Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! – Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III [NOTE: I had planned to be finished adding new movies to this blog, but little did I realize that the long-lost experimental film Miss Butterfly (Fräulein Schmetterling) was about to be released with English subtitles by the …
Category: 11th Plenum
The Robe (Das Kleid)
It’s said that timing is everything. This is certainly true when it comes to movies. Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole was one of his best films, and had it been released in the early forties, it might have been a hit, but by 1951, people had no use for Wilder’s cynicism. It’s no coincidence …
Life Together
Life Together (Leben zu zweit) is a romantic comedy with a plot that sounds like something straight out of Hollywood. Karin Werner (Marita Böhme) is the divorced mother in her mid-thirties, who's been secretly dating a mathematician named Peter Freund (Alfred Müller). She’s kept the affair secret because she worries how her fifteen-year-old daughter Nora …
Red Fox
The Red Fox (Rotfuchs) of the title is Eve Kolinauke (Angelika Waller), a postal worker in the small river town of Müritz (filmed in Tangermünde and at the Wesenberg Lock). Eve earned her nickname thanks to her bright red hair. She tootles around the town on an underpowered moped, delivering the mail and attempting to …
Camping-Camping
In 1991, less than two years after the Berlin Wall came down, a film called Go Trabi Go hit the cinemas in Germany. It’s the story of a man, his wife, and their bored teenage daughter who—taking advantage of the newly available European West—drive to Italy in their trusty old Trabant. While the husband is …
The Female Directors of East Germany Pt. 1: The DEFA Directors
A short overview of the women directors who worked at DEFA.
Private Party
In Frank Beyer's Private Party (Geschlossene Gesellschaft),1 Robert (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and Ellen (Jutta Hoffmann) are a seemingly happy married couple. Robert is a talented engineer whose work just saved the state a million Marks, and Ellen works for the youth services with disadvantaged teens. They decide to go on holiday with some friends. They invite …
What Should I Watch?
New to East German films? Here are a few from DEFA with English subtitles that are well worth seeing. All of these films are currently available on the Kanopy streaming service. I’m often asked for recommendations on East German movies that people should watch. There’s no one answer to this. I once showed my personal …
Held for Questioning
The backstory of Held for Questioning (Der Aufenthalt) is the story of a film that was made against all odds, by a director that DEFA had, essentially, written off the books. Frank Beyer was one of the best filmmakers in East Germany. He proved this time and again, with movies such as Five Cartridges, Naked …
Journey into the Nuptial Bed
East Germany had a difficult relationship with musicals. As with Western audiences, the East German public enjoyed musicals and paid to go see them. The box office was good for nearly all the musicals DEFA made, but the art form is so inherently frivolous that it drove the more stodgy politicians crazy. Making fairytale films …
East German Cinema Blog 