The seven affairs of the Doña Juanita

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Movie
Original title The seven affairs of the Doña Juanita
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1973
length 354 minutes
Rod
Director Frank Beyer
script Eberhard Panitz
Frank Beyer
production DEFA on behalf of East German television
music Günther Fischer
camera Günter Marczinkowsky
cut Ruth Ebel
occupation

The seven affairs of Doña Juanita is commissioned by the television of the GDR produced a four-part feature film of the DEFA of Frank Beyer from 1973, based on the novel by Eberhard Panitz .

action

First broadcast on April 20, 1973

The 31-year-old Anita N., architect , called Doña Juanita, has an 8-year-old daughter Eva and is a department manager in a project planning office for a large construction site. There are many opinions, conjectures, strange rumors and gossip about them. That is why she wants to leave her job in Dobbertin and quits on the exact day on which a clubhouse designed by her is to be handed over. It is said that she had many husbands, many affairs and that she was to blame for the death of a certain Sawallisch. A young man, the construction site safety inspector, wants to hold them back. Together with four other colleagues, he wants to get a true picture of her and find an answer to the question of when do we have the right and the duty to take care of what happens behind the door of our neighbors and how can we make individuals happy intertwine with everyone's happiness. He will tell us their story in this film.

First and second affair

Here we experience Anita's student days at the University of Architecture. The sensitive Dr. Arndt is her lecturer in art history . He loves her and through this love he finds a way out of his seclusion. However, she only feels respect and friendship for him. Her first great love is the physics student Georg Koschek, who she can win over by constantly adjusting. But with his boundless jealousy , his absolute claim to possession, he destroys their relationship. Anita is consistent and the common child is no reason to continue living with him.

Third affair

First broadcast on April 22, 1972

Thomas Wagner, technical director at the large construction site in Dobbertin, whose assistant she becomes, helps Anita to find her way around the construction site and to assert herself. Soon they have more in common than work, the two get along very well, get closer, love each other. But their happiness is short-lived, because Wagner is married and does not have the strength to separate from his family, who live in Berlin and which he only visits on weekends. Anita separates from him for this, she does not want to reduce her claim to happiness by lying.

Fourth and fifth affairs

First broadcast on April 27, 1973

In the so-called mill cellar of the power plant, a dirty workplace where you are not challenged, Anita happens to meet the young worker Hans Spahn, who has been transferred here as a punishment. Convinced that she would please him, she persuaded her boss, Thomas Wagner, to find another job for Hans. Since he is already attending a course in driving an excavator , he will then be used as such. When Spahn learns of this manipulation with which Anita wants to realize her own ideas about the professional career of the four years younger man, the two break up.

The fifth affair is not at all. Anita's daughter Eva meets the painter Lewerenz and becomes friends with him. Since Lewerenz also likes the girl, Anita is drawn into the story. They spend several afternoons together and rumor has it that Anita was the model for a nude painting. However, it is not clear whether it was she or her colleague who is in love with the painter.

Sixth affair

First broadcast on April 29, 1973

At the end of the year, Brigadier Sawallisch went missing on the construction site. Anita gets the job to look for him and waits in his apartment, into which she is let in by his landlady. She is of the opinion that he has already passed away. However, several people brought in by their driver confirm that he was seen alive. When he climbs into his apartment through the window after midnight, she has the feeling that she has known him for a long time. The two spend the rest of New Year's Eve together. Sawallisch wants to pick up his son the next day. However, since it had snowed very heavily, the train should not leave until several hours later. So he decides to fetch him with a truck parked nearby. Because of the slippery road, Sawallisch had a fatal accident.

The committee that has to deal with Anita's way of life comes to the decision to advise her to withdraw her notice. This should be offered to her for the May Day celebrations in the cultural center built by Anita. Anita agrees and decides to stay on the construction site. The safety inspector and leader of the group, all the findings about their life go through the head again. As he processes this one more time, the feeling that he loves her solidifies more and more. This love is reciprocated by Anita and nothing stands in the way of the seventh affair.

production

The Seven Affaires of Doña Juanita was shot as a black and white film and was first broadcast in April 1973 on the first program of East German television .

The dramaturgy of the film was in the hands of Rita Müller, while the scenario comes from Eberhard Panitz. The singing was by Ernst Busch , Uschi Brüning and Manfred Krug . The lyrics were written by Bertolt Brecht , Gisela Steineckert and Clemens Kerber . The pictures assigned to the painter Lewerenz in the film came from Wolfgang Mattheuer .

criticism

Ehrentraut Nowotny said in the Berliner Zeitung that although many parts and episodes were lively and imaginative, in the end some doubts remained, especially since the framework also conjured up ambiguities. Incredible remained z. For example, to the end, why Anita felt obliged to give a general confession in front of the committee of all people, because leafing through her previous life would only be conceivable in a very personal conversation.

After all, Ms. Nowotny liked the fact that almost all men in this film were unconditionally ready to recognize Anita's emancipated personality. This new relationship between man and woman in the socialist environment that was already taken for granted was expressed vividly.

In the Neue Zeit, Mimosa Künzel came to the conclusion that the seven tangible stories were assigned to one and the same woman in order to show her exemplary development over a decade. A route filled with life, but certainly not easy, was traced back to the kind that every working woman in the GDR can show. The abundance of exact everyday observations was just as poetic as it was realistic, although it could of course have been shortened or lengthened considerably.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of May 1, 1973, p. 6
  2. ↑ Neue Zeit of May 2, 1973, p. 4