Two teenagers, who are paired up in dance class, eventually fall in love in this period piece from 1974. TRIGGER WARNING: Contains fashions from 1974. Love at 16 (Liebe mit 16) belongs to a list of DEFA films that focus on the concerns of teenagers. The list includes Just Don’t Think I’ll Cry, Too Young … Continue reading Love at 16
Category: Herrmann Zschoche
Long Roads – Secret Love
The story of two men, a woman with a child, and their travels on the highways of East Germany. <p value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80"><em>Long Roads – Secret Love</em> (<em>Weite Straßen – stille Liebe</em>) starts when Berlin-based trucker Hannes Kass (Manfred Krug) pulls his semi-truck over to check on something. While fixing the problem, Herb … Continue reading Long Roads – Secret Love
Just Married
Director Herrmann Zschoche takes an unromanticized look at young love in this follow up to his highly romantic Seven Freckles. Not all romances have storybook endings…. In 1978, director Herrmann Zschoche’s film Seven Freckles was a huge hit. That film told the story of two young lovers, finding each other and falling in love at … Continue reading Just Married
Jana and Jan
With the notable exception of horror movies, the East German film industry (that is to say, DEFA) made films of nearly every genre from westerns to science fiction; from thrillers to romantic comedies. If it were a Hollywood film, Jana and Jan (Jana und Jan) would be categorized as a women-in-prison film, but without the … Continue reading Jana and Jan
Next Year at Lake Balaton
Road movies are common enough to warrant their own category. Whether the characters in a film are trying to get from point A to point B (The Straight Story, Vanishing Point), or simply enjoying the passing parade of life on the road (Easy Rider, Il Sorpasso), road movies have a special appeal. Although sometimes they … Continue reading Next Year at Lake Balaton
Fire Below Deck
Fire Below Deck (Feuer unter Deck) was first screened in theaters in 1982, and then only very briefly, but it had been scheduled to be released in 1977. This happened from time to time in East Germany when a film touched on some hot-button topic that either upset the authorities, or discussed something that was … Continue reading Fire Below Deck
The Solo Sailor
There is a saying among boat owners that a boat is a “hole in the ocean you throw money into.” Suffice it to say, boat owning can be an expensive proposition. In The Solo Sailor (Die Alleinseglerin), a young woman named Christine learns first-hand the joys and sorrows of owning a boat. She has just … Continue reading The Solo Sailor
Swan Island
As is often the case, even in so-called free countries, restrictions on what one can describe in print is less restrictive than what one can show on film. Films such as Naked Lunch and Last Exit to Brooklyn seem bowdlerized when compared to their original texts. In East Germany, there are some perfect examples of … Continue reading Swan Island
Karla
1966 was a rough year for film in East Germany. The 11th Plenum of the previous December pulled the rug out from under some of the most intelligent and creative film talent to come out of any country at any time. East German cinema was on the verge of matching the French New Wave in … Continue reading Karla
Seven Freckles
Seven Freckles (Sieben Sommersprossen) is the story of the love affair between Karoline and Robbi—two fifteen-year-olds who had been close two years earlier and meet-up again at summer camp. Standing in their way is Marlene, an attractive but self-absorbed girl who also has the hots for Robbi. When one of the camp counselors decides that … Continue reading Seven Freckles
East German Cinema Blog 