Oh, you happy ...
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Oh, you happy ... |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Günter Reisch |
| script | Hermann Kant |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Red Circle" |
| music | Helmut Nier |
| camera | Horst E. Brandt |
| cut | Lena Neumann |
| occupation | |
| |
Oh, you happy ... is a German Christmas film by DEFA by Günter Reisch from 1962.
action
Dresden, December 24th, 1961: Walter Lörke, Director of Labor and Management at VEB “ August 13th ” has to step in for a colleague as Santa Claus and is happy to finally go home after work, where he can spend a peaceful Christmas with his family want. In addition to the grandmother, the family consists of their daughter Anne, who has just turned 18, and their young son Karl. Walter's wife died some time ago. The quiet festival is not only disrupted by Karl's swinging Christmas plates and the space-style tree decorations. Daughter Anne also appears with short hair and the announcement that she has invited a friend - her boyfriend. Walter is upset, especially since Anne spontaneously invited the neighbors that were not loved because they were religious.
Even more comes to light at Christmas dinner: Anne wants to marry her boyfriend Thomas Ostermann. One of the reasons is her pregnancy . When Thomas, who works as a piano carrier, tells Walter who is loyal to the line and who is connected to the GDR in his face that he is against the state, Walter leaves the apartment indignantly. He walks into a pub , where he a drunken ex-Fleischer reported that Thomas' father corrector is a newspaper, including on Christmas night to have to work. Thomas was a very smart student, but could not "swim" and was therefore not allowed to study. Walter learns from Thomas' father that Thomas had a boyfriend in the boy Nasprzik at school, whose parents went to the West. The friend was therefore not allowed to go to high school at the instigation of the class leader, so that Thomas began to rebel. Thomas had learned from his father that the only just fight was against injustice; In the future Thomas wanted to be convinced and was annoying to the others. He was only able to take his Abitur because his father stood up for him. When Thomas found out about it, he bitterly moved out of his parents' apartment. Since then he has abhorred protection and relationships in order to assert himself.
Walter and Thomas visit the university's social sciences assistant , Dieter, who had been a student representative on the university's admissions committee the previous year. Because Thomas' social assessment was below average despite his excellent school grades, he was not admitted to the course by the admissions committee. Dieter explains to Walter that the assessment stated, among other things, that Thomas made fun of the FDJ , was arrogant, disregarded the educators and was ironic about the current times. Thomas only referred to his good report. He defends himself by saying that his basic principles include the justified fight against injustice. Dieter makes it clear to him that there is no more just fight than the current one, since it is the "fight against the ancient injustice of human history". Only if the commission can assess whether Thomas is one of the “good guys” in the sense of the state can it allow him to study. Walter and Thomas go back to Walter's apartment, where Thomas is greeted not only by Anne but also by his friend Nasprzik. Walter realizes that Thomas actually only stood up honorably for a friend and accepts the connection between Thomas and Anne. In addition, he made it possible for Thomas to continue the dialogue with Dieter and thus also to take a first step towards a second study attempt.
production
Oh, you happy ... is based on the play And That on Christmas Eve by Vratislav Blažek . The film was shot in Dresden from 1961 to 1962. The Lörke family's apartment is on Borsbergstrasse not far from the Heilig-Geist-Kirche .
Oh, you happy ... premiered on October 7, 1962 at Thalia in Potsdam- Babelsberg and was shown in GDR cinemas on October 12, 1962. On October 20, 1963, the film was shown for the first time on DFF 1 on GDR television. In 1986 the film saw a sequel with Wie die Alten sungen… .
Screenwriter Hermann Kant has a cameo as a party guest. By Walter Schulze-Mittendorff film costumes come while Alfred deer Meier was responsible for Filmbauten. The film's spokesman is Gerry Wolff , while Rolf Losansky acted as assistant director.
criticism
Renate Holland-Moritz praised the script, which "has such unity, persuasiveness and brilliance in dialogue that nothing can actually go wrong."
For the film service , Oh, you cheerful ... was an "above-average comedy with satirical tips against dogmatic views and unjustified generalizations, brilliantly played."
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 15-16 .
Web links
- Oh, you happy ... in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Oh, you happy ... at filmportal.de
- Oh, you happy ... at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Oh, you happy ... on defa.de
- ^ Renate Holland-Moritz: Oh, you happy ... In: Renate Holland-Moritz: The owl in the cinema. Movie reviews . Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1981, p. 24.
- ↑ Oh, you happy ... In: Lexicon of international film . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .