Frankfurt/Oder. Everyday life of two acquainted couples between pub, job in a radio station and saleswoman. For no apparent reason, one of the husbands falls in love with the other wife. The betrayed partners are furious, helpless, hurt. The new couple is already looking for a new flat, but the husband ultimately returns to his wife. The other husband, however, will remain alone, for his wife prefers to be free.

Frankfurt/Oder, everyday life of two acquainted couples somewhere between thirty and forty. Uwe runs a pub half-way up a stairway in a park; his wife Ellen sells perfumes. Chris is anchorman on the morning show on local radio and gets paid for talking and for inventing horoscopes and broadcasting them at the same time. His wife Katrin clears trucks for a haulage firm.

Life goes on as usual, they meet in the evening for a slide show or the women set off for a round of gymnastics that ends with a piece of gateaux. The search for the missing budgerigar is probably the most exciting event of the week. They have been married for a long time and life in bed has also ebbed considerably. One day, Chris comes to the shop where Ellen works. Although he buys a perfume for his wife, he somehow looks deep into Ellen's eyes. A few days later, Ellen calls Katrin about watching a film together, but Chris takes the call and it ends in the car under a large bridge. They make love and not even with a bad conscience. Things go "well" until Katrin returns home unexpectedly one evening and finds her husband in the bath with Ellen. When Ellen subsequently confesses to her husband that she has fallen in love with someone else, he too is totally stunned.

Uwe tries to rescue the situation and suggests that they meet to talk things over. Although they talk, the meeting does not change things. Ellen and Chris are already looking for a flat. Uwe has not yet given up all hope of winning back his wife. But it is Chris who returns to Katrin and leaves Ellen in the rain. Now alone, Ellen still intends to move out of her husband's flat and will take the children with her. When Uwe is convinced that Ellen will come back, she answers: You haven't understood a single thing.

The title "Halbe Treppe" (Grill Point)) is naturally ambiguous. There is not only the pub halfway up the stairs in the park, but there are also the two couples halfway through life. What will life be like in the future? Probably the same as in the past. They will do what they can and make ends meet. That would naturally be a meagre message for such a film and hardly worth stopping for. As with every work of art, however, the important thing for such a film is how the artist kneads his dough, i.e. what he makes of his raw material: do the people in the film arouse our interest and perhaps even touch us. The geographical setting for our story is described in great detail. We are in Frankfurt/Oder. It is not a particularly attractive city, but neither is it a place of destitution. Although the director did once say in an interview that he wanted above all to ensure that certain people are not forgotten. He said that we live in a chic world and tend to forget that there are others in this country who are less fortunate than we. What he wanted was to draw attention to the possibility of a social fall, to indicate the height of that possible fall. To show what happens to people who have the ground cut from under their feet.

Yet the social fate of the people portrayed here is not so depressing. They all have a job - and that is by no means a matter of course in eastern Germany. Moreover, their jobs - be it secretary, saleswoman, publican or anchorman (he could even have gone to Munich as a journalist for the magazine "Focus") - are not exactly lowly. That is what distinguishes this film from Dresen's preceding film "Die Polizistin", which he produced in the East German town of Rostock with the same leading actors Prahl and Schmeide, but which is very much more depressing in both social and human terms. That is also what distinguishes this film from the socially critical films produced in Great Britain, particularly those of Ken Loach who directs his attention to the dismal and sometimes hopeless situation of the working class there. Although Loach has added a little cheer to the otherwise dismal pictures which he paints of an exploiting society, there is ultimately little hope to be found there.

Dresen has avoided both social destitution and hopelessness here. One couple is reunited, while Dresen sees a form of hope and breaking-out in the others and particularly in Ellen, who will definitely leave Uwe. The film's special quality lies in the warmth and precision with which its characters are described. That was already the case in "Die Polizistin" and was also true of the very different characters in "Nachtgestalten", from poor as a church mouse to cranky. In this latest film too, every one of the four protagonists has a very personal life. Uwe is the sober publican, thoroughly decent and perhaps a little naive (when his wife leaves him, he has teeth repaired in order to get rid of his bad breath). His friend Chris is a little more intellectual but has evidently settled down nicely in the world of superficial radio talk. Katrin is thoroughly good-natured and suffers when her daughter is busy with her boyfriend in the room next door. She needs and gives warmth and love and that is what reunites the couple. Ellen is more complex and suffers from the rut of her married life and from the fact that they now live side by side instead of together.

They all have trouble putting their problems into words, but this too is an indication of Dresen's precise observation, for people's fortunes are expressed in what they do and not in self-portrayals. The seemingly loose narrative and production is based on two special features. Dresen did not write a script, but merely the titles for the scenes. The story was then improvised on location by both the director and the actors. The camera work is totally in keeping with this loose narrative. The film was shot with a handheld camera using digital video technology permitting greater spontaneity and a higher speed. Before the film was cut, Dresen had produced roughly 70 hours of material. Between 10 and 15 hours are usual for a film with script and shot on film material. Dresen was consequently able and compelled to select from a very much larger volume of material. And that permits a much more precise picture of his heroes - who are in fact antiheroes.

Ulrich von Thüna

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2001/2002

Production Year

2002

color

color

Aspect Ratio

1:1,85

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Drama, Comedy

Topic

Love, Relationship / Family, Friendship, Sexuality

Available Media

DVD, 35mm, DCP

Original Version

German (de)

DVD

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Portuguese (Brazil) (pt), Spanish (es), German (de)

35mm

Subtitles

English (en), French (fr), Spanish (es)

DCP