Once in a lifetime - story of a home
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Once in a lifetime - story of a home |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1972 |
| length | 228 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Dieter Wedel |
| script | Dieter Wedel Günther Handke |
| production | Dieter Meichsner |
| music |
Günther Handke Klaus Munro |
| camera |
Hans-Joachim Theuerkauf Kurt Weber Eberhard Schmiel |
| cut |
Irene Brunhöver Mirjam Hipp |
| occupation | |
| |
Once in a Lifetime - The Story of a Home is a three-part television film by Dieter Wedel from 1972. It was produced by NDR and its first part was broadcast on January 16, 1972 on Erste .
action
The graduate engineer Bruno Semmeling lives with his wife Trude and his son in an old building in Hamburg. Since the rent is to be increased, he decides, like a work colleague and other acquaintances, to build a house. The project is to be financed by the bank, by means of several building society contracts and a small amount of equity.
First, Semmeling acquires a building plot in Henstedt. In retrospect, however, the subsoil turns out to be so damp that drainage lines that have not been taken into account have to be laid, which delays the start of construction. After the concrete foundation has been poured and the walls have been raised to basement level, the neighbor notices that the foundation was placed higher than the planning permit to avoid water damage. He complains and the foundation has to be torn down again. Construction begins again, now with a considerable delay.
The corrupt construction company Wumme, which received the contract to build the house through the tender manipulated by the architect, also dragged on the construction, since the (financially more lucrative) construction of a housing estate is given priority. The costs for construction and installation also continue to rise due to the delay, which z. B. is justified with rising raw material and material prices.
After all, the Semmeling family cannot leave the apartment they have already given notice and move into the new house several months after the planned move-in date. In the end, the initially calculated construction costs increased considerably and Semmelings are considerably in debt, but also happy and proud to finally be able to live in their own house.
background
Design
The film uses numerous variants of Brecht's alienation effect : it shows the duplicity of the contractors and craftsmen commissioned with the construction by repeatedly turning to the viewer directly to explain their questionable behavior. In addition, there are semi-documentary elements (repeated listing of ongoing construction costs as an invoice in the foreground; name subtitles of speaking persons; interviewed interviews) and documentary elements (newspaper clippings and television scenes that deal with the problem of rising rents in major West German cities in the early 1970s).
In the film, questionable practices of the well-known Hamburg housing company Neue Heimat are discussed several times , with names given - ten years before the Neue Heimat affair.
Locations
Most of the recordings took place in Hamburg and Henstedt-Ulzburg .
The Semmeling family's bungalow was built on the outskirts of Rhen , the southernmost part of the Henstedt-Ulzburg community , 15 km north of Hamburg . The residential street paved after the film is now called An der Alsterquelle . In the period that followed, an identical bungalow was added to both the Semmelings' house and the neighboring house of the Hassert couple.
success
The three- part series broadcast on three consecutive Sundays in the evening program of ARD was a street sweeper . When it was first broadcast, it achieved ratings of up to 68% or 27 million viewers.
This unusually great success is due to the fact that a large number of house builders recognized themselves in the Semmeling family. Another part could believe that they had better knowledge after the series, according to the motto: "Now I know what's going on, that can't happen to me."
See also
Web links
- Once in a Lifetime - history of a home in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt No. 290 of December 12, 1992, p. 14.
- ↑ Owning a home as a pension pays off , handelsblatt.com, accessed on April 28, 2013