The Legend of Paul and Paula

Paul and Paula go through life picking the wrong partners until they happen to hook up with each other and the legend begins. Low-budget German film has the look of a cheesy porno movie. The script is pretty standard boy-meets-girl story. The acting by Domrose (as Paula, who seems to work in an amazingly busy grocery store or something and has wild mood swings) and Glatzeder (as the goofy Paul) is not bad, considering the clichéd characters they are playing. The direction is amateurish, with incongruous shots of buildings being demolished thrown in. The soundtrack is filled with bad German pop songs, although it is interesting that they get the lyrics to rhyme even after translating to English.

If you want to get the feel of life in East Germany and of life in the 70s, this is your film. It is critical of the socialist system (national socialism ended in 1945, afterwards there was no Nazi-propaganda anywhere anymore, especially not in the East! Sorry, but another reviewer got this wrong), offers a romantic story and good acting by well-known actors. It is still cult in Berlin, where you can regularly see in the cinema. It kicked off the wave of east-German nostalgia. The film was so successful that today you can still see references to it in other films (eg. "Sonnenallee") and that the city decided to name a path along a lake "Paul und Paula Ufer" with a Paul und Paula bench to sit on. Also the soundtrack is worth listening to (especially the lyrics) and marked the beginning of the Puhdys'huge career.

This film is a fascinating artifact to watch, and I use my language carefully there. This is perhaps not a film with as much current meaning and significance as other pieces of German cinema, but when watched as an artifact of how it might have felt to live in East Germany in the 70s (not to suggest that Paul and Paula themselves are necessary the model), it is a fascinating and interesting watch. Of course, within this, I do not seek to reduce it simply to a piece of history, it is art, entertaining and beautifully done, but I do think one needs to watch from the perspective of an East German in the 70s.

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.

Heiner Carow's "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" is the first GDR film I've watched which centered on a woman and her development as an individual, which was new to DEFA within that period of time. "Die Legende..." is different from other films made before it since the story was about a woman who seeks for self-fulfillment and follows her heart in spite of the rigidity of societal norms.

In this film, Paula is the epitome of what women were mostly portrayed as in the 1970s: emotional rather than rational.

Paula is a quirk of a character. She wears her heart on her sleeve and cares not one bit what happens as long as she is happy. She seems a bit over the edge at some points in the film, though. As if she were about to break down at a moment's notice. Her character is intense and Angelica Dumrose fully consummates the part.

The Legend of Paul and Paula seems simple yet not boring. However, the film has profound ideas to tell – gender roles, social inequality and escapism. I like the film's way portraying of everyday life in East Berlin. You can almost see and feel the city. The love story between a passionate single mother and a complacent, married bureaucrat is not your typical Hollywood movie. The film also has a psychedelic and hippie feel. The soundtrack suits the film. I like the portions of the film where some elements (like the band that plays music while Paul and Paula are making love) are placed for no reason. The movie has a simple charm that captivates audiences. I guess that the film's success lies in its way of making the ordinary scenes of life extraordinary.