Featurefilm
Germany 1982
16 mm
30 min
Color
Magnetical sound

Crew

Buch und Regie
Ula Stöckl
Kamera
Martin Gressmann,
Mathias von Gunten,
Philippe Hochart
Ton
Sabine Eckart,
Pierre Camus
Schnitt
Catherine Brasier
Mischung
Jacque Thomas
Dokumentarmaterial
Pathe Cinema
Produktion
Ula Stöckl Filmproduktion im Auftrag des ZDF
Redaktion
Christoph Holch

Cast

Kind
Muriel König
Melanie
Grischa Huber
Monsieur
Jean-Louis Desnos
Madame
Elisabeth Trehard
Vater
Michael König
Au Pair
Sona McDonald
Lokalgast
Christoph Hummel
Lokalgast
Christa Maerker

Festival Participation

31. Internationale Filmwoche Mannheim, 1982
5. Festival International de Films de Femmes,
Sceaux/Paris 1983
Alchimia del Presente, Cinema delle Donne Firenze 1983
Festival International de Films et Vidéos,
Montreal 1985
5. Festival International de Films de Femmes, Brüssel
Goethe Institut und Cinémathéque Francaise: Paris 1982

Contents

Melanie sees a German, in his mid-thirties, criticizing a young American girl in his care for "American lack of culture and arrogance", as if she is personally responsible for this state of affairs. This reminds Melanie of her own time in Paris as an Au Pair. At the time the war in Algeria had just broken out. For the first time she made her own political decision: she decided to speak out against this war and started moving in circles, where people actively protested against the war. The head of the French family, when he became aware of her opinion, accused her with the "German guilt".

For the 35 year-old Frenchman Melanie had no right to judge or have an opinion on the French situation. In exactly the same way as the German man today judges the young American. The memory of Paris and the way in which both men tell younger women how they should think, makes Melanie think of war and destruction. "Once you realize it," she says, "all you see everywhere are fathers: as teachers, lovers, politicians..."

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