A Berlin Romance () is a 1956 East German neo-realist romantic drama film about youth urban life in the divided city of Berlin, directed by Gerhard Klein. It was produced by the DEFA film company. It stars Annekathrin Bürger, Ulrich Thein and Uwe-Jens Pape. The script was written by Wolfgang Kohlhaase with a score composed by Günter Klück. The film was the second collaboration between Klein and Kohlhaase; the first was Alarm in the Circus (Alarm im Zirkus), released in 1954 and third came in 1957 with Berlin - Ecke Schönhauser. These films were noted for their strong criticism of consumer culture in Berlin after World War II and the Americanization of the capital and are amongst DEFA's best known films.
Plot
The film is a love story about a seventeen-year-old East German saleswoman named Uschi (Bürger) and an unemployed auto mechanic named Hans (Thein) from West Berlin. She leaves her familial home and moves into West Berlin, drawn by the brightness of the high streets and the economic progress in the West German side of the city. She initially dates Lord (Uwe-Jens Pape), a wealthy, leather-jacket-wearing ladies man, highly conscious of his own self-image and style. He is strongly influenced by American movie heartthrobs of the times.
Meanwhile, she meets Hans, an auto mechanic who, also image-conscious and aspiring to be trendy, is living in relative poverty and is considered less physically attractive than Lord. Although initially mesmerized by the glamour of West Berlin and Lord, she falls in love with Hans, deciding that looks and image are not important. She eventually returns home to her parents along with Hans, who finds a job in the Eastern side of the city.
Cast
Annekathrin Bürger as Ushi
Ulrich Thein as Hans
Uwe-Jens Pape as Lord
Erika Dunkelmann as Ushi's mother
Marga Legal as Hans' mother
Erich Franz as Ushi's father
Horst Kube as Max
Hartmut Reck as Harald
Hermann Wagemann as shoe shiner
Eckard Friedrichson as Moses
Helga Wachaletz as Karin
Paul Pfingst as teacher
Karl Weber as construction entrepreneur
Günter Großsteinbeck as Heini
Karl Kendzia as worker of the Commerce Organization
Production
Cinematographer Wolf Göthe was conscious of making the film as convincing as possible, and in shooting the film he used techniques such as wide-angle lenses, extensive location work and high-speed film to create a sense of realism.
Themes
The film, inspired by Italian neo-realism, is a poignant insight into the difference in socio-economic customs and general domestic life which divided the city of Berlin during this period. Through the protagonist, Uschi, the audience is able to understand the feelings and emotions felt by many at the time.
The film is one of the strongest critiques of consumer culture in Germany in the 1950s in the aftermath of World War II.Alexander Stephan, in his book, Americanization and Anti-Americanism. The German Encounter with American Culture After 1945, argues that connection between bourgeois and individualism and the ethos of socialism became increasingly politicized after the Second World War. He claims consumerist fantasies between the west and the eastern sectors of Berlin increased as the city being masculinized as a direct result of the American influence in the capital and the legacy of Hollywood film rebels, such as James Dean. He argues that the film, rather that being an advert for West Berlin, is in fact a critique of Americanization in the western side of the capital, and that American masculine influences weakened traditional senses of authority in both public and domestic life, and says, "In typical neo-realist fashion, Klein and Kohlhaase evoke the Americanization of East Berlin through their relationship to modern mass culture." The film, in this context, can therefore be seen as the struggle of young, working-class West German men in the city in a changing society with new pressures and influences brought about by the Americanization of the capital. Uschi's stern parents represent the traditional values which conflicted with the emerging youth culture in the city. One of the most important pieces of consumer iconography in the film is the Kofferradio, a transistor radio, which Lord wears around his neck and which Uschi professes to love. It is a metaphor for the economic discrepancy which existed at the time between East and West Berlin and how the East lagged behind the West.