Driving School (1986)

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Movie
Original title Driving school
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1986
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Bernhard Stephan
script Bernd Schirmer
production DEFA , KAG "Berlin"
music Christian Steyer
camera Peter Badel
cut Margrit Brusendorff
occupation

Driving School is a German comedy film of the DEFA of Bernhard Stephan from the year 1986 . It is based on the radio play of the same name by Bernd Schirmer , who also wrote the film script.

action

The Dresden mechanic Steinköhler is a pedestrian out of passion. When his friend Reschke wants to divorce his wife, Reschke has to sell his lovingly tended Wartburg . After driving under alcohol, he lost his driver's license for two years and persuaded Steinköhler to buy the car from him. As soon as he gets his driver's license back, Reschke wants to buy the car back. Steinköhler reluctantly agrees, as the car will only be in his garage anyway.

Steinköhler wants to surprise his wife Gisela with the news of the car purchase. Gisela has the same news for him - after years of waiting, she has finally found out that her new Wartburg is ready to be picked up. She bought the car right away. Now the Steinköhler family has two cars, but no driver's license. Thanks to Gisela's commitment, Steinköhler can start driving school immediately, even though he actually doesn't want to. At the same time, Gisela also starts driving lessons without her husband knowing anything about it. Both have the same driving instructor and while Steinköhler is so severely criticized by teacher Hempel that he wants to give up at some point, Gisela receives more praise. She secretly practices with Reschke's Wartburg and under the direction of Reschke. Steinköhler soon becomes suspicious, especially since Gisela disguises her night driving lessons as going to the cinema.

One day when he wanted to start his own driving lesson, he found out from a young learner driver that teacher Hempel was on the road with Ms. Steinköhler. After the learner driver has made hints of an affair, both take up the pursuit of the car, as the student believes Steinköhler is a driving instructor himself. Nevertheless, both of them soon lose sight of the car. Steinköhler sells her Reschke's car because the student has already had more than 100 driving lessons and does not take her exam because she does not have her own car. Meanwhile, Gisela is shown by Hempel to his apartment and flees when Hempel faces her in a bathrobe a short time later. She sells her new car without further ado through an advertisement. In the end, the Steinköhlers are left without a car and have to hitchhike on vacation to the car-free island of Hiddensee . On the island, too, they come across a car and, above all, Mr. Steinköhler is resigned.

production

Driving school was filmed from 1985 in Dresden and the surrounding area as well as in Berlin . Gisela works in a shop on Hauptstrasse (at the time of shooting, she was still on the Road of Liberation ) and attended a performance in the Semperoper with her husband . The driving school tours lead to the Blue Wonder , to the Terrassenufer , over the Augustus Bridge and along the Fürstenzug . The bar in which Steinköhler and Hempel meet and which Gisela, who had agreed to meet with Reschke, happens to come to, was the daytime bar Minidrink on Straße der Befreiung 1b; The Meißner Weinstube was located in the same building. The costumes were created by Ursula Strumpf , the film structures are by Marlene Willmann , Siegfried Stallner and Gunter Stötzel .

The film premiered on November 20, 1986 in Berlin's Kino International and was released in GDR cinemas the following day. On June 20, 1989 it ran for the first time on DFF 1 on East German television and was shown for the first time on ZDF on German television on January 6, 1990 .

criticism

Renate Holland-Moritz noted that there were “some technical inaccuracies on the part of the director”, which, however, are less significant in view of the “dramatic brilliance”. Above all, the scenes of the driving lessons are successful: "The dialogues condense into unmasking, accurate punchlines that pop like champagne corks."

For the film service , the driving school was a "well-acted comedy that earned interest through ironic highlights on everyday life in the GDR."

"Outstanding actors show in an extremely amusing way the fears and annoyances of many learner drivers, which are still known today," wrote the Progress Film Distribution .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Renate Holland-Moritz: Driving School . In: Renate Holland-Moritz: The owl in the cinema. New movie reviews . Eulenspiegel, Berlin 1994, p. 110.
  2. ↑ Driving school. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ See driving school on progress-film.de ( Memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )