A crazy smell of fresh hay

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Movie
Original title A crazy smell of fresh hay
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1977
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Roland Oehme
script Roland Oehme
Rudi Strahl
production DEFA , KAG "Berlin"
music Günther Fischer
camera Jürgen Lenz
cut Helga Emmrich
occupation

A crazy smell of fresh hay is a German DEFA film comedy by Roland Oehme from 1977. It is based on the comedy of the same name by Rudi Strahl , who also worked on the script.

action

A theater curtain opens.

Comrade Dr. phil. After a long walk, Angelika Unglaube reaches the fictional, small village of Trutzlaff in Mecklenburg . It was sent by the SED district leadership to investigate unheard-of things in Trutzlaff: Comrade Mattes should have a second face and be able to work miracles. This is all the worse for the district leadership because Mattes is an LPG farmer and party secretary. But not only the party is critical of Mattes. Pastor Himmelknecht also does not like to see miraculous healings if he has symbolically presented the sick in a sermon as carrying the cross.

Angelika and Mattes encounter each other suspiciously. He admits that “miracle work” is part of the well-kept family tradition and promptly amazes Angelika with a few statements about herself and her family background. In addition, the table is set for two, although Angelika had not announced that she would be. Since she missed her last train, Angelika is staying with Mattes. At night she sees Mattes secretly going into the neighboring house and healing the supposedly crooked Paul. The next day, Paul stays bolt upright and Mattes' weather forecast from the previous day, which Angelika's supervisor also requests regularly, is correct like every day. Angelica now mingles with the village people to find out about the miracles of Mattes. In the evening she determined 13 witchcrafts of the farmer, including the resurrection of someone who was already dead and the prediction of a serious accident, especially since she herself saw the healing of Paul. The drug-like effect of the freshly mown hay in the fields around the village confuses Angelika, who receives a week from her superior to investigate the cases.

One day, much to the annoyance of the evangelical pastor Himmelknecht, Monsignor Romeo Aventuro, an envoy from the Vatican, stands at the door. He learned about Mattes' miracles from the village cobbler, which he wants to document as an employee of the Vatican special department “Contemporary Miracles”. In fact, Mattes amazes him with the exact forecast of a thunderstorm in the best weather and various minor miracles. When Romeo Aventuro inquired in the village about Mattes' deeds the next day, Pastor Himmelknecht in particular tried to find a down-to-earth answer to the miracles. For example, Mattes did not bring a dead person to life with a kiss, but only gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation . Mattes also tells Angelika that he did not heal Paul. Rather, he pretended to be suffering in order not to be called up into the army. However, an explanation cannot be found for everything.

For Mattes, the excitement about himself, which is soon mixed with negative voices, soon becomes too much. He had carelessly borrowed a power generator for milking for a concert in the neighboring village, which he now needs. He imagines that one of the musicians could break his leg and the concert would be canceled. In fact, the musicians have spent the day in the hay and fall intoxicated from the hay cart in his presence. There are broken legs and arms and Mattes reproaches himself, after all, he could have just imagined a simple viral disease. When the monsignor, the pastor, Angelica, various "poachers" (members of the council of the district) and a farmer looking for her husband appear at his place and they all want something from him, he reacts exasperated and exclaims that he is only one Be human. Since a “poacher” carrying a lantern appears behind him and gives him an aura surrounded by light, this statement also makes a deep impression on Romeo Aventuro. He leaves the village with Angelika on the train. When Mattes seems to float in clouds while waving goodbye, Angelika realizes that there cannot be an explanation for everything.

The train drives through the theater curtain. Back at the film set, Mattes gets off the lifting platform, the fog machines are switched off. The film team begins cleaning up the set.

production

A crazy smell of fresh hay is based on the play of the same name that Rudi Strahl wrote in 1975. Filming for the film began as early as 1976. Scenes of the train journey were filmed on the Rasender Roland , including on site at Sellin station . The film version of the play was premiered on September 23, 1977 at Urania 70 in Halle . On October 8, 1978, the film was shown on television for the first time in the second program of East German television. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , it was shown for the first time in the Federal Republic on television on May 30, 1993 on ORB television. In November 2010 the film was released on DVD by Icestorm.

With the quarreling couple of farmer and pastor, A crazy scent of fresh hay was often compared in its basic constellation with Don Camillo and Peppone .

criticism

The contemporary critics rated the film differently: If Renate Holland-Moritz criticized the film for "thick, clumsy clothes gags", where elegant punch lines were required, other critics praised the film for being tasteful "- even with the oldest gag."

For the lexicon of international films , An insane scent of fresh hay was a "[h] purer and varied film amusement game with at times a good instinct for situation comedy."

Award

A crazy smell of fresh hay received the GDR Critics' Prize for best comic film in 1978.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 247.
  2. ^ Renate Holland-Moritz: cinema owl . In: Eulenspiegel , No. 48, 1977.
  3. ^ Günter Agde: And Marx smiles at it . In: Filmspiegel , No. 25, 1977, p. 14.
  4. ↑ A crazy smell of fresh hay. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 31, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ Habel, p. 275.