The Doppelganger (1985, Wallroth)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The lookalike |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1985 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Werner W. Wallroth |
| script | Werner W. Wallroth |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Berlin" |
| music | Wolfgang Wallroth |
| camera | Wolfgang Braumann |
| cut | Lotti Mehnert |
| occupation | |
| |
The Doppelganger is a German feature film from the DEFA studio for feature films by Werner W. Wallroth from 1985 .
action
While looking for new motifs, the fashion photographer Benno discovers a man in one of these photos who looks very much like the husband of one of his mannequins. This mannequin Brigitte is currently sitting with his wife and is evaluating the problems with her husband Jörg with her. When Benno found out about the intended divorce, he had the idea of using the doppelganger to save this marriage. Looking for him, Benno ends up in the Neidklapp nightclub , where the person he is looking for is employed as a pianist and is called Engel.
Brigitte's husband is an engineer and works for a household electrical appliance company. That is why his home is also equipped with all the appliances in the kitchen that people do not need. He himself is a hopeless pedant, opinionated towards his wife and child and very unfriendly to his fellow men. This unfriendliness and arrogance does not stop at his colleagues, which is why they send him to the Leipzig Trade Fair to use his absence to bypass him when appointing a new department head.
The day after they got to know each other and the agreement that Mr. Engel should pretend to be Brigitte's husband, Benno first shows him the couple's apartment. This is where he met his son Ricky and, completely surprisingly, Brigitte also came home with four furniture carriers and a piano. She bought it even though she only wanted the candlesticks attached to it. For angels, this is the opportunity to pose as a husband, which goes without any problems. Suddenly Jörg also comes home to prepare for the business trip, so that Benno and Engel have trouble disappearing. Then Brigitte takes her husband to the train station.
Back home, Brigitte hears someone playing the piano in the next room and sees that it is her "husband". She is surprised because she only brought him to the train station a short time ago and why he can suddenly play the piano, but does not worry. Although she fears that her husband will attract attention, as always, for his doggedness and grumbling, she agrees to go out with him. You spend a nice, pleasant evening and at breakfast "Jörg" behaves differently than usual, which continues on the excursion the next day. Brigitte is so excited that she confesses to Benno's wife that she has a relationship with her own husband.
The next morning Engel does not manage to disappear in time when his "wife" drops him off in front of his place of work and he has to enter the company. However, the same results can be observed here as at home. His about-face in behavior is evaluated positively and even his promotion to the supervisor is considered, because here too the doppelganger is not recognized as such. Even when he tried to convince Brigitte, who followed him in the evening when he left the apartment , that he was not who she thought he was, he was unsuccessful.
When Jörg Kaufmann returns from his trade fair visit, he is surprised to see how popular he suddenly is in his company. He also finds the condition at home okay. Slowly he comes to the conclusion of the story introduced by his friend Benno and starts looking for his doppelganger. But since he is extremely satisfied with the situation, he gets along with Engel, who in turn no longer has any problems with his girlfriend. The only one who saw through the whole matter from the first minute is Jörg's son Ricky.
Production and publication
The filming locations in Berlin were at the water tower in Prenzlauer Berg , Ostbahnhof , on Schönhauser Allee , Karl-Marx-Allee , in front of the Deutsches Theater and on the ferry in Caputh .
The Doppelganger was filmed by the artistic working group “Berlin” under the working title The Doppelganger or How I educate my father on ORWO color and had its world premiere on August 1, 1985 at the Berlin Kino International . The film was shown for the first time on September 30, 1986 in the second program on GDR television .
Martin Karau was responsible for the scenario and the dramaturgy was in the hands of Anne Pfeuffer .
criticism
In New Germany , Horst Knietzsch said :
"A lot is revealed to the audience's laughter, which can be paraphrased as arrogance, disagreeable behavior, egoism, petty-bourgeois possessiveness, addiction to reputation or nostalgic collector's trick."
Günter Sobe wrote in the Berliner Zeitung :
“Nothing goes below the surface. Director WW Wallroth was probably relatively powerless. "
The criticism of GA in the Neue Zeit claims:
"'The Doppelganger', staged for a few amusing situations, offers summer cinema without any high intellectual demands, unfortunately also without great artistic ambitions."
The lexicon of international films writes that the film is a staid, confused comedy that is neither acting nor staging convincing.
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 118 to 119 .
Web links
- The Double in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The doppelganger at filmportal.de
- The doppelganger at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Neues Deutschland, August 3, 1985, p. 6
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of August 6, 1985, p. 7
- ↑ Neue Zeit of August 6, 1985, p. 4
- ↑ The doppelganger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 22, 2017 .