American Pie" hit US cinemas and became an phenomenon. One of those films that everyone had seen on the schoolyard.
It's worth remembering because successful films that target an audience that is in the process of growing up can have a certain influence on that very process. And because as someone who was there at the time, one wonders: How could I find that so funny? And how much of "American Pie" is still in me? The die-hard fan adds at this point: "Hihi - it's in there!"
Because "American Pie" was about sex. The relatively unknown Paul and Chris Weitz - director and producer - showed four high school boys who desperately wanted to sleep with women and suffered great pain because this had not yet happened - as they defined it. "We're all still virgins by the time we graduate, isn't that clear?", Jim (Jason Biggs) alarms his friends. The guys' gang therefore makes a pact: It must happen by the graduation ball.
"American Pie" was an event
The plot doesn't sound all that revolutionary and was accordingly panned ("cheaply produced teenage comedy with crude fecal and masturbation humor"). But the film was different from much of what was known. "American Pie" stands out of the swamp of teenage discover-their-penis-films that it itself provoked with its success. "American Pie" was an event.
"I had traveled to America at the time and asked a friend what I absolutely had to watch", recalls Joachim Friedmann, professor for Serial Storytelling at the International Film School Cologne ifs - and eyewitness. "And he said: "American Pie", that was the sensation."
From a craftsmanship perspective, the film is still very good today, Friedmann says. "From my perspective, it was one of the first teenage comedies to take a multiperspective approach", so Friedmann. Each character in the friend group had their own narrative thread and their own problems. "That's very dominant. As dominant as we know it from series today." Added to the boys' attempts at copulation was extreme embarrassment. The film transported strange messages at times, such as the idea that a premature ejaculation is the worst thing that can happen in life. At other times, it made tangible all the micro-traumas of puberty. Jim is particularly hard hit in the film, who is surprised by his father while he sexually misuses the title-giving apple pie.
The answers and stereotypes presented by the film to its presumably sexually confused teenage audience still seem surprisingly strange 25 years later, despite some clever debates since then. The exchange student secretly and unwantedly films while changing? Most immediately accept this as a brilliant idea ("All you need is a micro-camera. You hook it up to the internet and tell me the address!"). Stealth icon of the film? Stifler, who rarely asks but often rather acts. Toxic masculinity and what it meant was not yet something that people made grand thoughts about. The female characters are rather one-dimensional - either as mystical saints or as rigid phantoms.
"The heteronormative, male, white worldview that's in there - we wouldn't make that today," says Film Professor Friedmann. He also says, "The male characters in the film are all punished for what they do sexually and emotionally wrong." Even Stifler, who surprisingly encounters that guy, whom he had previously bullied, with his mother - "Stifler's Mom."
The actresses and actors from the film went on to have successful careers - for example, Alyson Hannigan ("How I Met Your Mother") and Jennifer Coolidge ("The White Lotus"). The men - well, maybe it was the film's revenge for a rather shallow pact.
The comedy "American Pie" featuring Jason Biggs and his on-screen character Jim, became a phenomenon in 1999, attracting a wide audience in the USA. Jennifer Coolidge, renowned for her role as "Stifler's Mom," also starred in the movie. The film's success sparked interest in Germany, with Joachim Friedmann, a professor, recommending it to a friend during his trip to the USA.
The story revolves around four high school boys, including Biggs, desperate to lose their virginity before graduation, portraying the struggles of adolescence. The movie, criticized for its humor, became an "event" in cinema, breaking the mold of typical teenage comedies.
Subsequently, several actors and actresses from the movie, such as Alyson Hannigan and Jennifer Coolidge, achieved successful careers in Hollywood. The film's enduring influence is reflected in its contemporary approach to storytelling, with multiple character perspectives and the exploration of teenage issues.
