"Drei Töchter - Armer Vater" is a German television film from 1977, so one more year (actually less because this was a January release) and this one will have its 45th anniversary already. It probably happened already because I doubt too many will show up these days on this title page unless they watched the film themselves. This was on today in the afternoon. The reason is that the male lead here will have its 100th birthday tomorrow. Impressive. But I shall get to that later. This is a film that was made of course form before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, so there were two Germanys back then and this one here is from East Germany. The GDR. The title means basically "Three Daughters - Poor Father" and it isa solid explanation of what to expect here really, but at the same time it is not because the three women in here are not his real daughters and besides, it is his choice to adopt them. So with all the mayhem coming his way given the daughters dramatic (or "dramatic") lives, he is the one and only person to blame for that, so you should probably not call him "poor" because it's a conscious choice he went for here, even if he probably did not think it would get this stressful. What was he even thinking at all? This film runs for 80 minutes exactly pretty much, which means it is not a long watch at all, but at the same time still longer than other GDR films because 75 minutes were not an uncommon running time back then for movies and I watched some films starring the same protagonist and made by the same director lately on the occasion of this special celebration and they were only 75 minutes long. Also these films are basically stage plays for the most part. In one there was an audience even there and we heard all the laughter. Not so with this one here and actually I am glad about that. It's a comedy of course, family comedy you could say, but the moments that may sound a bit on the dramatic side are also nothing but light.
The director I just mentioned is Eberhard Schäfer, a really prolific filmmaker if we take a look at his body of work. His career may have only lasted slightly over 20 years, but he made approximately two movies per year. It's not Fassbinder level, but it is a lot. There is not known too much about him anymore and that surprises me a bit because yeah well, as I said, he was really busy there. But his country does not exist anymore and same applies to most of the memories linked to him I suppose. We do not know if he is alive anymore, but we do know that he stopped making movies after Germany was united again. If that was because he wanted to and was old enough to retire of because he simply could not manage a successful transition, I cannot tell you. But he worked with lead actor Herbert Köfer on several occasions. Köfer is the one to turn into a centennial tomorrow. Hopefully. You can never be sure at that age. But props to him. He also always looked a bit younger in the stuff I saw him in these days, so good genes and good health seem to be nothing unknown to him. The cast for this film here is extremely small. Only one other male actor and that one does not have a lot of screen time. It's all about Köfer. He is in the vast majority of scenes in here and as they are showing all these projects now that include him, I am also glad he makes little introductions to those. On one occasion, he said that people recognized him all the time in the GDR and that there was even a hype. I am not sure how accurate this is, but if he is playing absolute key characters in these films the way he does here, I would not be surprised if it is all true. Could it all be true? There is not much to say about the rest of the cast for me. I am not familiar with any of them. I told you how old this movie is, even if it looks maybe five to ten years younger, but that means that the other cast members here are also pretty old today. If they are still with us. One of the women is not and same applies to the other male actor. Then again, he was almost 20 years older than Köfer, so he would be the oldest man on the planet now, which is pretty unrealistic.
As I move on to the plot and story here, let me mention Dieter Müller. Really random name and difficult to truly find something about him these days I assume. He was not half as prolific as the director, but still far from a rookie, even if this film is from the earlier stages of his career. He kept making films afterwards for over a decade also until the German Reunification and has another final project from 1993, but it seems he also did not succeed with a transition to get employed a lot when there was only one Germany. Looking at the quality of this film here, I would not say I am too sad about that, even if admittedly the film is also not a failure. It does get a bit better the longer it goes, but I just had a really hard time with the oh so absurd key plot for this one. As I stated in the title, they were still mostly serious with that. I mean it surely did not happen all the time either in the GDR, but it was nothing as unrealistic as it would be today. Now let me tell you what I am talking about even: We have an older man here who basically had a good job in his company and if I remember correctly the three women were/are employed there, so he was a bit of their mentor. He never really had time or desire for his own family, so what does he do? He made a plan to adopt them. That's right. And these girls are not 20 or so. One is even older. They have their own lives. One is married. They have a father anyway. So why would they want to be adopted by somebody else? Good question I assume, but we do not really get a specific answer here. It cannot just be, so they have somebody or another person that takes care of them. But when Köfer's character made up his mind, he invites all three of them, not really to ask them, but to announce them his decision. Haha, so unreal.
