For eyes only
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | For Eyes Only (Top Secret) |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | János Veiczi |
| script |
Harry Thürk János Veiczi Hans Lucke (Idea) Heinz Hafke (Dramaturgy) |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Solidarity" |
| music | Günter Hauk |
| camera | Karl Plintzner |
| cut | Christa Ehrlich |
| occupation | |
| |
For Eyes Only , Long Title For Eyes Only (Top Secret) , is a German spy film of the DEFA of János Veiczi from the year 1963rd
action
The year 1961: Hansen is considered a refugee from the republic by his son , but has actually been working as a " scout " for the GDR in the FRG for three years . The Ministry for State Security (MfS) successfully smuggled it into the MID office in Würzburg , which disguised itself as a “Concordia” trading company. It is part of a network that is forging plans to take over the GDR. The blow against the country is imminent. The takeover plans are available to every MID headquarters.
The MfS instructs Hansen to obtain an original of the brief. They want to pass this on to the press in order to nip any conspiracy against the state in the bud. Hansen suspects the MID office papers are in the safe of his superior Major Collins. When he tries to have a copy of the safe key made by a petty criminal, he learns that he is not the first to make this request. Security chief Colonel Rock, Major Collins' superior, also suspects that there must be a leak in the Würzburg headquarters, as numerous Würzburg agents in the GDR have recently been exposed.
The Americans suspect that Hansen is a spy, since he is the only one of them who comes from the East and he did not have a great career during the Nazi era in order to have to flee to the West for this reason. However , Hansen even passed a lie detector test . At the same time, during a house search in Hansen's safe, photos are found that reveal the Würzburg employee Schuck as a mole of the Federal Intelligence Service . Schuck is liquidated. A careless remark by Collins makes it clear to Hansen that the important papers are not stored in the safe, but in Collins' refrigerator . Shortly before the planned occupation of the GDR, Hansen succeeds in employing all of the MID villa's employees elsewhere. He takes the papers from the safe and transports the secured refrigerator to his car. Together with the Czech chauffeur František, who is too good to continue working with the MID and would rather see Hansen back in his home country, he drives to the border. The Americans have already become aware of his escape and have blocked all roads to the east. Hansen breaks the barriers and brings the papers safely to the GDR.
The world press reports on the failed attempt by the Americans to wage war against the GDR. Collins will be liquidated. Hansen, on the other hand, is finally allowed to see his son again and tell him the true background for his absence.
production
For Eyes Only was created based on an idea by Hans Lucke . The background to this was on the one hand "revealed" war plans by NATO and the Bundeswehr against the GDR. "Meticulously prepared" had the Stasi agitation department announced at a press conference on July 8, 1960 in East Berlin by officers Bruno Winzer and Adam von Gliga, who claimed to have deserted from the Bundeswehr . As early as 1959, the GDR had announced "revealing revelations about the aggressive, fascist character of the Bonn Bundeswehr" through the publication of an alleged NATO planning study DECO II , which was procured by the MfS and which in fact had been the product of an impostor. Walter Ulbricht appeared in front of the international press on July 20, 1960 with the plans attested by Winzer and Gliga. On August 18, 1961, he again referred to her in a televised address to justify the construction of the Berlin Wall . The dramaturges of the film also called them “real events”: “In this film, despite free design, we try to stick to the essentials of factual material and real documents (DECO II, MC 96).” On the other hand, had as early as 1956, an MfS employee from the MID office in Würzburg (double agent Horst Hesse ) was able to acquire the entire MID agent file for the GDR and smuggle it into the GDR. As a result, over 140 people in the GDR were exposed and arrested. The script, which was created in close cooperation with the MfS, was compiled from both incidents and other contemporary events. The claim to reality can be found in the introductory text of the film, where it says: "The plot of the film is fictitious - similarities with actual events and living people are intentional."
The main role was taken on by the actor Alfred Müller , who was then working at the East Berlin Maxim-Gorki-Theater and who was inexperienced in film and who became a star through the film. Some of the film's dialogues are spoken in English and translated into German by narrator Gerry Wolff . Individual scenes of the film were shot on Berlin's Alexanderplatz , on the Platz der Luftbrücke in Berlin-Tempelhof and in the Botanical Garden in Berlin.
