Columbus 64
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Columbus 64 |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 297 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ulrich Thein |
| script | Ulrich Thein |
| production | German television broadcasting |
| music | Wolfgang Pietsch |
| camera | Hartwig Strobel |
| cut |
Bert Schultz Hilde Tegener Karin Schmidt Brigitte Bergmann |
| occupation | |
| |
Columbus 64 is a four-part feature film on German TV by Ulrich Thein from 1966 .
action
1. Allow me, Brecher, Berlin
First broadcast on October 1, 1966
Georg Brecher, a 34-year-old journalist with ambitions to become a writer, guides a young woman named Karin through the Pergamon Museum . Then both spend the night at Brecher, but separate again the next day. Brecher is a person who lives through the day and has debts, but drives an American Chevrolet . When he tries to get his father, a dentist, to pump money in order to pay off debts to his housekeeper, which he can afford, the latter refuses. Even Krümel, a friend in the editorial office of a newspaper, for which he sometimes works, can only lend him 100 marks. In return, he receives the offer to write a report about Wismut AG , which he does not want. He also has an argument with his Hungarian girlfriend, the singer Tery. He doesn’t want her to go round the whole GDR all the time. However, she enjoys her job and doesn't want to do without it. Her next appearance happens to be at a Wismut event, and he drives her there by car, thinking about writing the article after all. Shortly before the destination, the engine of his car breaks down, he has to take care of the repairs, and since Tery has to go to the performance, they split up and arrange to meet at the hotel for the evening. The repair of the car will take several weeks, however, in the agreed hotel there are no more rooms available, so that he has to make do with a simple, more distant hotel. When he wants to go to Tery's cultural center, the porter does not let him in. They still get together, but Tery goes home the next day and Georg stays in the bismuth.
2. Sepp and all the others
First broadcast on October 2, 1966
In the “IV. Party Congress “there are transport problems , as the heavy Soviet KrAZ trucks have difficulties on the smooth roads. Several drivers of the gritting vehicles failed at the same time. And so it turns out that Georg is approached to step in. Since he is clammy with his money and his car has not yet been repaired, he says yes. For him it is a whole new experience to work physically and responsibly on a regular basis. But he does his job so well that he is sure to be recognized by his colleagues. The search for Kurt Steinhauer, who was named as the contact person by the newspaper editorial staff, leads to confusion. Georg looks for Steinhauer at home in vain. But not there, but with his partner Isa, who has a reputation for being a somewhat frivolous person, he finally meets him. In order to annoy her Kurt, who is once again drunk, Isa claims that she was in bed with Georg during a futile visit to meet colleague Steinhauer. Thereupon Georg receives a good deal of beating from Kurt, from which a close friendship develops after a clarifying discussion.
Georg's attempts to contact his girlfriend Tery fail. She is supposed to be in Budapest, but cannot be reached in writing or by phone. But he is secretly adored by the daughter of the landlord of his hotel. She prepares for her career aspiration - cook on a ship - in the foreign language evening course. That in turn does not suit her father, who constantly beats up his wife and daughter when something is not his will. Thanks to Georg's support, however, Sepp Wenig can clarify this.
After the end of the winter period there is no longer any need for sand trucks and Georg is now a tipper driver on a KRAS. In the first week he works the night shift and copes with it. But when he again took on a night shift the following week in exchange for a colleague, he collapsed. A medical examination shows that he is not up to the effort. His car has now been repaired and so he's driving back to Berlin.