Initially, there are still doubts, but the longer the film goes, these doubts decrease considerable and it is basically a done deal. I already mentioned that early on, there are some struggles because they say/think they have men taking care of them already and there are also arguments between the women because they cannot really stand each other. At least two of them. But as they hang out more, these issues become less severe and they get along well. A bit surprising too. I am still baffled by the fact that we do not have somebody say that they simply don't want it because it's weird and exaggerated. Oh well, I guess this can be somehow explained by all three of them being grateful to the man for what he did with them, how he helped and supported them at their job(s). But is this explanation enough? I'd say no. Maybe yes by standards back then (in the GDR), but today these women would be so quickly out of the door when they hear about this idea. Or maybe one would actually accept it, but never all three of them. There's also anissue of romance in here, but it is minimal. There is talk about women wanting a father fugure and one of the younger woman implies that maybe, they could be more between the two, but they never go into detail about that. Maybe to keep the drama away and keep the film light, maybe because a romance relationship with such an age gap would have been something that many viewers would not have liked. And I also guess for the purpose of the story, they did not want one woman being raised above the others. They should be seen as equals. They also did not pick the oldest woman from the trio because she was married already. I kinda wonder what her man thought about all this, but this was never part of the story. The only other man who showed up here was a friend of the protagonist and he actually spoke out what I thought all the time, namely that people would be confused and thing the old guy is just horny or needy and that's why he searches close contact with these women, but also this other older man wonder why he would do something like that to himself with all the trouble and stress it brings. I mean Köfer was 55 or soo when this got made, so his character could not be retired or so. Why not maintain the status quo. I doubt the old man felt this lonesome or something and even if he did, then he could look for a real partner, just like Köfer's character did in a film I saw the other day.
Okay, this is pretty much it. I like Köfer, but honestly his character and the man's plan was so weird in here that not even he can get away with it. It felt a touch creepy, even if he was not a super old man. The ending is then a bit on the open side. Basically, the protagonist got active and took care of some stuff that resulted in the women, who at that point constantly hung out at his place all three of them, finding other activities and stuff that took their time, so they were leaving and he was happy to have some time for himself instead again and the friend also could really understand this approach. A bit of a rushed ending though. There is still the possibility that they could return even. It's said explicitly like that. Overall, because there are not many characters in here and even fewer locations, this is a film/story that could still be turned into a movie today. But I doubt it will be or only if they change a lot about it and make it compatible with the 21st century. I give the outcome here a thumbs-down, but led me add that the absurdity of it all had some guilt pleasure potential to it. And it is definitely not as bad as a lot of the ARD Degeto stuff shown on MDR (and other channels) constantly these days. So you see this is not a lost film, but one that is really almost never shown anymore and this occasion was a true exception. The number of votes, still under five with mine included, makes it obvious. Best wishes to Köfer and I hope he has still some time left on this planet. Also nice he has a 2021 credit to him in one of these Krause films and I will surely check it out.
The director I just mentioned is Eberhard Schäfer, a really prolific filmmaker if we take a look at his body of work. His career may have only lasted slightly over 20 years, but he made approximately two movies per year. It's not Fassbinder level, but it is a lot. There is not known too much about him anymore and that surprises me a bit because yeah well, as I said, he was really busy there. But his country does not exist anymore and same applies to most of the memories linked to him I suppose. We do not know if he is alive anymore, but we do know that he stopped making movies after Germany was united again. If that was because he wanted to and was old enough to retire of because he simply could not manage a successful transition, I cannot tell you. But he worked with lead actor Herbert Köfer on several occasions. Köfer is the one to turn into a centennial tomorrow. Hopefully. You can never be sure at that age. But props to him. He also always looked a bit younger in the stuff I saw him in these days, so good genes and good health seem to be nothing unknown to him. The cast for this film here is extremely small. Only one other male actor and that one does not have a lot of screen time. It's all about Köfer. He is in the vast majority of scenes in here and as they are showing all these projects now that include him, I am also glad he makes little introductions to those. On one occasion, he said that people recognized him all the time in the GDR and that there was even a hype. I am not sure how accurate this is, but if he is playing absolute key characters in these films the way he does here, I would not be surprised if it is all true. Could it all be true? There is not much to say about the rest of the cast for me. I am not familiar with any of them. I told you how old this movie is, even if it looks maybe five to ten years younger, but that means that the other cast members here are also pretty old today. If they are still with us. One of the women is not and same applies to the other male actor. Then again, he was almost 20 years older than Köfer, so he would be the oldest man on the planet now, which is pretty unrealistic.
