Bella block
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bella block |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Year (s) | 1994-2018 |
| Production company |
UFA television production |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Episodes | 38 ( list ) |
| genre | Detective film |
| idea | Doris Gercke (character Bella Block) |
| First broadcast | March 26, 1994 on ZDF |
| occupation | |
| |
Bella Block is a German crime series that was produced by UFA Fernsehproduktion for ZDF . From 1994 to 2018, 38 episodes were broadcast at irregular intervals. At the center of the action is the Hamburg chief detective Bella Block, played by Hannelore Hoger . Her partner Simon Abendroth ( Rudolf Kowalski ) also became increasingly important. In the double episode 26/27 (January 2009) he moved out of the shared apartment and Bella Block resigned after she was seriously injured. In the other cases she investigated as a retired commissioner. Her assistants were initially Bernadette Stein ( Eva Kryll , episodes 2 to 6) and Pit Cullmann ( Peter Heinrich Brix , episodes 3 to 5), then Hans Teichert ( Pit-Arne Pietz , episodes 6 to 19), Anke Ritter ( Bettina Hauenschild , Episodes 7 to 19) and Jan Martensen ( Devid Striesow , episodes 18 to 27). Even after her retirement, she frequently calls in Martensen for her investigations (episodes 28 to 31 as well as 33 and 38). The series team completed the senior public prosecutor Mehlhorn ( Hansjürgen Hürrig , from episode 6).
With the broadcast of the 38th episode on March 24, 2018, the crime series ended after 24 years.
content
Bella Block is a dedicated and experienced police officer . She carries out her work with a mixture of a clear routine and personal commitment. For her, being a police officer is a calling that doesn't end at the office door after work. If need be, thanks to her stubbornness, she can really bite into her cases. In her contentious lust for battle, she does not shy away from seeking confrontation with superiors. In her private life, however, she seeks rest and relaxation. She likes to be pampered and enjoys being with her significant other. She also likes to read, but on the other hand is not averse to celebrations, vodka and wine. Although she would like to, Bella Block is often unable to separate her private life and work, or at least switch off in her free time, when she has a complicated case to solve. Her partner Simon often suffers from this too. The literature professor tries to back her up wherever possible. But his patience and calm are also overworked time and again, which often leads to him withdrawing offended. Despite such problems, both are presented as a well-rehearsed team that has gone through various ups and downs over the years. In the course of the series, she and Simon eventually break up. Bella's assistants tend to stay in the background and have no profile. Attorney General Mehlhorn admires Bella Block, but also often has problems with her unconventional manner.
The individual episodes often address difficult or controversial topics. They deal with rape, sexual abuse, racism and failure to provide assistance.
Literary template
The character Bella Block was created by the novelist Doris Gercke . In August 1987 she began to write Weinschröter's first novel , You Must Hang , after hearing about a particularly terrible rape. Because of the great success of the novel, she continues to write new parts of the book series to this day. Gercke's books, however, are not the basis for the storyline of the film series. With the exception of the character “Bella Block” and the first film The Commissioner and the Fourth Death of a Girl , each of which is based on a novel by Gercke, all further episodes of the film series are completely autonomous and devised by different authors and written as scripts.
Differences between the Bella characters
An important difference between the two Bella Block characters is that "TV Bella" has returned to the police as a detective, whereas Gercke's Bella has remained a private detective. There are two reasons for this: Firstly, she is convinced that a career in the police force can only corrupt you. She fears for her integrity. A negative example of this is Bella's “short-term lover” and friend Beyer, who in the volume The War, Death, the Plague is killed in a police operation which, if successful, would have been the basis for its promotion. On the other hand, as a feminist , she can not stand this per se misogynistic and racist male-dominated authority. She finds the missions ineffective, the imposing behavior of the male colleagues ridiculous, and she comes to the conclusion that the police are only a self-defamatory association for “career-hungry powerhouses”.
The Bella of the books also becomes more depressed from case to case . For a while she took on completely hopeless cases out of a feeling of guilt towards an old woman: Her heroin-addicted granddaughter wanted to get out of prostitution, but was murdered by a killer, which Bella could not prevent. Now she is trying to help a number of young women in a similar situation - but they do not want to change their lives at all. As a reason, they often give their “love” for their pimps. For Bella, love becomes a patriarchal instrument of power for the oppression of women. Disillusioned and disappointed, our detective drinks more and more vodka ...
As a result, there is another difference in the different love lives of the two characters. Bella of the books has a lover from time to time (besides Beyer there is also a corrupt Russian militiaman named Alexander, Eddie, the pub and takeaway chain owner, with whom she preferably has sex on the pool table in the back room, and then Kranz, the police psychologist ). However, she does not have a permanent, friendly and charming partner (like Abendroth) who sweetened her everyday life with good food and intellectual tenderness. "TV Bella" has a positive energy source here that her literary sister does not have. Rather, it would be a way of life that Bella of Books would reject. Their relationship with men consists of their urgent need for sex and physical fulfillment.