3. Neck blows, interest - and a very small cook
First broadcast on October 4, 1966
On the day of his arrival in Berlin, Georg learns that Tery is on his way to the city. After shuttling back and forth between Schönefeld Airport and Ostbahnhof to pick her up in vain, he hears that she has already checked into a guesthouse on Schiffbauerdamm and drives to her. Tery only makes it clear to him that she wants to break the relationship with him because it is not based on love. For Georg the world collapses first, which he tries to bridge with alcohol. After the celebrants move on from the restaurant to his apartment, he throws all visitors out in the early hours of the morning. He realizes that his life in this form cannot go on like this. To get started, he sells his expensive American sledge and uses it to pay the debt to his housekeeper and the supplies for the next three months. His friend Krümel got him an order on the Baltic Sea, against the resistance of the editorial board. He is to accompany a Swedish delegation during the Baltic Sea week and write a report in several parts. It starts with collection in Trelleborg. During the crossing with the “Saßnitz” ferry, he meets the landlord's daughter Gundel from his hotel in Wismut again. She made her dream come true and works here as a cook. Since both are professionally involved, they arrange to meet 14 days later. You go for a walk with Gundel's girlfriend all day and want to go to a fisherman's festival in the evening. So that they arrive there strengthened, they want to eat something warm beforehand. Then Georg meets the helmsman Paul, about whose fishing trawler he once wrote an article. Paul is very drunk, but Georg makes sure that he catches his ship before it leaves. As a result, Gundel is alone at the fisherman's festival and gets drunk for the first time in her life. The other guests make fun of her because of this, but Georg can get her out of this situation late at night.
Krümel gets in big trouble in the meantime, because the report on the Swedes is expected, but Georg does not answer. He had tried in vain to call the editorial office in Berlin that night. Krümel criticizes his editor-in-chief and resolves never to support Georg again. But when he visits him at home, he realizes that he is working on the order seriously, but that he was not aware of the urgency. Now Krümel is fully behind him again. The story about his time at Wismut is also slowly being finished and Georg tries to put it into a publishing house. In a conversation with Mr. Korat, the editor of the publisher who is not on friendly terms with him, he promises to take care of the story and read it.
4. Hello, sun, my name is Moritz
First broadcast on October 5, 1966
In the post, Georg is asked to report to the youth welfare office in the Berlin-Mitte district. There he learns to his surprise that he is the father of a 7-year-old boy. After initially unwilling to believe this, it turns out that the child was the result of a single cohabitation. The child was taken away from the mother because of her way of life and placed in a Catholic home, as there was no place in the state. The mother read an article by Georg in a newspaper and so after many years came to his address. She is now of the opinion that Georg should pay the money for the home place for the next seven years. But he wants to bring the boy to his home. In the same week he goes to Eichsfeld and picks up Moritz there. The boy is very happy and is very spoiled by Georg. Georg just wants to wean him off the fact that Moritz always calls him "Mr. Father" and prays all the time.
Gundel is on his way to see Georg over the GDR's national holiday, October 7th. Although he had written to her that he has no time, her longing was greater. After preparing a room of his own for Moritz, Gundel thinks that Georg wants to sleep with her now and makes it clear to him that she is still a virgin and that he should be careful. But he tries to explain to her that his feelings for her are more like those of a brother. She has to get over this disappointment first.
The editor is extremely enthusiastic about the story and now wants to prepare it for printing together with Georg. But Georg, who has meanwhile gained a lot of new knowledge, takes the manuscript home with him to revise it.
Censored scenes
Several scenes in the film fell victim to the GDR censorship, including all appearances by Wolf Biermann , who originally also contributed the title song Don't wait for better times . Biermann performed under his own name. The removed scenes were found in Ulrich Thein's estate and are included on the DVD edition as bonus material.
production
The last 25 minutes of the 3rd part are congruent with the first 25 minutes of the 4th part. This has to do with errors in the archiving, possibly also with interventions by the censorship. The version originally broadcast differed from this traditional version. Interesting about the film are also the shots of the Berlin city center before its later redesign.
criticism
EM said in the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland after the first part that the problem of the film is unconventional and artistically convincing.
Also after the broadcast of the first part, MK came to the conclusion in the Neue Zeit that Armin Mueller-Stahl had stepped into the shape of the crusher, like a tailor-made suit. Boyish, hasty, he walks around with impatient masculinity, selfish and yet endowed with the initially somewhat buried honesty and decency in his heart.
Elvira Mollenschott wrote in the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland : “The praise that Ulrich Thein as director should be given for bringing buddy der Wismut to the screen in such a natural and original way must be supplemented by another for the delicacy and the sure artistic feeling Taste with which the little Uli Kahle, interpreter of the wonderful role of Moritz, was led by Ulrich Thein. "
Web links
- Columbus 64 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Columbus 64 at filmportal.de
- Presentation of the background and reconstruction of the interventions in the television film by the German Broadcasting Archive