Banquet for Achilles
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Banquet for Achilles |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1975 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roland Graef |
| script | Martin Stephan |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Babelsberg" |
| music |
Gerhard Rosenfeld , Günther Fischer |
| camera | Jürgen Lenz |
| cut | Monika Schindler |
| occupation | |
| |
Banquet for Achilles is a DEFA German fiction film directed by Roland Gräf in 1975.
action
Achilles worked for the Bitterfeld Chemical Combine for 30 years and helped set it up in 1945. Now he is retiring as a master craftsman at the age of 65, even if the company doctor tells him that with his good constitution he could work for a few more years. Achilles, however, decided against it because he claims to want to spend more time with his family. His relationship with his son Ernst is broken, he has not seen his daughter for two years, and his granddaughter does not recognize him. Only the adopted Beate stayed with him. He himself lives with his new partner Marga and his colleague rumors that she doesn't have much to say in the house.
Achilles has only now recognized what his colleagues had noticed for a long time, but kept silent: He is no longer up to the new technical challenges, the younger colleagues have overtaken him. For two years, the university graduate Bahre has not only been a helper but also a watchdog by his side. So in the farewell with standard speeches and gifts of money, pain and anger are mixed up.
The only thing Achilles really likes are plants. Nothing flourishes around the chemical plant, except for the resilient flowers that Achilles almost defiantly planted in a bed in the middle of the wasteland. Achilles is now destroying the bed, because if he is going, then right. In the evening, his partner organized a farewell party with the workers at the company. Achilles lets it go through, but can't be happy. He declines a three-week trip to the Black Sea, which is supposed to start the next day, because he also likes it at home. When a birthday film is shown, which humorously depicts Achilles' “age-related complaints”, the jubilee angrily leaves his own party after denouncing the hypocrisy of his colleagues and takes refuge in his garden. He doesn't return until late.
The next morning he gets up as early as always. He packs up his cuts and goes to the factory. Here he begins to rebuild his bed that was destroyed the day before.
production
The banquet for Achilles was filmed in and around Bitterfeld . A central motif are the smoking chimneys of the electrochemical combine and the surrounding landscape that has been destroyed: "Images of the barren industrial landscape of the Bitterfeld district and the look into the faces of the people who are influenced by it - this is what makes this film alive", according to a contemporary critic.
The scenario of the film had to be revised several times since 1974, because the drawing of the "fate of the workers" as well as the basic mood of the film were viewed as too negative. Achilles' affinity for plants, who wants to grow blue flowers on the contaminated soil, was praised as "undoubtedly a very poetic artistic idea and a beautiful and great task", but at the same time a central message of the film was missed:
"... it's not about making it clear - without spinning it out - that the working life of Master Achilles, the trace of his work, continues to have an effect, is continued in a different way, on a new level by the 'boys'."
Although the DEFA directorate did not approve the rough cut of the film on January 10, 1975 and the Film Headquarters criticized the film for portraying the life of the worker Achilles too negatively , Ruth Herlinghaus , head of the Artistic Production Department at the Ministry of Culture , despite their own reservations for the state approval of the film. The banquet for Achilles finally had its premiere on November 20, 1975 at the Kino International in Berlin . On April 23, 1977 it ran on DFF 2 for the first time on television and was also shown on May 8, 1977 in the first .
Reviews
Contemporary critics called banquet for Achilles realistic and praised the fact that Erwin Geschonneck had created an “idiosyncratic and true worker figure” with Achilles.
The lexicon of international films wrote about Banquet for Achilles : “GDR film about the fear of aging and being excluded from the work process, drawn with psychological sharpness. The socially critical punchlines are accurate and believable despite the many comedic tones. In addition, for the first time in the DEFA film, the problem of the destroyed environment is addressed. "
Cinema described the film as satire and said it recognizes humorous aspects in the film: “With all the humor, the film doesn’t save with bitter undertones about age and the loss of social recognition associated with retirement, especially in the workers and peasants state . Conclusion: GDR cabinet piece with subtle criticism ”.
The film critic and former chief dramaturge at the DEFA studio for feature films, Klaus Wischnewski (1928–2003), retrospectively called the film “one of the few portraits of workers in German feature films: [...] No heroism, no history and politics. […] Achilles' being there and being (Erwin Geschonneck) conveys the history of the workers and an alert, real GDR balance sheet: the wounded landscape, the struggle for a few blue flowers, man as part of nature because he works in it , not just under socialism. "
Narrative volume
The screenwriter of the film, Martin Stephan , later reworked the film's content into an independent story and published it in 1977 with a dedication to the director Roland Gräf.
literature
- Frank-Burkhard Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 55–56.
- Roland Gräf: Banquet for Achilles. Difficulties with the working class . DEFA Foundation 2007.
- Martin Stephan: Banquet for Achilles . Book publisher Der Morgen, Berlin 1977.
Web links
- Banquet for Achilles in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Banquet for Achilles at filmportal.de
- Banquet for Achilles at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for banquet for Achilles . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 102 DVD).
- ↑ cit. to. Heinz Kersten: So many dreams. DEFA film reviews from three decades . Vistas, Berlin 1996, p. 32ff.
- ↑ cit. according to Dagmar Schittly: Between director and regime: the film policy of the SED in the mirror of DEFA productions . Ch.links, Berlin 2002, p. 190.
- ↑ See defa.de
- ↑ -ele- in: Saxon Latest News , November 9, 1975.
- ^ Banquet for Achilles. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 244.