Mülheim / Ruhr
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Mülheim / Ruhr |
| Country of production | FRG |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1964 |
| length | 14 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Peter Nestler , Reinald Schnell |
| script | Peter Nestler, Reinald Schnell |
| music | Dieter Süverkrüp |
| camera | Peter Nestler |
| cut | Peter Nestler |
Mülheim / Ruhr is a documentary film in black and white from Germany by director Peter Nestler from the year 1964 . The film premiered in Mülheim an der Ruhr in the Queen Luise restaurant in 1964 . It is about economic and social change in the city.
content
The film begins with a series of shots of modern Mülheim from the 1960s: road traffic, sober housing developments and modern hotels. In addition, the music of the German songwriter Dieter Süverkrup : guitar, jaw harp and a metronome that sets the pace of the German economic miracle . But again and again you come across the islands from the immediate post-war period: gray backyards, portraits of drinking workers in simple pubs, middle-class citizens playing card, decaying facades that are still marked by the scars of the last war. We are at the beginning of 1964.
The camera then leads us to the city promenades and forest paths that the people of Mülheim use for their Sunday stroll. The old Mülheim is slowly pushing its way into the foreground. The images of the remaining coal mines and steel furnaces look like a final rebellion against change, and workers pour out of the factory gates after their shift has ended. It goes into the workers' settlements on a cold, foggy winter day. Only once do we come across a seemingly anachronistic political commentary. “Into the KPD” is written on the wall of a house, where a couple with a stroller is pulling past. Then we see a remarkable choreography of a girl dancing on the empty street and watch the raging school crowd in the playground.
The old and the new Mülheim, pictures of both are interwoven. It seems that these are just commentaries on the music and not the other way around. At the end, the film returns to its starting point, the new Mülheim.
background
1964 was a decisive turning point for Mülheim an der Ruhr . Due to the steel and coal crisis, a long and difficult structural change began. The blast furnaces at Friedrich Wilhelms-Hütte were shut down, and coal production at the Rosenblumendelle colliery was stopped two years later . Mülheim an der Ruhr was the first city in the Ruhr area without coal and steel production. The closure processes had already begun in 1959/60. During the shooting of the film, which took place from January to February 1964, the city was in the midst of a profound process of change that is reflected in the Nestler film in an irritating way.
“Today the film is almost a document because a lot of what it shows has changed, was gradually destroyed, is no longer there. Settlements were sold and demolished, and people had to move because they had no jobs. The first mines in the Ruhr area were closed in 1958/59, and in 1964, when this film was made, many miners in the auto industry were already working on the assembly line. New office buildings and apartment buildings were built in the city centers. "
reception
With this film Nestler turns to the worker and the socio-economic change of a region. The fact that this is neither a whitewashed city portrait nor a declaration of war against the contradictions of the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s in Germany probably did not satisfy either the official Ruhrheim or the political left in the 1960s. Rather, it is a certain rhythmic relationship between image and sound that makes the film typical and confronts the viewer with an uncommented observation of reality. It eludes the classic categories of documentary film of that time.
The film marks the beginning of a long series of documentaries from the Ruhr area that continues to this day and comments on the social, political and economic conditions in the region. In this respect the film is a historical document about a post-war world that is now lost. Nestler refuses to refer to the city's immediate history, such as the hunger crisis and the workers' strikes in the 1940s or the resistance to National Socialism. Nestler is a silent observer of change and thus politically without addressing political issues directly.
The film was u. a. shown at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 1978 and 1984.
Mülheim / Ruhr is currently available on DVD with the complete works of Peter Nestler, the 16 mm film was transferred to DCP ( Digital Cinema Package ).
Web links
- Mülheim / Ruhr in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mülheim / Ruhr in the online film database
- Mülheim / Ruhr at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mülheim / Ruhr. Viennale 2017, 2017, accessed on August 1, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Johannes Bennke: Fine pathed human children. A homage to Peter Nestler at the 55th Dok-Leipzig. November 1, 2012, accessed July 31, 2017 .
- ^ Sven von Reden: Pot and Politics. Documentary since 1946. In: Filmgeschichte NRW. Film und Medien NRW, accessed on July 31, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Ela Bitencourt: Cinema and Politics: Peter Nestler. (No longer available online.) In: Konoscope. June 21, 2017, archived from the original on September 28, 2017 ; accessed on August 1, 2017 (German). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kay Hoffmann: Peter Nestler. Poetic provocateur. Films 1962-2009. In: 5 DVDs in a slipcase with booklet. absolutely media.