As I move on to the plot and story here, let me mention Dieter Müller. Really random name and difficult to truly find something about him these days I assume. He was not half as prolific as the director, but still far from a rookie, even if this film is from the earlier stages of his career. He kept making films afterwards for over a decade also until the German Reunification and has another final project from 1993, but it seems he also did not succeed with a transition to get employed a lot when there was only one Germany. Looking at the quality of this film here, I would not say I am too sad about that, even if admittedly the film is also not a failure. It does get a bit better the longer it goes, but I just had a really hard time with the oh so absurd key plot for this one. As I stated in the title, they were still mostly serious with that. I mean it surely did not happen all the time either in the GDR, but it was nothing as unrealistic as it would be today. Now let me tell you what I am talking about even: We have an older man here who basically had a good job in his company and if I remember correctly the three women were/are employed there, so he was a bit of their mentor. He never really had time or desire for his own family, so what does he do? He made a plan to adopt them. That's right. And these girls are not 20 or so. One is even older. They have their own lives. One is married. They have a father anyway. So why would they want to be adopted by somebody else? Good question I assume, but we do not really get a specific answer here. It cannot just be, so they have somebody or another person that takes care of them. But when Köfer's character made up his mind, he invites all three of them, not really to ask them, but to announce them his decision. Haha, so unreal.
Initially, there are still doubts, but the longer the film goes, these doubts decrease considerable and it is basically a done deal. I already mentioned that early on, there are some struggles because they say/think they have men taking care of them already and there are also arguments between the women because they cannot really stand each other. At least two of them. But as they hang out more, these issues become less severe and they get along well. A bit surprising too. I am still baffled by the fact that we do not have somebody say that they simply don't want it because it's weird and exaggerated. Oh well, I guess this can be somehow explained by all three of them being grateful to the man for what he did with them, how he helped and supported them at their job(s). But is this explanation enough? I'd say no. Maybe yes by standards back then (in the GDR), but today these women would be so quickly out of the door when they hear about this idea. Or maybe one would actually accept it, but never all three of them. There's also anissue of romance in here, but it is minimal. There is talk about women wanting a father fugure and one of the younger woman implies that maybe, they could be more between the two, but they never go into detail about that. Maybe to keep the drama away and keep the film light, maybe because a romance relationship with such an age gap would have been something that many viewers would not have liked. And I also guess for the purpose of the story, they did not want one woman being raised above the others. They should be seen as equals. They also did not pick the oldest woman from the trio because she was married already. I kinda wonder what her man thought about all this, but this was never part of the story. The only other man who showed up here was a friend of the protagonist and he actually spoke out what I thought all the time, namely that people would be confused and thing the old guy is just horny or needy and that's why he searches close contact with these women, but also this other older man wonder why he would do something like that to himself with all the trouble and stress it brings. I mean Köfer was 55 or soo when this got made, so his character could not be retired or so. Why not maintain the status quo. I doubt the old man felt this lonesome or something and even if he did, then he could look for a real partner, just like Köfer's character did in a film I saw the other day.
Okay, this is pretty much it. I like Köfer, but honestly his character and the man's plan was so weird in here that not even he can get away with it. It felt a touch creepy, even if he was not a super old man. The ending is then a bit on the open side. Basically, the protagonist got active and took care of some stuff that resulted in the women, who at that point constantly hung out at his place all three of them, finding other activities and stuff that took their time, so they were leaving and he was happy to have some time for himself instead again and the friend also could really understand this approach. A bit of a rushed ending though. There is still the possibility that they could return even. It's said explicitly like that. Overall, because there are not many characters in here and even fewer locations, this is a film/story that could still be turned into a movie today. But I doubt it will be or only if they change a lot about it and make it compatible with the 21st century. I give the outcome here a thumbs-down, but led me add that the absurdity of it all had some guilt pleasure potential to it. And it is definitely not as bad as a lot of the ARD Degeto stuff shown on MDR (and other channels) constantly these days. So you see this is not a lost film, but one that is really almost never shown anymore and this occasion was a true exception. The number of votes, still under five with mine included, makes it obvious. Best wishes to Köfer and I hope he has still some time left on this planet. Also nice he has a 2021 credit to him in one of these Krause films and I will surely check it out.