For Eyes Only was released on May 15, 1963 as a "Political Contemporary Film" and had its world premiere on July 19, 1963 in the Berlin cosmos . The film was a great success with the public: After just one week, 30,000 viewers had seen the film in the Karl-Marx-Städter Luxor-Palast , in August there were 630,000 visitors across the GDR. By 1973 the film had attracted 2.3 million viewers in the GDR. There was also great interest in Eastern European countries, for example the film was sold to Bulgaria , Hungary and Romania , but also to socialist Cuba .
The film received the rating "artistically particularly valuable". The director, actor and other employees of the film received several awards in the period that followed, including the National Prize III in 1964 for the entire film ensemble . Class . In 1991 it was shown as part of a DEFA retrospective at the Berlinale .
criticism
The GDR's contemporary criticism praised the film. He was “a tough guy, a counter-espionage film with tense situations. Sharp shots, night clubs, hard chin hooks, casinos, dead people on the roadside, demi-world ladies, poison ampoules, miniature cameras, duplicate keys for safes, mysterious get-togethers in the dark, breathtaking car chases - nothing is missing that belongs to a super crime ", enthused the Neue Zeit 1963.
For Frank-Burkhard Habel , For Eyes Only 2000 was “a kind of 'father of all scout films'” in the GDR.
The lexicon of international films described For Eyes Only as “a skillfully staged and well-acted agent thriller that is based on authentic events from 1960/61 and celebrates the defense specialists of the GDR State Security Service as omnipresent . "
With regard to the crucial documents in the refrigerator, Cinema wrote ironically: “Now we finally know where the term 'cold war' comes from. Conclusion: So clever and in the end it was useless ”.
literature
- Peter Böhm, "For eyes only" The true story of the agent Horst Hesse , edition ost, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-360-01876-2
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 177-178 .
- Conclusion of a public “demonstration”: the film “For Eyes Only” . Thomas Lindenberger: Mass Media in the Cold War: Actors, Images, Resonances . Böhlau, Berlin and Weimar 2006, pp. 62–75.
Web links
- For Eyes Only in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- For Eyes Only at filmportal.de
- For Eyes Only at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Stöver : "That is the truth, the whole truth." Liberation policy in the GDR feature film of the 1950s and 1960s . In: Thomas Lindenberger (ed.): Mass media in the Cold War. Actors, images, resonances . Böhlau, Cologne, Weima, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-23105-7 , p. 63 f.
- ↑ Helmut Müller-Enbergs : A con man named "Coal" . In: ZfG , 68th year 2020, issue 2, pp. 145–158.
- ^ Opinion on the Exposé For eyes only by Dieter Wolf and Heinz Hafke, October 20, 1961. Quoted from Bernd Stöver: “That is the truth, the whole truth.” Liberation policy in the GDR feature film of the 1950s and 1960s . In: Thomas Lindenberger (ed.): Mass media in the Cold War. Actors, images, resonances . Böhlau, Cologne, Weima, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-23105-7 , p. 64 f.
- ↑ Bernd Stöver: "That is the truth, the whole truth." Liberation policy in the GDR feature film of the 1950s and 1960s . In: Thomas Lindenberger (ed.): Mass media in the Cold War. Actors, images, resonances . Böhlau, Cologne, Weima, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-23105-7 , p. 67
- ↑ Bernd Stöver: Liberation from Communism: American Liberation Policy in the Cold War 1947–1991 . Böhlau, Cologne 2002, p. 597.
- ↑ Bernd Stöver: "That is the truth, the whole truth." Liberation policy in the GDR feature film of the 1950s and 1960s . In: Thomas Lindenberger (ed.): Mass media in the Cold War. Actors, images, resonances . Böhlau, Cologne, Weima, Vienna 2006, ISBN 978-3-412-23105-7 , p. 73.
- ^ A b Uta A. Balbier, Christiane Rösch: Courted Class Enemy: The Relationship of the GDR to the USA . Ch.links, Berlin 2006, p. 160.
- ^ Neue Zeit , Berlin edition, July 25, 1963.
- ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 178 .
- ^ For Eyes Only. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 5, 2018 .
- ^ For Eyes Only. In: Cinema , Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 5, 2018.