Willy Clever
2021Frühlings Erwachen
Richard Oswald
Toni van Eyck, Ita Rina
Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.
Spring Awakening
Sonntag des Lebens
Leo Mittler
Camilla Horn, Oskar Marion
Ellen Hobart is a gold-digging manicurist who sights her sights on David Stone, a wealthy young man. After they marry, Hobart is persuaded to accept $50,000 to give her husband up. She willingly goes along with this arrangement, only to realize she's genuinely in love with the boy when he falls dangerously ill. German-language version of the American pre-code film The Devil's Holiday.
Sunday of Life
