With body and soul (1988)

Movie
Original title	With body and soul
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1988
length	91 minutes
Rod
Director	Bernhard Stephan
script	Bernhard Stephan
production	DEFA , KAG "Babelsberg"
music	Peter Kuno Kühnel
camera	Peter Badel
cut	Brigitte Krex Margrit Brusendorff
occupation
Mathias Noack : Jonas Andrea Lüdke : Melanie Ulrich Thein : Hannes Ritter Regine Heintze : Melanie's mother Dieter Monday : Pache Wolfgang Winkler : Weber Jürgen Mai : Ulrich Most Mathis Schrader : Adam Manfred Ernst : Pastor Franz Viehmann : In short Ursula Christowa Staack : flower seller Michael Schweighöfer : colleague of Hannes Hans-Jochen Röhrig : colleague of Hannes Carl-Hermann Risse : GST instructor Waldemar Baeger : Drinker Achim Wolff : chief physician Werner Godemann : Mayor Anja Kling : Melanie's girlfriend Robert Pfeiffer : Master Rose Becker : teacher

With body and soul is a DEFA German feature film by Bernhard Stephan from 1988.

action

Jonas is an apprentice in a Leipzig metal foundry who lives alone with his father Hannes and whom he has to look after because of his heart problems. That's why he comes to vocational school too late every now and then, which earns him a rebuke from the class teacher. His father's colleagues care for Hannes himself, but nobody is interested in real help. In the queue of a discotheque, he meets Melanie, a high school student of the same age, and the two fall in love. When Jonas father has to go to the hospital because of a heart attack, Melanie moves in with him to help with housekeeping.

During this time Jonas heard of a rotten ship which was lying on a lake in Mecklenburg and which was about to be scrapped. With the help of his class leader, who fifteen years ago already used the ship with his apprentices as a holiday property, Jonas drives there with his girlfriend and sees the repair as a new task for himself. About that he neglects everything else. Melanie feels left alone, also complains that he no longer cares about his father and leaves him. Jonas receives only a lack of support from the company for the construction of the boat and he also finds fewer helpers than he had originally hoped for. Because of his inattention, the boat burns down.

After his apprenticeship party, in which his father also takes part, he walks with him through the production facilities of the foundry where he will work in the future. A call to Melanie, during which he did not speak a single word, suggests that there is still hope for the love of the two.

production

The artistic working group “Babelsberg” shot with body and soul on ORWO color and had its world premiere on March 17, 1988 at the Berlin Kino International . The film was shown on television for the first time on February 9, 1990 in the afternoon program of the ARD .

criticism

In the Neue Zeit , Helmut Ullrich said that the two young leading actors could convince. Mathias Noack works through his nonchalance, behind which however there is seriousness and thoughtfulness, while Andrea Lüdke works through a gentle, quiet calm. Ulrich Thein is mentioned in particular , who as his father gives the powerful portrait of a worker who is attached to work that he can no longer carry out due to his illness. The lexicon of international films called the film a dramaturgically clumsy and psychologically insufficiently motivated film, which uses a series of clichés to make the problems of young people in the GDR clear and leads to moral appeals .

literature

• With body and soul In: F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 409-410.

Web links

• Body and soul in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• With body and soul at filmportal.de
• With body and soul at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neue Zeit of March 22, 1988; P. 4
2. ↑ With body and soul. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .