‘Köln 75’ review: Lively re-staging of a 1975 jazz show is a showcase for actor Mala Emde

Dir/scr: Ido Fluk. Germany/Belgium/Poland 2025. 115mins.

Köln 75 is not strictly a jazz movie – but then, as Ido Fluk’s film keeps telling us, the improvised music of pianist Keith Jarrett is not really jazz. This is the story of the 1975 solo concert at the Köln Opera House that yielded Jarrett’s legendary best-selling album The Köln Concert – or rather, the story behind the concert. While it highlights an engagingly spiky performance by John Magaro as Jarrett, the real focus is on Vera Brandes, the teenage jazz fan who, against all odds, made the event happen.

A vivid vehicle for a dynamic, often very funny Mala Emde 

Contrary to the exalted aura that often surrounds Jarrett – and which the film fondly sends up – this larky, sometimes facetious film above all celebrates Brandes and the rebellious spirit she represents, here energetically embodied by Mala Emde. Written and directed by US-based Fluk (Never Too Late, The Ticket), this Berlinale Special Gala title may infuriate music purists, but its freewheeling ebullience is likely to strike a chord with curious non-specialist audiences.

Brandes is first seen, played by Susanne Wolf, receiving a dour 50th birthday toast from her conservative, authoritarian father (Ulrich Tukur), who laments that she never came to anything; in fact, Brandes had already distinguished herself as a promoter and record company boss. Suddenly, a music critic named Michael Watts – an occasional narrator played with affable wit by Michael Chernus – interrupts proceedings in one of multiple self-referential nudges to the viewer, in the tricksy, knowing manner of Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People or Adam McKay’s political satires. 

Now the film flashes back to Brandes, played by Emde, as a liberated jazz-loving teenager following her passions in the conservative 1970s Germany. A meeting with veteran saxophonist Ronnie Scott (a nicely wry Daniel Betts) kickstarts her career as a promoter while she is still at school. Despite her parents’ disapproval, Brandes is unstoppable, working guerrilla-style alongside her team, including her resentful but ultimately supportive brother (Leo Meier) and her radical bestie Isa (Shirin Eisa). 

Then comes a sidestep as Michael Watts – a composite of several writers, presumably including the real-life scribe of that name – delivers a brief beginners’ guide, explaining why Jarrett’s spectacular improvisations were not jazz but “pure music”. The film follows Watts as he tries to land an interview with the artist, accompanying him on a long car journey with laconic ECM Records head Manfred Eicher (Alexander Scheer).

Back in Köln, Brandes faces a pile-up of impossible circumstances – including Jarrett’s reluctance to perform, caused by a mixture of perfectionism, exhaustion and backache. No less involving for the outcome being known, Köln 75 pitches itself across as an against-the-odds backstage comedy, not unlike Jason Reitman’s recent Saturday Night. Its energies are very much those of a rock movie; indeed, the soundtrack features precious little jazz, instead highlighting 70s German bands like Can and Floh de Cologne. 

The film is a vivid vehicle for a dynamic, often very funny Emde who, at 28, is convincing as a wide-eyed, sharp-mouthed teenage force of nature. More contentious, but nonetheless magnetic, is Magaro’s portrayal of Jarrett as a moody, refractory, somewhat Dylanesque mystic – not a figure of fun by any means, but one who the film drapes somewhat wryly in an aura of otherworldly enigma. 

Fluk proceeds without too much reverence – treating the big night as a terrific you-had-to-be-there gig rather than as a pious epiphany – while nudging us that this account may not be 100% reliable. Köln 75 is more than a touch irritating when it overplays its knowingness, but the element most likely to click with audiences is the female-focused story of a high-stakes struggle, showing how a cultural passion can sometimes overcome all obstacles and transform a person’s life entirely.