Pünktchen and Anton (1999)

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Movie
Original title Pünktchen und Anton
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1999
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK o. A.
Rod
Director Caroline Link
script Caroline Link
production Peter Zenk
Uschi Reich
music Niki Reiser
camera Torsten Breuer
cut Patricia Rommel
occupation

The film Pünktchen und Anton by director Caroline Link is a German children's film from 1999. While the first film adaptation of the novel stuck closely to the original, this film is only remotely based on the book of the same name by Erich Kästner .

action

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are best friends. While Pünktchen, the daughter of a cardiologist, lives in a villa with a cook and au pair, Anton shares a small apartment with his sick mother and regularly has to help out in Giovanni's ice cream parlor so that his mother does not lose her job. Although Pünktchen has no financial worries, she suffers from the constant absence of her parents. Anton's relationship with his mother is good, but he keeps a secret from her that he works in the ice cream parlor and therefore has problems at school, so that she doesn't worry.

Anton steals a valuable lighter at a party in the villa. He tries to sell it so that he can take the money to the sea with his mother. When his mother finds the lighter and confronts him, Anton runs away to find his unknown father in Berlin. Anton's mother brings the lighter back and wants to apologize, but is turned down by Pünktchen's mother. Anton's wandering in Giovanni's ice cream bus ends in a field and he gets along with his mother again.

Pünktchen, who quarreled with her parents about the lighter, dresses up as a street child and sings in the Karlsplatz underground station at night. She gives the money earned in this way to Anton and his mother. Charly and Ricky, the two school rowdies, discover Pünktchen's secret nightlife and sell the information to Pünktchen's parents for 100 marks. They are shocked when they see their daughter singing and dancing with a homeless man in the middle of the night. For the first time they notice how little they know about their daughter.

Carlos, the friend of the au pair girl Laurence, steals her keys at a party in order to break into the Pogge family's house. Anton, who happened to observe this, warns fat Bertha (the family cook) on the phone and calls the police. Fat Bertha actually manages to overpower Carlos with the help of a self-made trap and a frying pan. Pünktchen's parents thank Anton and begin to accept the children's friendship.

Since Pünktchen doesn't want a new au pair girl, her parents decide to work less and spend more time with their daughter in the future. Pünktchen's mother apologizes to Anton’s mother for her behavior and invites her and Anton to her holiday home by the sea. At the end of the film, both families can be seen together on the beach.

In the epilogue one learns that Charly and Ricky fought over the 100 marks and that the money ended up in the hat of the homeless man from the underground station.

Differences to the original

Unlike the novel, the film is set in Munich. The bored party animal Mrs. Pogge became a pseudo human rights activist. Anton's mother has been turned into a sick ballet dancer. Anton, a poor but very honest boy in the book, steals a golden lighter from Pünktchen's apartment. His actually dead father is only separated from his mother here. The stupid Miss Andacht, who fell for the villain Robert, was replaced by the French au pair Laurence. This can be done well at the expense of the family, but actually she is one of Pünktchen's friends. Finally, the figure of Gottfried Klepperbein was split up into two boys who tyrannize Anton (which was invented) and blackmail Dots. In addition, in order to divulge the information, the two demand that Pünktchen begs, not about ten, but one hundred marks, which Mr. Pogge pays immediately. Another change: Mr. Pogge is not, as in the book, a walking stick manufacturer, but a doctor.

criticism

“A sympathetic plea for friendship and loyalty as well as for a greater sense of justice and reality, which sensitively works out the emotional content of the fable. Unspectacular, largely staged in the 'old-fashioned' spirit of the original and played in a pleasingly useful way by the adult actors, the film develops as a brisk family entertainment with musical interludes. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pünktchen and Anton. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on October 7, 2019 .
  2. ^ Pünktchen and Anton. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 7, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used