The Munch Mammut

and the Movie

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Actor Gérard Depardieu is a mammouth of a man physically and a mammouth of the French movie screens. In the movie Mammuth, a sort of French road movie that was first seen at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, he rides a Münch Mammut motorcycle.

Münch is one of the rarest names in motorcycling, with less than 250 bikes ever built and the “Mammoth,” or “Mammut” in German, as it was branded, was for its size and bulk. Designed by German engineer Friedl Münch who believed that bigger was better, so he fitted his bikes with 4 cylinder inline NSU car engines.

Everything about the ‘mammoth’ was excessive, from its performance (225 km/h) to its weight (340 kg). A 1969 Münch 1200 TTS with custom paint by Von Dutch sold for $46,000 a few years ago, and last October, another Mammut sold for $57,240 at the MidAmerica auction.

A resurgence of the Münch name in 2003 with a turbocharged US$80,000 ‘Mammut 2000‘ was unfortunately short-lived. A shame, because these extraordinary machines had character by the bucketload.  Click here for more on the Mammut machines.

Getting back to the movie, Depardieu plays the part of a working-class man that has reached retirement age. He began his working life at the age of sixteen; he has never lost a job, or been off sick. But then he discovers in an interview at the works’ pension fund that, during the course of his chaotic working life, no fewer than six of his employers have ‘forgotten’ to register his earnings. If he is to receive his pension he will have to furnish the necessary proof of employment.  His only solution is seek out his past employers and he hits the road on a 70’s Mammut motorbike that earned him his nickname and returns to the places of his youth and retraces his past life. His journey puts him in touch with former workmates, old friends and long-lost relatives.

The movie is on at the Rialto Cinema in Tauranga on September 9th.  Check out the events for session times.