Affair (1980)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Fling |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1980 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Evelyn Schmidt |
| script |
Jürgen Kruse Evelyn Schmidt |
| production | DEFA , KAG "Babelsberg" |
| music | Peter Rabenalt |
| camera | Jürgen Kruse |
| cut | Helga Emmrich |
| occupation | |
| |
Affair is a German feature film from the DEFA studio for feature films by Evelyn Schmidt from 1980 .
action
It's March 8th, International Women's Day, and Edith is sitting in the post office where she works with her boss and colleagues to celebrate it. During the conversation they talk about the values of a family that Edith praises in the highest tones. There is nothing better for her than to be there for her husband and child, to share the apartment with them, to spend the evening after work and on vacation. Then she has to leave the small party to pick up her five-year-old son Danilo from kindergarten . At the same time, the manager of a department store, Wolfgang Matuschek, is also celebrating Women's Day with his colleagues, and then drives home to their 12-year-old daughter Sandra with his colleague Helene Vogelsang. After dinner, Sandra goes to her room so that Wolfgang and Helene can disappear into bed, which is apparently nothing new to her. After a while, Sandra enters the bedroom to ask Wolfgang if he doesn't have to go home, whereupon he gets dressed, gets into his car and drives to his wife. Now it turns out that Edith and Wolfgang are married, who justifies his late arrival with the long celebration.
One day Edith comes home with Danilo and Sandra is waiting in front of the door to see Wolfgang. Edith knows about her, but had never seen her before, she has long since got over the affair. Sandra came because her mother had a fatal accident and she only has her father, with whom she now wants to live. Edith takes her into the apartment, after several conversations with her husband she is ready to try Sandra and Wolfgang even makes an application so that he can take Sandra in with him. While trying on a dress that Edith sewed and that Sandra is supposed to wear to her mother's funeral, Edith learns that Wolfgang, contrary to his descriptions, was with Helene on Women's Day. Edith thinks this is a lie, but her husband confirms it, which is why the world collapses for her and brings his bedding into the living room. In a discussion he admits that he has slept with Helene every now and then in the past few years because she needed someone and because he loved both women. Edith lets Wolfgang understand that she doesn't want his daughter and that she no longer tolerates her in her apartment. Wolfgang decides in favor of his wife, which is why Sandra comes to a children's home.
Sandra naturally has problems in the home because she avoids contact with the other children. That is why she goes to Mr. Peters' office on several evenings and watches him work, as she cannot sleep. But he cannot allow any exceptions and sends her back to her room. Over the next few days the other children and Mr. Peters try to integrate Sandra into the group , but this doesn't really work. Then comes Wolfgang, who always writes her letters to pick her up on an excursion. They drive their Trabant to a café by a lake and everyone eats a sundae. Here he tells Sandra that he wants to go on vacation with his wife and Danilo and that she can go with him. Back home, he tells Edith that he was with his daughter, but nothing of the promise to take her on vacation.
In the post office, Edith pours her heart out to her colleague Elfriede and confesses that she can no longer talk to her husband properly. But going away is no solution for her, because she only has this family. When Wolfgang and Danilo go to repair a washing machine at a friend's house, Edith dresses up and goes for a walk through the city streets. Here she also passes the house where Helene once lived. She goes up the stairs, by chance the door to the apartment is open because a neighbor is checking that everything is okay. So Edith is able to look at Helene's still furnished apartment. She quickly leaves the rooms again to visit her mother while Wolfgang is waiting for her at home. But she doesn't stay with her mother for long, because she demands that her daughter get a divorce, which she doesn't want. After visiting a dance bar where she realizes that she is wrong there, she goes back home. Once here, she explains to her husband under the influence of alcohol that she now knows how everything will turn out. However, she only knows that she is no longer afraid and ends up in bed with Wolfgang.
In the next few days, Sandra receives a visit from Edith at the home, who she still calls "you" and who shows her around the home. Sitting on her bed, Sandra explains that she is already looking forward to the holiday together on the Baltic Sea, which Edith did not know about but does not contradict. The four go to Warnemünde together and it looks like the family will grow together.
production
Seitensprung was filmed on ORWO- Color by the artistic working group “Babelsberg” and had its world premiere on February 14, 1980 in the Berlin Colosseum . The film was shown for the first time on November 17, 1981 in the first program on GDR television .
This movie was, after her television debut Lasset die Kindlein… , the DEFA directorial debut of Evelyn Schmidt. The dramaturgy was in the hands of Erika Richter and Regina Weicker wrote the scenario with the support of Evelyn Schmidt.
The shooting took place in Schwerin , Warnemünde , Berlin , Potsdam , Caputh and on Schlabornsee .
criticism
Helmut Ullrich expressed himself as follows in the Neue Zeit :
“'Affair' is the debut feature film of the young director Evelyne Schmidt, and apart from the fact that she has now and then allowed herself to be tempted into some overly symbolic scenes, this test of her talent shows a sure sense of modestly precise characteristics of average living conditions. "
Günter Sobe said the following in the Berliner Zeitung :
“You probably asked more of yourself than you could finally give. It may be that the intention was to let everyday averages in their banality appear completely uncommented, completely unaccentuated, completely unpointed, in terms of scenery and appearance. It may be that one thought that this was precisely the way to give convincing expression to a desired realism. Might be. It is proven anew: the reproduction of reality is not a criterion of artistic effectiveness. "
The lexicon of international films writes about the film that it was staged with a great deal of sensitivity and sensitivity for the moral issues raised.
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 535 to 536 .
- Seitensprung In: Ingrid Poss / Peter Warneke (eds.): Trace of films Christoph Links Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 , pp. 353 to 354.
Web links
- Escapade in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Affair at filmportal.de
- Affair at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Zengel, Philip: Affair . DEFA Foundation , accessed on December 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Zengel, Philip: Affair . DEFA Foundation , accessed on December 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Neue Zeit of February 15, 1980, p. 4
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 16, 1980, p. 10
- ↑ Affair. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 7, 2019 .