An Old Love

An Old Love (German: Eine alte Liebe)[1] is an East German black-and-white film, directed by Frank Beyer. It was released in 1959.

Eine alte Liebe
Directed byFrank Beyer
Produced byErich Albrecht
Written by
  • Werner Reinowski
  • Frank Beyer
StarringGisela May
Music byJoachim Werzlau
CinematographyGünter Marczinkowsky
Edited byEvelyn Carow
Production
company
Distributed byProgress Film
Release date
4 October 1959
Running time
92 minutes
CountryEast Germany
LanguageGerman

Plot

Frieda Walkowiak is an ambitious director of a collective farm. Although she is talented and hard-working, the men in the commune are reluctant to accept her as their supervisor. August, Frieda's husband, is exasperated by his wife's devotion to her office, which leads to her being absent from home quite often. After she misses their wedding's anniversary, August is enraged, and leaves their house with their daughter. Frieda is badly depressed and suffers a breakdown. She is taken to a hospital. August hears of this, comes back to his senses and returns. The family reunites.

Cast
  • Gisela May as Frieda Walkowiak
  • Erich Franz as August Walkowiak
  • Doris Abeßer as Helga
  • Ezard Haußmann as Lothar
  • Peter Sturm as Heinrich Rantsch
  • Hans-Peter Minetti as Benno Schulze
  • Margot Ebert as Irmgard Strömer
  • Harry Gillman as Otto Funke
  • Werner Lierck as Räupke
  • Rudolf Ulrich as Georg
  • Günther Simon as first secretary of the party branch
  • J.P. Dornseif as Uhland
  • Jochen Thomas as Christopher Schwannecke
  • Hans Finohr as old Schwannecke
  • Peter Kalisch as Besecke

Production

The film was made in accordance with the demands set forth by the East German establishment in the Cultural Conference of October 1957 and in the 2nd Cinema Conference of July 1958. Both called on filmmakers to concentrate on the theme of collectivization in agriculture, on the background of the ongoing campaign to establish the communal farms.[2] The script was based on a story by Werner Reinowski. It was Frank Beyer's second film.[3]

Reception

PROGRESS-Film Verleih, the distributor of An Old Love, promoted the picture as "one that should be viewed in every village."[4]

The West German Catholic Film Service defined the film as a "well-played film... but completely devoted to its political aim."[5] Anke Pinkert noted that An Old Love made a subtle reference to the subjects of post-war displacement and to the bombings during World War II, that were both very controversial at the time.[6] Joshua Feinstein cited it as one of the earliest East German pictures that had a female protagonist.[7] Thomas Koebner wrote that the film was clearly a "vehicle of propaganda to promote the collectivization".[8] Beyer himself told that it was "not very good."[9]

At 1960, after the last independent farmers became members of the collectives, the film was removed from circulation.[2]

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References
  1. Eine alte Liebe Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine on the DEFA Foundation website.
  2. Sabine Brummel. Die Werktätigen in DEFA-Spielfilmen: Propaganda in den Filmen der DDR. Diplomica Verlag (2010). ISBN 978-3-8366-9885-6. Pages 48–50.
  3. Axel Geiss. Zwischen Anspruch und Auftrag. Freie Universität Berlin (1997). OCLC 43472006. Page 34.
  4. Ralf Schenk. Regie, Frank Beyer. Hentrich (1995). ISBN 978-3-89468-156-2. Page 160.
  5. Eine alte Liebe on the German Film Lexicon.
  6. Anke Pinkert. Film and memory in East Germany. Indiana University Press (2008). ISBN 978-0-253-21967-1. Page 238.
  7. Joshua Feinstein. The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949–1989. ISBN 978-0-8078-5385-6. Page 58.
  8. Thomas Koebner. Filmregisseure: Biographien, Werkbeschreibungen, Filmographien. Reclam (1999). ISBN 978-3-15-010455-2. Page 72.
  9. Frank Beyer. Wenn der Wind sich Dreht. ISBN 978-3-548-60218-9. Page 192.
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