Anton the magician

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Movie
Original title Anton the magician
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1978
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Günter Reisch
script Karl Georg Egel scenario
production DEFA , KAG "Johannisthal"
music Wolfram Heicking
camera Günter Haubold
cut Bärbel Weigel
occupation

Anton the Magician is a German comedy film of the DEFA of Günter Reisch from 1978. The film was a box office hit in the GDR - director, screenwriter and actor were awarded nationally for its "contribution to the development of the socialist film comedy".

action

Anton Grubske is buried. The mourners look back. Even as a teenager, Anton showed a preference for cars and women. When the auto mechanic was shot down in the desert during the Second World War and a mirage in the form of a filled beer glass developed in his mind's eye in the middle of the wasteland, the third defining passion in Anton's life was awakened: the love of alcohol. After the end of the war, Anton returned to his father and found a lucrative source of income in the processing of wrecked cars, which became even more lucrative when he specialized in restoring tractors. He also took the tips untaxed and deposited them with his acquaintance and half-beloved Sabine, since he has meanwhile married the Pietist Liesel. When the diverted funds reach astronomical heights, Anton, with Sabine's help, opens an account in West Berlin on which the funds secretly disappear. Sabine receives a power of attorney and can soon announce to Anton that he is an Ostmark millionaire.

Meanwhile, Anton is expanding his business practices: instead of selling goods when they are ready, he borrows from the large farmers for tractors to be delivered, for which he does not even have the necessary wrecks. Soon there was a production backlog and a customer who was always put off reports Anton anonymously. He is arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. Even in prison he showed organizational talent and zeal for work and was eventually released as an excellent activist . A card from Sabine in Switzerland has meanwhile brought him back down to earth: Sabine has taken his West Berlin money and found accommodation in Switzerland. However, since Anton always claimed during the trial that he had spent the stolen money, there is now no way to bring the theft to a court.

Anton starts working for the tractor works manager Schröder, for whom he already worked during his prison time, as a spare parts buyer. Since Anton can literally organize everything, he soon received several awards and was even allowed to travel to Budapest , where he resisted an offer to flee to Switzerland. Because of the increasing nightmares of the money that had disappeared because of the large amount of money that he could not spend in the GDR as a private citizen, he decided to waive the assets in writing. A fresh start would be necessary, as the doctors also advise him to refrain from excessive alcohol consumption in the future. Already ingesting a large amount of alcohol while excited could mean the end of it. Anton's decision is put to the test when Sabine dies in a traffic accident in Switzerland. She signed her life insurance over to him so that he would now receive 200,000 Swiss francs . He decides to donate the money to the city. He has a Chevrolet Impala , Sabine's last car and now his inheritance, destroyed in the scrap press. He then gets very drunk and dies of heart failure. At his funeral, all the people with whom he has dealt in the course of his time give him their last respects and approve the alcohol.

production

Originally, Anton the Magician was conceived as a multi-part television film. Director Günter Reisch cast the leading role of Anton with Ulrich Thein , who from 1963 appeared and was recognized primarily as a director and rarely acted in front of the camera. Reisch saw this as thoroughly positive: “He [Thein] is an actor and director, and as a director he knows how fatal it can be to talk a character to death. [...] Of course he comes up with new suggestions, but not with a new scene or even new dialogues. "

The film, which was shot in Havelland , among other places , premiered on September 19 in the Rostock Capitol and was released three days later. With around 800,000 spectators in the GDR, Anton the Magician was a great public success. It was also shown at festivals and events in the FRG (GDR Film Week in the FRG, 1980), in Norway (GDR Film Festival in Oslo, Bergen / Norway 1986) and in China (GDR Film Week in Beijing, China, 1989 ). On January 6, 1980 it was broadcast for the first time on television at 8:00 p.m. in the first program of the GDR television and on October 25, 1984 in the third program of the NDR for the first time in the FRG .

criticism

Contemporary critics praised Anton the Magician : “The film is a treat for the eyes and ears. Image and dialogue points fit like a tailor-made suit, ”wrote Renate Holland-Moritz . The film is a “laughing self-criticism”, “which has not been found in any DEFA film for a long time,” said other critics. Rosemarie Rehahn specified this in her review of this “delightfully full-blown film pleasure”: “Since ' Carbide and Sorrel ', no comedy film of this kind has happened to DEFA. I mean, no one who approaches the social and historical assessment of our very recent past with so much sovereign wit and charm, with so much originality. No one who approaches comedy so cheerfully and cheekily. ”Rehahn, on the other hand, criticized the end of the film, which approached too much the sway ,“ where everything is allowed, the main thing is that people laugh. ”

In the lexicon of international films , Anton der Zauberer called it a “cheerful, ironic view of early GDR history, which, however, avoids existential conflicts and loses truthfulness because of what it omits.” For Cinema , the film was a “cheerful one -ironic journey into the early days of the 'Zone' ”.

Awards

In the critics' survey of the Association of Film and Television Creators of the GDR, Anton the Magician won 1978 in the categories of best DEFA film of 1978 and best DEFA film in the comic genre of 1978.

Ulrich Thein was honored as best actor in 1979 for his portrayal of Anton at the Moscow International Film Festival . Anton the Magician also competed for the Golden Prize, later the Golden George.

Günter Reisch, Karl Georg Egel and Ulrich Thein were awarded the Heinrich Greif First Class Prize on March 9, 1979 for their “contribution to the development of socialist film comedy” .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anton the Magician . In: F.-B. Habel: The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, p. 37.
  2. ^ Regine Sylvester: Anton the magician . Conversation with Günter Reisch. In: Sunday , No. 17, April 23, 1978.
  3. ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 223.
  4. ↑ Renate Holland-Moritz: Lino-Owl . In: Kino-Eule , No. 38, 1978.
  5. ↑ Peter Ahrens: Film comedy with engagement In: Weltbühne , No. 40, 1978.
  6. ↑ Rosemarie Rehahn: A man like Anton . In: weekly mail . October 13, 1978.
  7. ↑ Anton the Magician. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 7, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ Anton the Magician. In: Cinema . Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 7, 2018 .
  9. ↑ See defa.de