Vergesst mir meine Traudel nicht
On January 25th, 2011, Kurt Maetzig, post World War II German film pioneer and co-founder of the DEFA, celebrated his 100th birthday. One of the most beautiful of his more than 20 films is VERGESST MIR MEINE TRAUDEL NICHT, filmed at the Babelsberg Studios in 1957.
Inspired by the comedies of Italian Neorealism, Maetzig offers a portrait of a 17 year old orphan girl that escapes from the orphanage and dives into the turmoil of Berlin. Two young men, a teacher and a police officer, compete for the affection of a woman who is as naive as she is smart, as dishonest as she is innocent. She leads the two men into situations they can only escape with wits and trickery. It is revealed that Traudel’s mother was killed in a concentration camp for being unwilling to renounce her love to Czech slave labourer.
„It was not the cheap business as usual“, critic Winfried Junge wrote in 1957, “but a pleasant combination of experience, ingenuity and the will to experiment. The scale of emotions is wide and goes from lighthearted laughter to pity and deep reflectiveness”. Eva-Maria Hagen gives her debut in the title role with her dress allowed to move in the wind of Alexander Square like Marilyn Monroe’s did in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. Talk with the director after the screening.
Inspired by the comedies of Italian Neorealism, Maetzig offers a portrait of a 17 year old orphan girl that escapes from the orphanage and dives into the turmoil of Berlin. Two young men, a teacher and a police officer, compete for the affection of a woman who is as naive as she is smart, as dishonest as she is innocent. She leads the two men into situations they can only escape with wits and trickery. It is revealed that Traudel’s mother was killed in a concentration camp for being unwilling to renounce her love to Czech slave labourer.
„It was not the cheap business as usual“, critic Winfried Junge wrote in 1957, “but a pleasant combination of experience, ingenuity and the will to experiment. The scale of emotions is wide and goes from lighthearted laughter to pity and deep reflectiveness”. Eva-Maria Hagen gives her debut in the title role with her dress allowed to move in the wind of Alexander Square like Marilyn Monroe’s did in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. Talk with the director after the screening.