"Description of a summer" tells a story about love, though without any romance or sentimentality. A group of youth activists are in charge to build parts of a chemical factory. As they aren't exactly experienced with things like mixing concrete, engineer Tom Breitsprecher (Manfred Krug) tries to teach them - and encounters party secretary Grit (Christel Bodenstein). The two get slowly into a fatal attraction - fatal, because she is married. The scene where Tom takes off Grit's ring (for workplace safety reasons, he says) has a strong symbolism.
"Only" black and white, this film brings an abundance of thrilling visuals, mostly using light and shadow effects, and more symbolic scenes - for instance, the burning of a staff barrack is just indicated by what happens to a guitar and a bicycle. Another thing it doesn't have is closing titles - and indeed, "The End" would have been inappropriate in the end. I felt like "Discuss." might have been a fitting end title...
45 years after this film came out, in a GDR just having been sealed to the West with the Wall, it still feels fresh and surprising today. Don't expect a well-rounded story arc, what you get is a slice of the life of the two main actors, and quite some food for thought. But no political propaganda.
"Only" black and white, this film brings an abundance of thrilling visuals, mostly using light and shadow effects, and more symbolic scenes - for instance, the burning of a staff barrack is just indicated by what happens to a guitar and a bicycle. Another thing it doesn't have is closing titles - and indeed, "The End" would have been inappropriate in the end. I felt like "Discuss." might have been a fitting end title...
45 years after this film came out, in a GDR just having been sealed to the West with the Wall, it still feels fresh and surprising today. Don't expect a well-rounded story arc, what you get is a slice of the life of the two main actors, and quite some food for thought. But no political propaganda.