In spite of all!
In spite of all! is a German DEFA biography by Günter Reisch from 1972. The film, the title of which quotes an article by Karl Liebknecht from the Rote Fahne from January 15, 1919, deals with Karl Liebknecht's life from 1918 to 1919. The prestige project is linked in terms of content to the first Liebknecht film Solange Leben is in mir from 1965.
action
After several years, Karl Liebknecht was released from prison on October 23, 1918. The First World War is almost over and Liebknecht knows that the working class is fermenting. Also Friedrich Ebert suspects that a revolution will come and wants to enforce the abdication of the emperor, to calm the masses. However, he initially refuses.
Liebknecht knows about the Kiel sailors' uprising and urges that the revolution be proclaimed across the empire, but the workers in Berlin are of the opinion that they are not yet ready for the revolution. Liebknecht's speeches with Ebert and Scheidemann also make the masses sway, so Liebknecht now refuses to stand on one side with the war advocates. The Schreiner family is also divided: If father Schreiner takes the side of the imperial troops, Milda, Käthe and Kulle Schreiner fight alongside Liebknecht. When the rebellion of the Kiel sailors spread to the Reich, Liebknecht took the lead and proclaimed the “Free Socialist Republic of Germany” in Berlin on November 9, 1918. The rebels occupy the Berlin Palace, the Kaiser flees.
The victory of the revolution did not last long, however. With Ebert's knowledge, preparations are made for an attack on the insurgents. On December 24th, when numerous workers were with their families, the Berlin Palace was taken by the imperial military. The public calls for Liebknecht's murder, who is hiding underground. Communists are hunted down and there are public shootings. In mid-January 1919 the newspaper of the Spartakists, Die Rote Fahne , announced the murder of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg . A funeral procession gathers in Berlin to pay their final respects to the two murdered people despite the threat from the military.
production
As early as 1965, director Günter Reisch and screenwriter Michael Tschesno-Hell worked together on the Liebknecht film Solange Leben is in mir . At the time, the critics stated that both represent different artistic views, which would have been more of a hindrance to the overall picture of the film. The film did not receive the highest state rating “Particularly valuable”, but was only awarded the rating “Valuable”, although it was a prestige project by DEFA. Nevertheless, both men were also commissioned to work on the second part of Liebknecht's complete oeuvre, as Joachim Kunert and Frank Beyer, among others, had previously decided not to work on the film.
In spite of all! At 6.6 million marks, it was even more expensive than the first part, which had cost 6 million marks. It had its world premiere on January 13, 1972 in the Berlin Kino International . Outside of the GDR, the film was partially shown with a different ending. While the original version closes with Liebknecht's death and a memorial service, the film ended, for example, in Yemen with pictures of young people from the GDR who carried banners with Liebknecht's likeness during the Xth World Festival in 1973.
Reviews
The contemporary criticism of the GDR found that the film "[can] trigger the strength in the viewer to take up the struggle of the hero, to continue it, and to educate him into a revolutionary fighter". In spite of all! is “a great DEFA film, enriched with a wealth of solid individual achievements. Of course, it falls short of the high standards, ”said other critics, some of whom criticized the film's stale design. Director Reisch was also unsure about the portrayal of both public and private Liebknecht: “It was shaped by the fear of his [= Liebknecht] belittling through 'general human' additions on the one hand and the fear of being too heroic on the other . "
In retrospect, other critics wrote that the film suffered “from elements of the documentary dramaturgy, the arranged reality”: “Nevertheless, the film, which deals with the period from 1916 (Luckau prison) to the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is more objective, more real and less pathetic than its predecessor [...], it is atmospherically convincing and - under the conditions mentioned - remarkably lively and effectively staged and played. "Above all, the view from below makes the film" valuable and informative ".
In 2000, Frank-Burkhard Habel wrote that Günter Reisch only succeeded in a few scenes "breaking up the pathetic book by Tschesno-Hell, which portrayed Liebknecht as an impeccable leader, with realistic episodes." The lexicon of international film , however, found that that the film “despite the large images [...] seeks its happiness primarily in dialogue, which largely suppresses pathetic tones. Nevertheless, a rather conventional production that underscores the official image of history and does not question much. "
Awards
Günter Reisch, Michael Tschesno-Hell and Jürgen Brauer received the FDGB Art Prize in 1972 . Günter Reisch and Jutta Hoffmann were awarded the film prize of the magazine Neues Leben . The film received the state rating “Particularly valuable”.
literature
- Frank-Burkhard Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 628–629.
Web links
- In spite of all! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- In spite of all! at filmportal.de
- In spite of all! at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Liebknecht: In spite of everything! In Die Rote Fahne January 15, 1919
- ↑ Ralf Schenk (Red.): Program supplement to the DVD edition So long live in me is / Despite all of it! . Issue 8. Icestorm / DEFA Foundation, Berlin 2005, p. 6.
- ↑ Ralf Schenk (Red.): Program supplement to the DVD edition So long live in me is / Despite all of it! . Issue 8. Icestorm / DEFA Foundation, Berlin 2005, p. 7.
- ↑ Horst Knietzsch: In spite of everything! . In: Neues Deutschland , January 15, 1972.
- ^ Georg Antosch: In spite of all that! . In: Der Neue Weg , January 14, 1972.
- ↑ Michael Hanisch: The one and the other Reisch . In: Sunday, January 16, 1972.
- ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 254.
- ^ Frank-Burkhard Habel : The large lexicon of DEFA feature films. The complete documentation of all DEFA feature films from 1946 to 1993. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , p. 629.
- ↑ Despite all that! In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 7, 2017 .