EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE

Rules are made to be broken and what would be a better excuse than „doing it for the kids“? Yes, we are showing a classic that is a major part of a Berlin-film canon, but once you watch the first „Emil und die Detektive“, there is no way of not falling in love or not showing it if you can. It was Gesine Danckwart, whose film „Lifetimeshort“ is screening at noon, who suggested having a kids screening for parents at the same time, and we agreed that this is a great idea.
Based on the novel by Erich Kästner, this first film adaptation (screenplay by no other than Billy Wilder!) was shortly made after sound was introduced to the medium. Young Emil goes on a trip to Berlin to visit his grandmother, but once he is on the train, a suspicious stranger keeps him company, offers him candy and wehn Emil arrives in Berlin, his money is gone. Merely the scene in which the young boy appears to be drugged on the train is worth your time: Inspired by surrealist art (think Dali’s work for film productions) Emil’s sense of scale and space gets lost, and he finds himself suspended from a gigantic emergency brake while the train benches stretch into eternity. The Berlin scenes ooze nostalgia and show you an undestroyed, undivided city in the short time of the Weimar Republic, when money was short after the Great Depression, but people, especially kids, were inventive and fearless. After a quick Berlin makeover by a street kid, Emil teams up with a group of rascals and goes on a mission to find the thief and get his money back. A heart-warming, funny, original and timeless film you need to have watched at least once in your lifetime. Screened in German without subtitles (but you’ll get the idea anyway).

Gerhard Lamprecht, D 1931, 71 min
cinematography: Werner Brandes
with: Rolf Wenkhaus, Käthe Haack, Fritz Rasp, Olga Engl
language: German (without subtitles)