Where the trains go
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Where the trains go |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1949 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Boleslaw Barlog |
| script | Walter Ulbrich |
| production |
Alexander Krafft , Anton Weber (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Film GmbH, Freiburg i. Br.) |
| music | Wolfgang Zeller |
| camera | Klaus von Rautenfeld |
| cut | Fritz Stapenhorst |
| occupation | |
| |
Where the Trains Go is a 1948 German feature film by Boleslaw Barlog with Heidemarie Hatheyer , Carl Raddatz and Gunnar Möller in the leading roles.
action
Max Engler and his young acquaintance Gustav Dussmann met at a freight yard, where the trains from which the title are based, in 1948, the year of hunger and shortage. The two of you are two typically German homeless people of that time, two uprooted people who struggled to survive the war and find it very difficult to find their way back to their homeland, which is in ruins. Without a roof over their heads and without a family waiting for you somewhere, their existence takes place on the country road and between ruins, in freight cars and in the night asylum. In order to at least have something to bite, both men try their hand at fraudulent marriage with wealthy peasant daughters. Max is also driven by the unconditional will to find his fiancée Martha again in this unusual way.
One day, a down-to-earth young woman answered an advertisement in the newspaper, devotedly looking after Hannele, the foundling she had picked up. Her name is Fanny Förster, was once evacuated from Bavaria to Freiburg and now lives more badly than right in a dilapidated ruined house. She begins to fall in love with the established Max. Meanwhile, his young buddy Gustav comes into conflict with the law and has to go to prison temporarily. When Max has to see that Martha who has reappeared has thrown herself on the neck of an American occupation soldier, he is deeply disappointed and is open to Fanny. Both now have the best chances for a future together. After Gustav's release, Max resolves to be a good friend at his side when he starts over.
Production notes
Where the Trains Go , the first film shot in the French occupation zone was probably made in the first half of 1948 in the Freiburg studio and in the city and surroundings of Freiburg, the home of the production company making the film. Around a year passed between the shooting time and the premiere. The strip passed the Allied film censorship in April 1949 and was premiered on June 3, 1949 in Freiburg. The Berlin premiere was on July 14, 1949. The only television broadcast so far was in 1955 on ARD . The film is considered lost.
Erich Holder worked as production manager. Carl L. Kirmse designed the film structures. Theo Nischwitz designed the special effects. Around 200 extras and the entire FFC football team took part.
Where the trains go was a German contribution to the Xth Venice International Film Festival , which took place between August 11 and September 1, 1949.
useful information
Where the trains go , the last cinema production by the theater man Barlog, is considered one of the last so-called rubble films in the Federal Republic. After the introduction of the DM as the successor to the Reichsmark and with the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, this film genre had outlived itself and numerous moviegoers now preferred to see cheerful and inconsequential entertainment such as Katchen for everything , After rain, sun shines , noise in the secret annex , nothing but coincidences , By the length of a nose and My Wife's Friends - all of them films that were shown in cinemas in 1949 , like Where do the trains go . Accordingly, the dreary story told here developed “into a grandiose flop” at the box office, not least because of the considerable costs of 1.2 million DM.
A contemporary explained the rejection of the film by the audience and the accompanying financial debacle in the business newspaper of July 16, 1949 as follows: “The audience feels too far from the times of passenger transport in freight trains to think about it, and not far enough away to take any historical interest in it. Ten or twenty years from now, these films may be belatedly recognized as documents of the past. At the moment they mean ruin for some companies. The fragmentation of production forced by the military governments shows itself here from the most disadvantageous side. A corporation can compensate for the failure of one film with profits from other films. (...) The question of artistic quality hardly plays a role in the rigorous rejection of these films by the audience. The stars, like ... Heidemarie Hatheyer and Karl Raddatz, are among the most popular ... in German film. (…) It is the topic, the atmosphere, the milieu of war and post-war that is rejected here. Not only in Germany, but increasingly also abroad. In all countries the public quickly lost their taste for the sight of past misery and despair. "
Reviews
In Der Spiegel one could read: “This story… seems artificially conjured up in the reality of the ruinous scene. Boleslav Barlog, Berlin's most agile post-war director, the master of the premier Steglitzer Schloßtheater, gets more real feeling out of her than one might suspect. The film cheers you up despite the ruins. That's up to Barlog's direction. And to Heidemarie Hatheyer. As a Fanny, she is reassuringly feminine and confident. One cannot really fear for them even in the moments of their particular abandonment. "
"... a returnees theme that is beautifully staged, well-lit and presented in an intimate tone."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Where the trains go on freiburg-film.de
- ↑ Where the trains go in Der Spiegel 24/1949
- ↑ Where the trains go on geschichte-projekte-hannover.de
- ↑ Critique in Der Spiegel of June 9, 1949
- ↑ Where the trains are going in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on July 1, 2019
Web links
- Where the trains in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Where the trains go at filmportal.de