East Germany. Balla is a brute foreman of seven construction workers who cause a lot of problems privately, and wear cowboy hats, but are tolerated because they get the job done. A new manager, the idealistic Horrath, member of the Socialist Party of East Germany, arrives to the construction site, yet his authority is at first ignored by Balla. Horrath proposes work in three shifts. Another new employee is engineer Kati, but both Balla and Horrath fall in love with her. She decides to meet Horrath in an apartment, introducing him to the nosy landlord as "Kruger from Leipzig". After Kati becomes pregnant, the Communist Party members interrogate her about the unknown identity of father, fearing this will damage the party's reputation, but Kati refuses to reveal it is Horrath, since he is married. When the Party finds out, anyway, Horrath is demoted to an ordinary worker, but Balla surprisingly goes to defend him. A committee investigation drops the charges against Horrath, but Kati decides to leave the city, anyway, to start a new life.
Frank Beyer's drama "Trace of Stone" was surprisingly subversive and critical of the Communist Party, and was thus banned and landed in "bunker" in East Germany until the fall of Communism. Upon its "re-discovery", many film critics rightfully praised it, though it has some omissions—the first half is brilliant and wonderfully creative, but the second half is way too routine and suffers from too excessive dialogues, until it exhausts the viewers' enthusiasm through the overlong running time of 139 minutes. The first half has a few great moments: in one scene, a Communist official is holding a long speech in the hall, concluding with: "I wish you, ladies and gentlemen, a welcome to the festivities for the 10th birthday of our Republic!", causing the cynical Balla to turn around and look at his collague, when they have this exchange: "The Republic will think of this bright evening even when she will be 20!" - "It won't get to be this old." A Party member from the stage replies: "You can answer through your deeds on the construction site, colleague Balla!" The new characters who arrive to work at the construction site are neatly introduced—Kati shows up to work as an engineer, but an official is reluctant to hire her, explaining: "If at least you were ugly! ... The workers will look under your skirt all the time!" - "Can't a woman wear pants?", which displays her integrity and resourcefulness.
Manager Horrath is the embodiment of the young, naive newcomer who is faced with a dark reality check—during the rain, he meets Balla and stretches out his hand for a handshake. Balla, wearing a giant cowboy hat, just looks down, and water from his hat falls down on Horrath's hand. Since Balla and his colleagues often wear these black cowboy hats and act defiantly, they may serve as a symbol for American-style solutions which can get wild and problematic, but get the job done, challenging the Communist Party control. Horrath on the other hand is the symbol for numerous ideological people who will get disappointed in Communist management and become disillusioned. Remarkably, both male characters undergo an opposite character arc: Balla from a chaotic brute to a kind, respectful man who in the end stands up to protect Horrath in front of the investigation committee, whereas Horrath starts as a man full enthusiasm, only to sink into despair and cynicism in the end. The second half is a lot weaker, unfortunately. Too much time is spent on the Party committee interrogating Kati, whereas the other dialogues explaining the love triangle are standard and boring. This in the end wears the story down and reduces its enjoyment value. Everything was clear already after 10 minutes, there was no need to prolong this for a whole hour. Either the movie needed to be shorter or its inspiration needed to have been more abundant in the last hour. Nonetheless, "Trace of Stones" is a clever and bitter depiction of interwoven relations between private and business life, and how they can disrupt each other, and features some fine performances.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment