Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. T... Read allPaul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they'r... Read allPaul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they're together - but their short flights from the burdens of reality are once and again interr... Read all
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- Kollege Schmidt
- (as Frank Schenk)
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What does this entail? It entails watching not for a simple critique of East Germany and socialism. It entails watching not for a love story. It entails watching not to fulfil some preconceived notion of what is right and what is wrong. Instead, one must seek to go beyond these simple conclusions. I'm not the one to say what this film means, and that is precisely my point. When this film was released East Germany was far behind its Western counterpart in terms of economic development. Socialism was not achieving what it desired. It's easy in that light to jump to conclusions right away about what the film means. Instead of doing that, ask why Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany, would have personally allowed this film to be shown? Ask why this film was (and still is to many) beloved by East Germans. My point is, this film is more than one thing, equally critical as it is optimistic, equally a love story as it is a Shakespearian tragedy, and equally compelling as it is confusing.
Give it a watch, you may not like it (I only gave it a 7), but it is incredibly rich.
Angelica Domröse plays Paula, a single mother who has a dead-end job and no social life. Winfried Glatzeder portrays Paul, who is unhappily married and is drawn to the free-spirited Paula. (Glatzeder has been called East Germany's Jean-Paul Belmondo. He didn't look much like Belmondo, and wouldn't have struck me as leading man material. However, I don't know enough about East German cinema to be aware of his competition.)
I've been told that the reason for this film's popularity in East Germany was because it contained subtle criticism of the regime, as well as depicting some PG-13 sex. I know East German films were subject to strict censorship, and, as in any similar regime, directors inserted criticisms in ways that were necessarily very indirect and symbolic.
The problem is that this movie only works if you can think of how you would have viewed it in East Berlin in 1973. I don't believe it's strong enough to succeed on its own merits in 2006.
Pretty much all of the home appliances shown are authentic, yet they had to introduce coffee and cosmetics (which didn't really exist in the GDR at that time) to make it suitable for the political demagogues. Imagine it: the fact that there is a sentence in English ("excuse me, only one glass for you") could have led to a total ban of the entire movie.
What else is there to say? Try to understand the lyrics of the Band 'Puhdys' featured manifold in this flick and the in-between-the-lines-messages and how this was important to get thoughts of freedom past the GDR's government's census.
Well you guys probably don't and will never understand what kind of fruit GDR's socialism sprouted, but watching 'Paul and Paula' could theoretically help you get at least a glimpse.
Did you know
- TriviaFemale DEFA-director Ingrid Reschke made preparations for the film, but her life was tragically cut short in a car accident, and Heiner Carow took over the project. He dedicated the film to her memory.
- ConnectionsEdited into Der nackte Osten - Erotik zwischen oben und unten (1994)
- SoundtracksGeh zu Ihr
Music by Peter Gotthardt
Lyrics by Ulrich Plenzdorf & Peter Gotthardt
Performed by Puhdys
VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin AMIGA
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