The second life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The second life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1973
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Siegfried Kühn
script Siegfried Kühn
Helmut Baierl
production DEFA , KAG "Babelsberg"
music Hans Jürgen Wenzel
camera Roland Dressel
cut Brigitte Krex
occupation

The Second Life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow is a German DEFA film directed by Siegfried Kühn from 1973.

action

Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Platow is 57 years old and has been a gatekeeper in the small village of Luege for 34 years. Now the line is to be electrified and Platow is not considered to be capable of further training at the responsible Zolle. Not only because he is too old to switch: many years ago he was offered a further training course and he turned it down. The employee Rennmark, in turn, insists that Platow's case cannot only be inferred from the cadre files, and wants to give him a chance to qualify. Since Rennmark dies unexpectedly, Zolle prevails. Platow is now to take over service on a siding that his son had previously provided. Son Platow, in turn, is to be sent on the qualification course. In keeping with the family tradition, however, the son refuses and Platow secretly makes the decision to take part in the multi-week qualification course at the traffic school himself as his son. He buys a leather jacket, changes his clothes and goes to the course. On the train ride to the traffic school, he meets Malvine, where he tests his age. However, she sees through him and gives him tips on how he can look younger, so he should walk and behave differently. At the traffic school he actually passed through as his late thirties and moved into a room with Ditfurt. He struggles with the learning material, peaks and fails in the simulation on the model railway system. He is close to giving up everything, but he also has an interest in being around Malvine, with whom he fell in love. However, he has a competitor in his teacher Schildt. Schildt, Malvine, Ditfurt and Platow go to a disco and a classical concert and Platow and Malvine visit a transport museum together. At an old railway embankment, Platow finds an outsourced railroad trolley that he wants to get back on the road and give to the Transport Museum. There is one problem, however: the draisine could only be brought to the museum by rail.

In the end, Malvine decides against Platow and Schildt because she wants to return to her former boyfriend. In the subsequent conversation between Schildt and Platow, Platow accidentally reveals his real age. The fraud case caused a stir and even brought an investigative reporter to the traffic school. The institution goes through the case and decides that this will not happen again in the future. Platow is said to be excluded from the course because he did not understand the principle of electronic switching anyway. Platow goes, puts the trolley on the rails and drives off with it. Due to the automatic blocking of certain routes due to the electrification of the railroad, Platow has free travel. If it is diverted to a siding, it lifts the trolley back onto the main track. The men in the control center realize that they must be dealing with a person who is very familiar with the electronic circuit. Schildt and his students are at the head office and finally see Platow on the trolley. Schildt runs after him and begs him to finally get off the trolley. He has proven that he can handle modern technology and will pass the qualification course with a 1. A little later you see Platow on duty for the railroad - in a big city.

production

The second life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow was filmed in Dresden from 1972 onwards. Individual scenes were created in the Transport Museum and in the Zeunerbau of the Technical University of Dresden in front of the "fidget cabinets" there, several dozen gear models behind glass that can be set in motion at the push of a button. Eva Sickert created the costumes and Georg Wratsch created the film structures . The band Puhdys plays the songs When we parted yesterday , Kranich & Schwan and Himmelhoch blaze fire .

The film was criticized by the SED even before it premiered for distorting the working class. Therefore, from June 1, 1973, a few copies of the film were shown exclusively in studio cinemas without a previous premiere, were hardly reviewed and were not allowed to be exported abroad. On October 25, 1977, it ran on DDR 2 for the first time on East German television and was shown for the first time on all German television on September 25, 1996 on ORB. Icestorm released the film on DVD in 2007.

criticism

The film-dienst called The Second Life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow a “satirical comedy that not least reflects the individual's being affected by scientific and technical progress.” The play by the main actor Fritz Marquardt was praised as “outstanding”. Other critics also called the main role "ideally cast" and the film a treasure and the best film by the director Kühn.

For Cinema the film was "deep fun from DEFA."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 717 .
  2. ^ The second life of Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Platow. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ Klaus Wischnewski: Dreamers and Ordinary People 1966 to 1979 . In: Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 251.
  4. ↑ See cinema.de