The Keys (1974)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The keys |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Egon Günther |
| script | Egon Günther Helga Schütz (scenario) Werner Beck (dramaturgy) |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Berlin" |
| music | Czesław Niemen |
| camera | Erich Gusko |
| cut | Rita Hiller |
| occupation | |
| |
The Keys is a German DEFA film by Egon Günther from 1974.
action
Ric, a worker from the light bulb factory, and Klaus, a mechanical engineering student, want to go on vacation to the Polish city of Krakow . A big topic of discussion is the question of whether they will be given a separate room or a shared room in the hotel since they are not married. At the airport in Warsaw they meet the Kendzierski couple, who want to fly on to Paris. As a result of the conversation, they give Ric and Klaus the keys to their apartment in Krakow.
Both experience carefree days and discover the city. You're going to a rock concert. They get to know several young Poles who want to bring the country closer to them. So they drive to Nowa Huta to the Lenin Hut, a steel mill. Here they get to know an older woman who talks about her hard work. Back in Krakow, Ric throws himself back into the life of the city, in which the mayor has traditionally handed over the rule of the city to the youth for a few days. With all the new impressions, she suddenly sees her relationship with Klaus in a new light and feels how different he reacts to everything, she feels hurt by his measures and his superior manner. And if it's only about the method, like the Polish one Language is to be learned. She realizes the complexity of their relationship. She takes a tram to the depot at the end of operations and conducts a lengthy monologue. It is not possible to tell whether Klaus is sitting in the car or not. In doing so, she realizes that intellectually she will never be up to him. He will make his way while she will always remain a worker who just wants a happy family life with husband and children, to which she professes. But this realization makes them fear for the continuation of their love.
The next day in the shower, she takes back all her statements in self-talk, while Klaus sits in the kitchen, but can't hear them. When Ric comes out of the shower, she discovers that Klaus is no longer there and thinks that he has left her. In her panic, she runs out into the street to look for him and gets under a tram. Klaus, who was only fetching a cigarette from a neighbor, now finds the apartment empty and in turn looks for Ric and sees her lying dead under the tram. Her death is a shock for Klaus. He slowly senses the magnitude of the loss - while meeting people who care and when handling the transfer formalities.
production
The key was turned on ORWO color by the artistic working group “Berlin” and had its world premiere on February 21, 1974 at the Berliner Kino International . The film was only shown on television on May 1, 1993 on ARD program S3 after the fall of the Wall . The recordings in Kraków were made with the support of the “Iluzjon” film group from Warsaw .
Due to objections from the Central Committee of the SED , the Ministry of Culture and the Polish Embassy in the GDR, the film (2649 meters), which was completed in 1972, was shortened in several stages by a total of around 187 meters. After the film is finished, the Minister of Culture Hans-Joachim Hoffmann wrote to Kurt Hager : “We will let it go for a while and then take it out of circulation”. The film has not been released for export. The sale to CSSR that had already taken place and the contract with the Federal Republic of Germany were canceled.
criticism
“Jutta Hoffmann as the girl Ric is once again unmistakable with her own style of expression, which is also shaped by the director's personality, that pairing of mimic-gestural accuracy and nuanced language treatment that gives the impression that the texts were first born in front of the camera. The monologue in a night tram, about which a whole person opens up with their feelings and conflicts, is remarkable. "
“This love story, which is combined with a report about life in Krakow, does not want to appear as successful as a whole as its many beautiful details. There is something fragmentary about it; it often becomes a mere sequence of such details without them being really connected. Egon Günther said in an interview that the film “tries not to follow dramaturgical rules, but seeks to find out how reality works, not how dramaturgy works…”. An aesthetic program that is as striking as it is worth considering is that which contains a whole, extraordinarily important contribution to the theory of cinematic realism. However, the film does not quite provide evidence of whether it is valid. "
The lexicon of international film called the film an ethically and morally questionable, formally attractive, but not easy to receive film. Instead of a rigid script, the director preferred freely improvised happenings - an exception within DEFA's production.
literature
- The keys. In: F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 509-510.
- The keys. In: Ingrid Poss, Peter Warneke (Ed.): Trace of Films. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 , pp. 292-295.
- The keys. In: Klaus-Detlef Haas, Dieter Wolf (Ed.): Socialist film art. Karl Diez Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-320-02257-0 , pp. 111-115.
Web links
- The key in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The keys at filmportal.de
- The keys at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Berlin Institute for Comparative State-Church Research: "The Keys" (description of the film's plot and reproduction of several documents on the discussion at the time)
- ↑ Horst Knietzsch in Neues Deutschland on February 23, 1974; P. 4
- ↑ Helmut Ullrich in the Neue Zeit of March 2, 1974; P. 2
- ↑ The keys. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .