Smog (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | smog |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1973 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Petersen |
| script | Wolfgang crowd |
| production | Peter Märthesheimer |
| music | Nils Sustrate |
| camera |
Jörg-Michael Baldenius Günter Kiesling |
| cut | Liesgret Schmitt-Klink |
| occupation | |
| |
Smog is a socially critical German film about a fictional smog catastrophe in the Ruhr area based on the script by Wolfgang Menge and directed by Wolfgang Petersen from 1973 . It was initially produced exclusively for television. Many viewers thought the pseudo-documentary was real and called the television station WDR worried during the broadcast on April 15, 1973 .
action
Ruhr area , day 1: As every day, Elvira Rykalla packs breakfast for her husband, as every day he cleans the dirty windows of his car from the film of dirt that has formed overnight. Your child, who is only a few months old, is restless and cries a lot. The doctor suspects a cold. However, measuring stations report a sulfur dioxide concentration of over 1 mg / m³, so that smog warning level 1 is declared. Initially, there are recommendations associated with this, but no binding requirements. Life goes on its usual course. Mr. Grobeck, Director of Globag-Werke, has his chauffeur drive him to work every day, and there is a football game in the evening. When one of the footballers collapsed on the pitch with shortness of breath, the game was not abandoned despite the doctor's advice.
On day 2 the situation got worse. The sulfur dioxide values have risen to over 2 mg / m³ in certain zones of the Ruhr area. The news reports on the smog in the Ruhr area, which results mainly from unfavorable weather conditions. There is no wind to transport the exhaust gases out of the urban area. The Smog Warning Service Committee in Düsseldorf finally proclaimed smog warning level 2 after speculation about the lifting of smog warning level 1 had previously been made. Level 2 prohibits the use of private cars. Diversions around the exclusion zone in Essen are set up and the traffic chaos that now follows claims the first deaths. It is speculated that the cause of death is partly due to the smog, even if panic is to be avoided. There were protests in front of the Globag works, as the plant was the last green zone in the Ruhr area. Mr. Grobeck warns the people at the measuring stations about the consequences that possible incorrect measurements of the values could have for them. He wants to prevent his plant from having to stop production.
On the third day, the wheels of the Ruhr area stand still. No plane takes off from Cologne / Bonn Airport and the streets are empty. Only the highways around the restricted areas are congested. Accidents occur again and again, but also seriously injured and dead people who can only be removed with great difficulty. A film studio has to interrupt its shooting because the overburdened hospitals need the studio as an emergency hospital. At Globag, the plant management is involved in a dispute with demonstrators, some of which are carried out in front of the camera. Meanwhile, Elvira Rykalla does not let the health of her baby rest and she goes to a hospital. Here the child is examined in the chaos and a respiratory disease is determined - whether it is due to a typical childhood disease or due to the smog, it cannot be determined.
On the fourth day, the newspapers are overflowing with obituaries that take up eight times as much space as usual. The entire Essen district is still a restricted area, but the scientists can give the all-clear that the weather is changing. In fact, it is refreshing and the wind sets in. The sulfur dioxide concentration drops rapidly in a very short time, so that the politicians can lift the smog warning level 2. The satisfied decision-makers find it difficult to sum up the days. Neither the exact number of deaths can be determined - the only thing that is certain is that it is negligible in contrast to the smog disaster in London in 1952 - nor can one speak of certain failures in the response to the smog issue at the time. Life goes on, with lines of cars, smoking chimneys and airplanes polluting the air. Only the Rykalla family has serious issues to deal with: their baby died as a result of the respiratory disease.
background
Even in the run-up to the broadcast, there were protests from industry and municipalities. The film was assumed to have an anti-industry tendency; North Rhine-Westphalian local and state politicians worried about the public perception of the region and feared damage to their image. Three CDU members of the state parliament even called for measures against the "severe setback" for the "attractiveness of the Ruhr area" in a small request ; this was rejected as "preliminary censorship which is not constitutionally permissible". However, after a press screening by the WDR, the media response was unanimously positive.
The shooting took place mainly in the north of Duisburg around the Thyssen works (districts Beeck, Marxloh, area of the former district Alsum). The company named “Globag” in the film has certain parallels to Thyssen.
Smog was released on DVD in 2008 together with Anna and Totò and in 2009 together with Das Millionenspiel .
Reviews
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that the author and director use television's means of expression in film “in two ways, as a direct vehicle for information and as elements of the dramaturgical design of a film. So - formal - the fascinating effect arises that the film about the Smogkatastrophe also a film about television is that by informing about the course, this also represents "the. Film-centralized wrote that director and screenwriter in smog is a" important piece of contemporary history ”and the film was kept in the style of a documentary. In doing so, they had “exposed how a conglomerate of authorities, industry and the media ensured that this process of counter-enlightenment could work at least for a certain period of time. Even today, 'smog' is a horror scenario worth seeing, which has lost none of its topicality with regard to the state 'processing' of far-reaching social crises. "
The lexicon of science fiction films says: "'Smog' is certainly one of the best productions in German television history."
Awards
Wolfgang Quantity was awarded the television film prize of the German Academy of Performing Arts in 1973 for the screenplay of Smog .
See also
literature
- Signal under the skin . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1973 ( online - on the genesis of television films).
- Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983 , Munich (Heyne) 1983.
Web links
- Smog in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Smog at filmportal.de
- Smog in the lexicon of international films
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thick air on television in the historical archive of the WDR, deadline, April 15, 2008.
- ↑ Signal under the skin . In: Der Spiegel . No. 14 , 1973 ( online ).
- ↑ Smoke me the song of death . In: Die Zeit , No. 16/1973
- ^ Criticism at filmzentrale.com
- ^ Hahn / Jansen, Lexikon des Science Fiction Films , p. 462.