Fashion Victims on AllMovie

A man who's all but impossible to like discovers this might be a drawback to his career in sales in this comedy from Germany. Wolfgang Zenker (Edgar Selge) is a salesman who makes his living peddling dowdy clothes for overweight and elderly women. Wolfgang has managed to enjoy a successful career despite his highly abrasive personality, and he treats his wife Erika (Franziska Walser) and son Karsten (Florian Bartholomai) with a thinly veiled contempt. Wolfgang is arrested for driving without a valid license, and Karsten is drafted into acting as his chauffeur as Wolfgang goes on a sales trip, even though Karsten had already made plans for a study vacation out of the country. Wolfgang and Karsten hit the road, and the salesman is profoundly annoyed to discover that a new drummer has been taking away some of his accounts, selling cheaper and more stylish clothes to his clients. Unknown to Wolfgang, his new rival is Steven (Roman Knizka), a dynamic young salesman who has also met Karsten and discovered they share a mutual attraction. Meanwhile, Erika is being urged by her best friend (Traute Hoess) to leave Wolfgang, and the idea sounds even better after she discovers he's managed to burn through most of the family's savings without telling her. Reine geschmacksache (aka Fashion Victims) was the first feature film from writer and director Ingo Rasper.