"Die Legende von Paul und Paula" or "The Legend of Paul and Paula" is an East German German-language film from 1973, so this one is already over 40 years old. It is today considered one of the best DEFA/GDR movies in retrospective. I agree partially with that. Let's stay with the basics here. The director is Heiner Carow and this film's success as well as the success of the movie "Coming Out" from over 15 years later make it easy to say he was one of the most successful filmmakers from the GDR. And also one of those most remembered today. He also managed something that many did not succeed with, namely the transition from being a filmmaker in the GDR to being a filmmaker in Germany. He died before the age of 70 and only lived until early 1997, but between 1990 and 1997 he worked on a handful of projects. It may have helped him with the transition that some of his films, especially his most known works, are considered fairly progressive for GDR movies and the powerful back then in that country maybe did not like them too much because of that. Carow is also one of the writers here, which should not surprise anybody because most of the time he was also in charge of the screenplay for the films he directed. This changed a bit after 1989 because in reunited Germany he mostly focused on directing. One co-writer here is Anne Pfeuffer. Cannot say anything about her really as I have never heard the name before, but I see she was pretty prolific in the dramatisation department and this film, by far her most knwon work, is neither from very early, nor from very late in her career. And finally, the third writer is Berlin-born Ulrich Plenzdorf. Him I have heard of. We read one of his works at school (Die neuen Leiden des jungen W.) and I am a bit surprised to see he was also pretty prolific with writing for the screen. Kinda fitting with his background that here he wrote the scenario. This is not from his early years, but earlier years.
This one runs for 100 minutes, so it neither truly long nor truly short. As for the cast, we have some familiar faces here: Lead actress Angelica Domröse is 75 now and her male co-lead Winfried Glatzeder is 70. Both have had really long careers and both also kept acting after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, especially Glatzeder who has been really prolific in recent years. Domröse not so much. As for the supporting cast, Christian Steyer is of course really easy to identify with his special haircut and beard and I kinda wished he could have had more screen time and not just the one he did early on. Nina Hagen's mother is also in it by the way. Eva-Maria Hagen is the name. Her daughter and granddaughter are pretty famous as well in Germany. Heidemarie Wenzel also deserves a mention as maybe she is the one with the third-most screen time in this film, even if it is considerably less than the two leads have. She seems retired now, but that's probably a good thing if you see that the last thing she did was the unwatchable "In aller Freundschaft". No need to accept such a low level at a pretty high age unless you really need the money. "In aller Freundschaft" is also set in East Germany, which may be a bit of an explanation. Finally, Fred Delmare. He is no longer with us, but it's unreal to see in how many GDR movies you find him as part of the cast. His career ended also with "In aller Freundschaft", which is definitely a bit sad to see. I think he is better than that, even if his material in this movie here was nothing anybody could have shone with.
My personal opinion is sadly that the GDR was not a good country at all when it comes to their cinematic achievements, so by general standards it is a mediocre movie, but compared to other GDR films I believe that this one does maybe slightly stand out from the weaker rest if at all. Still I don't think that it is anywhere close to being one of the country's defining films in terms of the quality. It probably also helps that this is a color film, which is not a surprise for 1973, but also not to be taken for granted. I personally cannot see this film as relevant in depicting life in the GDR. It does not make an impact in terms of politics or society I think. It is, however, worth checking out because it is a solid romance movie that is pretty bleak and sometimes even devastating. I think that the shocking ending and also how rationally it is told to the audience made many viewers forget about all the mediocrity from before that. The movie lives through the two title characters and the way they are portrayed and depicted, especially Angelica Domröse's Paula, who is probably a bit easier to like than her male counterpart (maybe also because of moments like the scene with the belt), which is why many must have been truly shocked by the character's death. We don't see her dying though, so this is not the reason why this film even today is only for audiences that are at least 16 years old. Honestly, this did surprise me a bit and I think this info from the very start referred to the now and not that people back then in the GDR must have been at least 16 to watch. Not sure what's the reason though. I assume the nudity on several occasions, but still, it is "only" bare breasts. No explicit sex scenes or anything.
