Description of a summer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Description of a summer |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 80 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ralf Kirsten |
| script | Gudrun Deubener |
| production | DEFA , Artistic Working Group "60" |
| music | Wolfgang Lesser |
| camera | Hans Heinrich |
| cut | Christel Röhl |
| occupation | |
| |
Description of a summer is a German love film from DEFA by Ralf Kirsten from 1962. It was based on the novel of the same name by Karl-Heinz Jakobs .
action
Tom Breitsprecher is an excellent engineer, but also a womanizer. He spent the hot and dry summer, of which he looks back, traveling and having minor affairs and is glad to be back in Berlin. He lives in a non-conformist way, has dropped out of school and had already argued so passionately with members of the FDJ in the late 1940s that they never even tried to recruit him. Now, at the instigation of his long-time friend Schibulla, the Berliner is to lead the construction of an industrial complex on the large construction site in Wartha - which is to be carried out by committed but unskilled young FDJ people who have taken a year off from their actual work. There are butchers and other workers, but not one who is familiar with concrete. Tom treats the workers with contempt and scorn; the FDJ secretary Grit, who wants to agitate and recruit him, he rejects with cynicism.
The morale among the volunteers is falling. Although they are all there voluntarily and full of idealism, they also want recognition for their efforts. Only Grit manages to break Tom's cynicism. She believes that he secretly wants to be part of her community - at the age of 30, however, he would no longer be accepted into the FDJ because of his age. A tender affair develops between Tom and the married Grit, especially since she respects her husband, who has stayed in Oelsnitz, but does not love. Both try to keep their relationship a secret, but this is not possible in the long run. Above all, Grit comes into conflict with the party and, at the instigation of Schibulla, among others, is said to speak to her husband. However, she stays with Tom in Wartha. Schibulla explains that both behavior will be discussed with the party and that this may result in Grits being excluded from the party. Grit promises to create clear relationships, but stands by her love for Tom until the end.
production
Karl-Heinz Jakobs wrote the novel for the film after he had worked as a bricklayer in the construction of a power plant until 1956, but also got into conversation with engineers who were critical of the construction. The construction of the PCK refinery in Schwedt also served as research for the novel . The novel was a great success in the GDR and had 17 editions from 1961 to 2008 with around 500,000 copies sold.
The filming of the film adaptation of the novel began in the summer of 1962 on the construction site of the PCK refinery in Schwedt, where the filming team was given their own space for filming and real construction workers as extras. Like the novel, the film also focused on the love story, which prompted Deputy Culture Minister Hans Rodenberg to protests at DEFA. Rodenberg described the film project as "anti-party" and recommended DEFA to rewrite the ending more politically. However, this did not happen. The special feature of the film is that it does not have an “end” overlay. Although Grit's husband plays a role for much of the film, he does not appear in person in the film.
The film premiered on January 15, 1963 in the culture house of the Schwedt petroleum processing plant. The film was the VI. Dedicated to the SED party congress in Berlin and was praised by the Chairman of the State Council, Walter Ulbricht , even though he had never seen the film. Describing a Summer was a huge hit, drawing around three million moviegoers in the first year. In addition, the names Tom and Grit became popular children's names in the GDR in the early 1960s.
criticism
The contemporary critics praised the film and the main characters, "in which our time is reflected in an idiosyncratic way." At first glance, however, Krug and Bodenstein are a "surprising cast of the complicated pair of lovers". Their shared scenes "captivate with their poetic, difficult to define, but wonderfully sensible mood."
In retrospect, the film was also rated positively: "At that time we took this film as a reflection of our own ideas and feelings about reality [...] Today, since the film can be seen in the overall context of the sixties, it maintains its weight."
The film service described the description of a summer as a “formally convincing DEFA film that was unusually open for the time it was made. The sympathies belong to the individualist embodied by Krug, who does not hold back with criticism of ideological phrases. Thematic forerunner of the later banned DEFA film Trail of the Stones . "
Web links
- Description of a summer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Description of a summer at filmportal.de
- Description of a summer at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b See mdr.de. ( Memento from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (ed.): Trace of the films: contemporary witnesses about DEFA . Links, Berlin 2006, p. 182, ISBN 3-86153-401-0 .
- ↑ Wolfgang Gersch. In: Filmspiegel , No. 2, 1963.
- ↑ Rosemarie Rehahn . In: Wochenpost , No. 4, 1963.
- ^ Margot Schröder. In: Junge Welt , 19./20. January 1963.
- ↑ Erika Richter. In: Ralf Schenk, Christiane Mückenberger: The second life of the film city Babelsberg . Henschel, Berlin 1994.
- ^ Description of a summer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .