14 March 1973 (East Germany)
Heiner Carow
Angelica Domrose ... Paula
Winfried Glatzeder ... Paul
While watching this movie for the first time it didn't have too much of an impact on me. I was just waiting for something to happen basically. It does have a certain charm to it however.
After watching a lot of communist commercials on youtube I began to get interested in communism. No not like I actually thought it worked or was even a good idea to begin with; I mean I was interested in learning about what everyday life was like under the iron curtain. So I came across this gem from old East-Germany.
I guess what really made this movie work for me was the music. It's like Beatles-era psychedelic rock. There's a cool sequence near the beginning where she is on a merry-go-round with some really cool camera-work and great trippy music in the background.
It has a pretty selfish message though. Paul and Paula fall in love after both having bad previous marriages. Both had their spouses cheat on them. Paul remains married to his wife however while Paula got a divorce. So they start running around with each other. Paul could care less that he's cheating on his wife and both of them have children that they neglect due to their love affair. I think the message of this film is that this is a good thing. I don't think cheating on your wife and neglecting your children is a good thing.
Even though this is the official message of the movie, I can derive my own message. That because they were doing wrong they messed up their lives and the lives of their families as well. But message-aside I think this was a well made movie given the circumstances that it was made under. I tend to judge movies on a curve. If somebody makes an okay movie with a few thousand dollars, it's just as good as a movie that is pretty-good but cost millions to make. More often than not in the Hollywood of today millions are spent on movies and they are absolute garbage.
Probably a four-star movie in my book but since it has such great music I'll throw in an extra star.
Since this is a commie DVD we're not given the choice of having subtitles or not, they are just always there. Fine with me though since I don't know German.
