Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" or "The Legend of Paul and Paula" is an East German German-language film from 1973, so this one is already over 40 years old. It runs for almost 100 minutes and is today considered one of the best GDR movies in retrospective. I agree partially with that. My personal opinion is sadly that the GDR was not a good country at all when it comes to their cinematic achievements, so by general standards it is an okay movie, but compared to other GDR films I believe that this one does indeed stand out from the very weak rest. It probably also helps that this is a color film. I cannot see this film by Heiner Carow and Ulrich Plenzdorf as relevant in depicting life in the GDR. It does not make an impact in terms of politics or society I think. It is, however, worth checking out because it is a solid romance movie that is pretty bleak and sometimes even devastating. The movie lives through the two title characters and the way they are portrayed and depicted, especially Angelica Domröse's Paula. Yes there are moments of blatant overacting, but this is basically the case in 90% of all 1970s films, especially the German ones. There were some good parts, some not so good, but overall the positive outweighs the negative. I also liked the introduction of the two characters that we meet them long before they become a couple actually. As a whole, I am not sure this film should be as popular as it is today, but at least it's evidence that not every GDR movie is a failure. This is one of the rare successes. I recommend the watch, thumbs up.

dk-138 If you want to get the feel of life in East Germany and of life in the 70s, this is your film. It is critical of the socialist system (national socialism ended in 1945, afterwards there was no Nazi-propaganda anywhere anymore, especially not in the East! Sorry, but another reviewer got this wrong), offers a romantic story and good acting by well-known actors. It is still cult in Berlin, where you can regularly see in the cinema. It kicked off the wave of east-German nostalgia. The film was so successful that today you can still see references to it in other films (eg. "Sonnenallee") and that the city decided to name a path along a lake "Paul und Paula Ufer" with a Paul und Paula bench to sit on. Also the soundtrack is worth listening to (especially the lyrics) and marked the beginning of the Puhdys'huge career.

kenjha Paul and Paula go through life picking the wrong partners until they happen to hook up with each other and the legend begins. Low-budget German film has the look of a cheesy porno movie. The script is pretty standard boy-meets-girl story. The acting by Domrose (as Paula, who seems to work in an amazingly busy grocery store or something and has wild mood swings) and Glatzeder (as the goofy Paul) is not bad, considering the clichéd characters they are playing. The direction is amateurish, with incongruous shots of buildings being demolished thrown in. The soundtrack is filled with bad German pop songs, although it is interesting that they get the lyrics to rhyme even after translating to English.

alternativedreamer Heiner Carow's "Die Legende von Paul und Paula" is the first GDR film I've watched which centered on a woman and her development as an individual, which was new to DEFA within that period of time. "Die Legende..." is different from other films made before it since the story was about a woman who seeks for self-fulfillment and follows her heart in spite of the rigidity of societal norms.In this film, Paula is the epitome of what women were mostly portrayed as in the 1970s: emotional rather than rational.Paula is a quirk of a character. She wears her heart on her sleeve and cares not one bit what happens as long as she is happy. She seems a bit over the edge at some points in the film, though. As if she were about to break down at a moment's notice. Her character is intense and Angelica Dumrose fully consummates the part.