There are moments of blatant overacting, but this is basically the case in 90% of all 1970s films, especially the German ones. Not an excuse though. Examples could be how some character start laughing like maniacs on some occasions here and it was very bizarre. Sometimes less is more and this would definitely have been the case during these strange moments. They felt like psychopaths or serial killers there. One example is when Glatzeder's character leaves the other woman for good after he caught her with another man once more. In general, I kept wondering why he stayed with here really, but also I kept wondering even more how big the gap was between the harmonic moments with his wife and the escalations and outburst, even in the presence of her parents. These were the moments that probably turned Paul into a less likable character than Paula. Oh yeah, the names. Of course, the striking similarity makes it easy to remember the film's titles and certainly helped for it to not become forgotten. So they made some wise choices here. I just wished the overall outcome could have been better. I don't think this film has aged really well. Okay, you can cut the "really". I also don't think the key problem is that this is a very bleak movie from beginning to end really. I like that in other films sometimes, but here not so much. Let's be honest here: GDR films rarely seem enthusiastic, even if they are depicting something enthusiastic. The best example here is Paula being madly in love. Or also one young character's death. I have rarely seen a key inclusion this tragic from a film being handled in such a sterile manner. I mean the suffering is there, but it's all quiet and I found it really difficult as a consequence to feel the female protagonist's pain. Guilt is also a concept in here that felt a bit included for the sake of it and they could have done a lot more/better there with Domröse's character and her struggles.
I kinda liked the Puhdys song at the very start. Also a bit strange with the lyrics, but it does add some charm. Gonna listen to it more frequently. I think the song is also fairly known today given the age, already because you cannot watch this movie without listening twice to said song. So I can see why they used it again at the very end too. It's way better than pretty much every other song used in here. Before that we have something like an interview with Paula that almost feels as if they were breaking the fourth wall, but then we see the guy asking the questions and it wasn't really the case. But some of the stuff Paula said there was really sweet and again, this film delivers so much with the ending that I can totally see why many forgot about all before that and that the film did drag quite a bit. I must still say that I liked the first half of first 30 minutes more than the second half, even with how all-in they were going with the ending. The beginning definitely felt rushed with how we see both protagonists get together with other partners and how kids are the result of these relationships, but for me it was more interesting and better entertainment than everything that happened around the one-hour mark for example. For this was where the movie switched back and forth between moments in which P&P are really close and loving with each other and then out of nowhere without proper elaboration it all escalates between the two. There were some good parts or funny moments (like when the two kids watch them in bed), some not so good, but overall the forgettable outweighs the memorable. The negative outweighs the positive. I also liked the introduction of the two characters that we meet them long before they become a couple actually. As a whole, I really don't think this film should be as popular as it is today, even if it never a failure and closer to 3 out of 5 than to 1 out of 5 without a doubt. For now it's a 2 out of 5 though as the successes and quality inclusions are just not frequent enough. I don't recommend the watch, thumbs down.
This one runs for 100 minutes, so it neither truly long nor truly short. As for the cast, we have some familiar faces here: Lead actress Angelica Domröse is 75 now and her male co-lead Winfried Glatzeder is 70. Both have had really long careers and both also kept acting after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, especially Glatzeder who has been really prolific in recent years. Domröse not so much. As for the supporting cast, Christian Steyer is of course really easy to identify with his special haircut and beard and I kinda wished he could have had more screen time and not just the one he did early on. Nina Hagen's mother is also in it by the way. Eva-Maria Hagen is the name. Her daughter and granddaughter are pretty famous as well in Germany. Heidemarie Wenzel also deserves a mention as maybe she is the one with the third-most screen time in this film, even if it is considerably less than the two leads have. She seems retired now, but that's probably a good thing if you see that the last thing she did was the unwatchable "In aller Freundschaft". No need to accept such a low level at a pretty high age unless you really need the money. "In aller Freundschaft" is also set in East Germany, which may be a bit of an explanation. Finally, Fred Delmare. He is no longer with us, but it's unreal to see in how many GDR movies you find him as part of the cast. His career ended also with "In aller Freundschaft", which is definitely a bit sad to see. I think he is better than that, even if his material in this movie here was nothing anybody could have shone with.
