Deutschland 83, a German and historical period TV show about a divided Germany in 1983, when a naive 24-year-old East German soldier Martin Rauch is pulled from his benign post as a border guard and given a new assignment: undercover spy for the Stasi foreign service in West Germany. The cast; Jonas Nay, who plays the main character, Martin Rauch. Maria Schrader as Martin Rauch's aunt, Lenora Rauch. Ulrich Noethen, who is one of the key main characters in this drama also, plays Generalmajor Wolfgang Edel and Sonja Gerhardt, who plays Martin's fiance back home in the East. There are many movies and shows that are similar to this historical-war period drama, for example, German TV-series The Same Sky, which also focuses on similar elements just like Deutschland 83; the Berlin Wall, except that The Same Sky takes on a more of a romantic genre than Deutschland 83 does. The Same Sky is about how The fates of two families become intertwined when an East German `Romeo' agent on assignment seduces a woman on the other side of the Berlin Wall, however, for Deutschland 83, you could say that there are some elements of romance in the show, such as the main character, Martin's fiancee back in the East, Annett. In terms of the quality of this show, in my opinion, I love this show, but that's because I also have love for history and everything that's happened in the past. I find it all so interesting. I'd say Deutschland 83 is indeed for those who have a love or an interest in history, particularly in the 1980s East Berlin and West Germany and the focus of the Berlin Wall.
In terms of other factors, such as the story detail in this show, I think some events are accurate e.g the whole idea of the Berlin Wall that took place in 1961 and ended in 1991. However, perhaps this show romanticises some of its story detail, for example, they romanticise the West side of Germany, how it seemed more liberal than the East, and in reality, we don't really know if it's true, only the people who lived in either of those regions at the time could know the answer. But overall, the story detail is realistic in terms of how those events or characters could've actually existed. I think for someone to watch this show, they'd really have to pay attention to the episodes because it's the type of show you need to concentrate on to really get what is going on, and for me, that works, because again, I love history and I'm curious about the types of events that took place back then. Uses of film language, of course, the TV show is German, hence the title of it; Deutschland 83. I think it's significant that this tv show is in another language other than English because I feel like movies or shows that aren't American English or British English, don't seem to be as important, which I think should change. Further, in terms of other factors like uses of the camera, I think is great because the camera mostly focuses on the main characters and you really get to see a lot of close up shots of those characters, and that's to see their facial expressions whenever something is said or whenever something happens that requires that facial expression to be seen. The mis-en-scene in this movie is also quite accurate, it's set in the 80s, so you would expect people to wear 80s clothing and Deutschland 83 really does that; women with short updos and floral/vintage looking dresses/cardigans and men with almost the same hairstyle and suits. The sound and editing of Deutschland 83 is varied, especially the sound because it has different types of popular German soundtracks attached to specific scenes, the most noted song they used is 99 luftballons by Nena, which was played on more than one occasion, and I think that in a way, it makes you feel like you're in a German environment yourself, I also think it makes the whole TV show stronger because as it's a German speaking show, you'd also expect German soundtracks. Moreover, the editing is limited, you'd only see the element of editing in the introduction part of the episode.
In conclusion, I think the key strengths of Deutschland 83 would be the fact that it does take some accurate things into account, like how the Berlin Wall was indeed real. I also think that the soundtracks are suitable for the specific events that they use and just the overall idea of the soundtracks in the show being German. However, the negatives I'd say, would be the fact that some of the elements of this drama is biased, for example, how West Germany is more romanticised than East Berlin. But overall, I think this drama is really good and interesting, it's certainly for those with an interest and love for all types of history.
No comments:
Post a Comment