Let's play love

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Movie
German title Let's play love
Original title Maladolescenza
Country of production Italy , Germany
original language Italian
Publishing year 1977
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK unchecked (indexed / confiscated nationwide)
JMK 18
Rod
Director Pier Giuseppe Murgia
script Peter Berling
Pier Giuseppe Murgia
production Franco Cancellieri
Dieter Geißler
music Giuseppe "Pippo" Caruso
Jürgen Drews
camera Lothar Elias Stickelbrucks
cut Inga Seyric
occupation

Let's Play Love is a controversial film drama from 1977 about the sexual adulthood of three teenagers between the ages of 12 and 14. An alternative title for the film is Forbidden Games . Under the Italian original title Maladolescenza with the addition you love and you torment yourself! also published a German DVD (see the section on the legal situation ). In English the film was titled Puppy Love or Playing With Love , in French Jeux inderdits de l'adolescence . The film has been subject to a distribution ban in Germany since 2006 .

action

Laura (12) and Fabrizio (14) met again and again in the forest during the summer holidays of the previous year. Laura now notices, however, that something has changed in their relationship: Something completely new has emerged from the childish games of the past, which soon leads to a slavish devotion from Laura to Fabrizio. This begins to torture Laura with sometimes drastic methods. Still, Laura keeps coming back to Fabrizio. Ultimately, the curiosity of both leads to their first sexual contacts with each other.

However, the strange relationship between the two is soon disrupted by the appearance of the arrogant and cold-blooded Silvia (12). After Fabrizio saw Silvia for the first time, he was only interested in her. From now on Laura is the fifth wheel on the car. Since Laura Fabrizio is completely a slave, she stays with him. The games that Laura now has to endure are getting more and more violent, which leads to her total humiliation . She has to urinate in front of the two of them and even watch Silvia and Fabrizio sleep together . The situation escalates and ends tragically: Fabrizio stabs Silvia, who suddenly starts screaming hysterically, in front of Laura's eyes.

reception

The film was co-produced by two Munich companies together with an Italian company, shot from August 17 to September 16, 1976 in Upper Austria and Carinthia , and ran from June 24, 1977 with an FSK age rating of 18 and over (not holiday-free !) in German cinemas. Shortly after the cinema release, in the summer of 1977 there was an audience scandal, as the film was dramatically portrayed by young people breaking taboos and showing the depths of human emotions. A heavily abbreviated VMP VHS version received an FSK -18 rating . In this version (approx. 77 minutes) all sex and nude scenes as well as Silvia's violent death have been cut out. Shortly before the end credits, Fabrizio explains from the off that he had never seen both girls again since that summer, which was years ago, and that Silvia is now working as a teacher, as he has heard. However, this version, shortened by approx. 14 minutes, was also indexed in January 1984 by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to young people .

Even today, Play We Love is very controversial. The accusation of child pornography comes to the fore, which was hardly the focus of critics when it was released in the 1970s . The controversy surrounding the film is reflected in opposing reviews:

  • mitternachtskino.de: “Three children run around aimlessly in the forest all day, the girls take off their clothes every now and then. That's it This horrible piece of celluloid has nothing more to offer. [...] Since the sex scenes are never filmed as a necessary part of the boring story, and since Murgia often mercilessly points his camera at the pubic area of ​​his twelve-year-old actress, one cannot avoid the accusation that the film was made for pederasts. [...] 'Let's play love' is unfortunately nothing more than a small, dirty, completely boring film that gets lost in its nude scenes towards the middle. "
  • dtm.at: “The film skilfully depicts how people behave or treat each other out of love, hate or jealousy. The film 'Maladolescenza' is actually a love film that gradually turns into a drama and in the last third becomes a pure psychological thriller. It is tragic and a shame that the existing nude scenes in the film push these elements back in the minds of many people and also film critics and thus label it as cheap erotic trash. [...] To get to the point: The film perfectly portrays a love tragedy that happens every day around the world, namely love and intrigue, mendacity, broken hearts and psychological cruelty. "

Legal position

In 2004 the film distributor Bertucci Film Entertainment in Braunschweig released a DVD with the 91-minute long original version from 1977 under its label X-Rated Kult DVD with the title Maladolescenza - They love and they torment themselves! . In 2004, the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People rejected the deletion of the film from the list of media harmful to young people, but in its decision it assumed that the film did not meet the criteria of child pornography.

This version was confiscated nationwide on July 28, 2006 by the Karlsruhe District Court in accordance with Section 184b of the Criminal Code ( child pornography ) (Ref .: 31 Gs 1824/06). It is therefore subject to a distribution ban in Germany and may no longer be sold. After the seizure took place in accordance with Section 184b of the Criminal Code, which already criminalizes possession of child pornography, German investigative authorities and courts could even consider mere possession of this DVD to be punishable.

Since the film distributor obtained a legal opinion before it was released, which declared the film to be unobjectionable under criminal law, those responsible at the distributor were not prosecuted (so-called unlawful error of prohibition ).

The 2006 confiscation order does not apply to the versions without the sex scenes.

In Austria the DVD, released in 2004, is legally available to people aged 18 and over. The original 1977 version is also legally available in the United States.

Since 2011, when was Freiburg Regional Court a criminal case to Maladolescenza pending. On January 25, 2012, the Foreign Criminal Chamber of the Kleve Regional Court in Moers refused to open main proceedings against an accused for factual reasons. It refused to admit the indictment and ruled that Maladolescenza had "insufficient suspicion" that the film was " about sexual acts on or in front of children".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. mitternachtskino.de , accessed on March 6, 2007.
  2. dtm.at , accessed on March 6, 2007.
  3. ^ Decision of the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People, Az VE 21/04, of July 21, 2004
  4. Haitoman: AG Karlsruhe seized Maladolescenza. In: schnittberichte.com . October 3, 2006, archived from the original on January 15, 2011 ; Retrieved January 15, 2011 .
  5. ^ Regional Court Freiburg, Az. 5 Ns 100 Js 19116/11 - AK 23/13
  6. Landgericht Kleve, decision under Az. 223 Kls 801 Js 738 / 08-27 / 11