My personal opinion is sadly that the GDR was not a good country at all when it comes to their cinematic achievements, so by general standards it is a mediocre movie, but compared to other GDR films I believe that this one does maybe slightly stand out from the weaker rest if at all. Still I don't think that it is anywhere close to being one of the country's defining films in terms of the quality. It probably also helps that this is a color film, which is not a surprise for 1973, but also not to be taken for granted. I personally cannot see this film as relevant in depicting life in the GDR. It does not make an impact in terms of politics or society I think. It is, however, worth checking out because it is a solid romance movie that is pretty bleak and sometimes even devastating. I think that the shocking ending and also how rationally it is told to the audience made many viewers forget about all the mediocrity from before that. The movie lives through the two title characters and the way they are portrayed and depicted, especially Angelica Domröse's Paula, who is probably a bit easier to like than her male counterpart (maybe also because of moments like the scene with the belt), which is why many must have been truly shocked by the character's death. We don't see her dying though, so this is not the reason why this film even today is only for audiences that are at least 16 years old. Honestly, this did surprise me a bit and I think this info from the very start referred to the now and not that people back then in the GDR must have been at least 16 to watch. Not sure what's the reason though. I assume the nudity on several occasions, but still, it is "only" bare breasts. No explicit sex scenes or anything.
There are moments of blatant overacting, but this is basically the case in 90% of all 1970s films, especially the German ones. Not an excuse though. Examples could be how some character start laughing like maniacs on some occasions here and it was very bizarre. Sometimes less is more and this would definitely have been the case during these strange moments. They felt like psychopaths or serial killers there. One example is when Glatzeder's character leaves the other woman for good after he caught her with another man once more. In general, I kept wondering why he stayed with here really, but also I kept wondering even more how big the gap was between the harmonic moments with his wife and the escalations and outburst, even in the presence of her parents. These were the moments that probably turned Paul into a less likable character than Paula. Oh yeah, the names. Of course, the striking similarity makes it easy to remember the film's titles and certainly helped for it to not become forgotten. So they made some wise choices here. I just wished the overall outcome could have been better. I don't think this film has aged really well. Okay, you can cut the "really". I also don't think the key problem is that this is a very bleak movie from beginning to end really. I like that in other films sometimes, but here not so much. Let's be honest here: GDR films rarely seem enthusiastic, even if they are depicting something enthusiastic. The best example here is Paula being madly in love. Or also one young character's death. I have rarely seen a key inclusion this tragic from a film being handled in such a sterile manner. I mean the suffering is there, but it's all quiet and I found it really difficult as a consequence to feel the female protagonist's pain. Guilt is also a concept in here that felt a bit included for the sake of it and they could have done a lot more/better there with Domröse's character and her struggles.
I kinda liked the Puhdys song at the very start. Also a bit strange with the lyrics, but it does add some charm. Gonna listen to it more frequently. I think the song is also fairly known today given the age, already because you cannot watch this movie without listening twice to said song. So I can see why they used it again at the very end too. It's way better than pretty much every other song used in here. Before that we have something like an interview with Paula that almost feels as if they were breaking the fourth wall, but then we see the guy asking the questions and it wasn't really the case. But some of the stuff Paula said there was really sweet and again, this film delivers so much with the ending that I can totally see why many forgot about all before that and that the film did drag quite a bit. I must still say that I liked the first half of first 30 minutes more than the second half, even with how all-in they were going with the ending. The beginning definitely felt rushed with how we see both protagonists get together with other partners and how kids are the result of these relationships, but for me it was more interesting and better entertainment than everything that happened around the one-hour mark for example. For this was where the movie switched back and forth between moments in which P&P are really close and loving with each other and then out of nowhere without proper elaboration it all escalates between the two. There were some good parts or funny moments (like when the two kids watch them in bed), some not so good, but overall the forgettable outweighs the memorable. The negative outweighs the positive. I also liked the introduction of the two characters that we meet them long before they become a couple actually. As a whole, I really don't think this film should be as popular as it is today, even if it never a failure and closer to 3 out of 5 than to 1 out of 5 without a doubt. For now it's a 2 out of 5 though as the successes and quality inclusions are just not frequent enough. I don't recommend the watch, thumbs down.