Two women are of great importance in the life of Bella of the Books:
- Her mother Olga , well into her 80s, is a staunch old communist who once fought in the Spanish Civil War. From her, Bella learned the virtue of socially critical thinking. At the same time, however, her relationship with her mother is divided: like other mothers, she complains about her clothes, criticizes her daughter's life and demands more frequent visits. She also wants Bella to take trips (e.g. to Moscow or Latin America) that she is no longer able to do herself. The figure of the mother with her straightforward - left-wing extremist, but nevertheless optimistic - nature presents a counter-image to the disaffected protagonist. Bella is also politically left, but no longer believes in the society-changing effects of her actions. In stark contrast to Olga, who still meets up with her K group , consisting of all old women and men, to design flyers .
- Willi (Wilhelmina) is a law student whom Bella hired as an employee and “girl for everything”. When she leaves, she laconically states that an erotic opportunity has been missed. On the one hand, Willi brings detailed technical knowledge - about heroin, bank corruption or politicians - into the novels. She creates folders and puts newspaper articles or specialist literature on Bella's desk. In addition, she speaks a young, critical language that Bella can no longer use due to lack of energy.
The literary Bella Block is the (fictional) granddaughter of Alexander Blok , who often remembers his poems.
Gerckes relationship to the television series
As Gercke mentions in several interviews, the films no longer have much to do with her books. She sold the rights to the character to ZDF and distanced herself from the person portrayed there in the film. She also declined to work on the scripts because she likes to be alone while writing. In contrast to the actress Hannelore Hoger, who emphasizes a close relationship between the film character and the fictional character - she speaks of “dizygoti twins” - the author sees a completely different person in the film character Bella Block. She watches the films, but she does not see Bella Block, but the actress Hoger.
The character stands out from the television crime scene. According to Gercke, it is not enough to make an underground film. This is due to the fact that the quota is always hanging over the television productions as the sword of Damocles .
Episode list
There are also audio descriptions for episodes 1, 24, 25 and 30–36 .
DVD release
Bella Block has also been available on DVD since 2006. The DVD box Bella Block: the films of the 90s includes the five episodes Die Kommissarin , Liebestod , Greed , Death of a Girl and On the Hunt . On August 6, 2010 the DVD box Bella Block Best of Vol. 1 was released by Universum Film GmbH . It contains the four episodes of Whispered Murders , At the End of the Lie , Murder Under the Cross and White Nights . On January 14, 2011, the box Bella Block Vol. 2 was released , which contains the consequences of guilt and love , bitter suspicion , behind the mirrors and freedom of the wolves . The box Bella Block Vol. 3 , published April 15, 2011, contains the episodes Journey to China , The Silence of the Commissioner (Parts 1 + 2) and Providence .
Awards
- 1994
- Adolf Grimme Prize to Max Färberböck (director) and Hannelore Hoger (actress)
- Bavarian TV Prize to Max Färberböck (Director)
- Telestar - Best director in a television play to Max Färberböck for Die Kommissarin
- 1996
- Goldener Löwe - Best Actress to Hannelore Hoger for Liebestod
- Bavarian TV Prize in the Actress TV Drama category to Hannelore Hoger
- Telestar - Best director in a television play to Max Färberböck for Liebestod
- TV Film Festival Baden-Baden - TV film award to Max Färberböck for love death
- 1998
- Golden Camera - Audience Award Most popular German commissioner goes to Hannelore Hoger
- 2003
- Bavarian television award to Hannelore Hoger for deadly closeness
- 2005
- German Television Award - Best Music to Annette Focks, among other things, for the episode ... because they don't know what they're doing
- 2006
- German TV Award - Best Book TV Film to Christian Jeltsch for the happiness of others
- German Television Award - Best Cinematography to Judith Kaufmann for The Carpet Layer's Wife
- German television crime prize - main prize to Christian von Castelberg for the happiness of others
- 2008
-
German television award
- Best book to Katrin Bühlig for White Nights
- Best music to Karim Sebastian Elias for White Nights
-
German television award
- 2010
-
German television crime award
- Main prize to Max Färberböck for Providence
- Audience Award for Providence
-
German television crime award
- 2012
- German audio film award in the television film category for stab in the heart
literature
- Thilo Wydra : Bella Block. Films, facts, backgrounds . Henschel, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89487-507-0 .
Web links
- Bella Block in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Bella Block at Fernsehserien.de
- Bella Block on the ZDF page about the series
- Bella Block on the UFA website
- Hannelore Hoger as "Bella Block": She would love to prevent the crimes. Interview with Hannelore Hoger and Doris Gercke in the FAZ on January 14, 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b presseportal.zdf.de: “Bella Block und das Böse” - shooting start for the last film in the ZDF series with Hannelore Hoger, Hansjürgen Hürrig, Devid Striesow and Rudolf Kowalski Article from March 10, 2017
- ↑ a b presseportal.de: ZDF shoots new "Bella Block" thriller - Henrik Birch in a double role Article from October 28, 2016
- ↑ First performed at the Hamburg Film Festival on October 3, 2011 ( Bella Block: Stab ins Herz at the Hamburg Film Festival 2011, UFA press release , accessed on August 31, 2012)
- ↑ First performed at the Hamburg Film Festival on October 13, 2017. Bella Block: Am Abgrund. Filmfest Hamburg, 2017, accessed on January 19, 2018 .
- ↑ see for example Die Kommissarin in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V. and stab in the heart in the Hörfilm database of Hörfilm e. V.
- ↑ Bella Block DVDs distributed by Universum Film GmbH ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 10th German Audio Film Award 2012
