Coming Out (1989/I)

Director:

Heiner Carow

Writers:

Wolfram Witt (scenario)
Erika Richter (dramatisation)

Release Date:

10 November 1989 (East Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Reportedly the first film to come out of East Germany to deal openly with gay issues. Philipp, a closeted...

Plot Keywords:

Gay | Love | Teacher | Gay Bar | Cover Up

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Matthias Freihof	...	Philipp Klarmann
Dagmar Manzel	...	Tanja
Dirk Kummer	...	Matthias
Michael Gwisdek	...	Achim
Werner Dissel	...	Älterer Homosexueller
Gudrun Ritter	...	Frau Moellemann, Serviererin
Walfriede Schmitt	...	Philipp's mother
Axel Wandtke	...	Jakob
Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss	...	Araber (as Pierre Bliss)
René Schmidt	...	Junger Mann im Park
Thomas Gumpert	...	Larry
Ursula Staack	...	Üppige
Robert Hummel	...	Lutz
Horst Ziethen	...	Schmächtiger
Gertraud Kreissig	...	Schul-Direktorin
Gudrun Okras	...	Annemarie
Dieter Okras	...	Egbert
Joachim Pape	...	Älterer Herr
Cornelia Schirmer	...	Irina
Maria Planitzer	...	Oberärztin (as Dr. Maria Planitzer)
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf	...	Charlotte (as Charlotte - Lothar Berfelde)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Evelyn Opoczynski	...	Mutter des Jeans-Jungen (uncredited)
Willi Schrade	...	Vater des Jeans-Jungen (uncredited)
Theresia Wider	...	Losverkäuferin (uncredited)

Directed by
Heiner Carow

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Erika Richter		dramatisation
Wolfram Witt		scenario

Original Music by
Stefan Carow

Cinematography by
Martin Schlesinger

Film Editing by
Evelyn Carow

Production Design by
Georg Wratsch

Costume Design by
Regina Viertel

Makeup Department
Heide Haß	....	makeup artist (as Heide Hass)
Hannelore Petzold	....	makeup artist
Karin Wacker	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Wolfgang Hammer	....	assistant production manager
Horst Hartwig	....	production leader
Wolfgang Lange	....	production manager
Rosalinde Schwarzer	....	assistant production manager
Dietmar Steinkühler	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dirk Kummer	....	second assistant director
Hanna Seydel	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Marcus Berndt	....	property master
Frank Cochlovius	....	storyboard artist
Regina Fritzsche	....	assistant production designer
Peter Glaser	....	set dresser
Sven Hausmann	....	props
Klaus Schackner	....	construction coordinator

Sound Department
Hans-Joachim Kreinbrink	....	sound
Horst Mathuschek	....	assistant sound
Konrad Walle	....	sound mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Wolfgang Fritsche	....	first assistant camera
Dieter Lück	....	camera operator
Klaus Sterz	....	gaffer
Winfried Tafel	....	second assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Evi Behnke	....	wardrobe
Susanne Carow	....	wardrobe
Brigitte Mierke	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Haike Brauer	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Baiser	....	singers (as Das Travestieduo Baiser)
Andreas David	....	singer: "Die Zauberflöte"
Barbara Dollfus	....	singer: "Die Zauberflöte"
Dietrich Knothe	....	chorus master: Weimarische Staatskapelle
Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin	....	orchestra: "Die Zauberflöte"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	....	music: from "Die Zauberflöte"
Rolf Reuter	....	conductor: Komische Oper Berlin (as Prof. Rolf Reuter)
Weimarische Staatskapelle	....	chorus: "Die Zauberflöte"
Karsten Troyke	....	singer

Other crew
Helga Brodczinski	....	production secretary
Harry Kupfer	....	staged by: "Die Zauberflöte" (as Prof. Harry Kupfer)

Thanks
Berliner Singakademie	....	thanks
Weimarische Staatskapelle	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Deutsche Film (DEFA) (Studio für Spielfilme 'Gruppe Babelsberg')

Distributors

• Progress Film-Verleih (1989) (East Germany) (theatrical)
• Cineplex Odeon Films (199?) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Homescreen (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Icestorm Entertainment (1999) (Germany) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Das Schauspielhaus Berlin  thanks
• Komishce Oper Berlin  support: filming "Die Zauberflöte"
• Mitarbeiter der Gaststätte 'Zum Burgfrieden'  thanks

Also Known As:

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

East Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:12 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Deutsche Film (DEFA)

Trivia:

The first East German film on homosexuality, it was shot on location in several gay bars and cruising areas in East Berlin.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Beloved Berlin Wall (2009)

Soundtrack:

Schlohweißer Tag

A Testament of a Time Capsule - that hasn't totally dissolved!

COMING OUT is a seventeen-year-old movie, created in East Germany while under Communist rule, about the dangerous milieu in which gay men closeted their identity. It is a stunning achievement in that it presents the agony of coming to grips with sexual identity in a suppressive atmosphere, opening to public viewing the night the Berlin Wall tumbled. With this knowledge the story of these people is all the more heartbreaking with the chance that life for each character would have been different if told a few months later! The real tragedy is that the story is timeless and universal: the trauma of young people coming out is still potentially as wracked with anguish as the trauma of this film.

Philipp (handsome young Matthias Freihof) is a popular high school teacher, tightly in the closet, who happens to bump into (literally) an open and needy pretty girl Tanya (Dagmar Manzel) who immediately invites him to her apartment and introduces him to her bed. They form a comfortable bond, Philipp thinking his sexual identity problem is solved. Then Tanya brings home an old friend, Redford, who Philipp instantly recognizes as a boy with whom he has had hidden sex in the past. Old feelings are aroused and Philipp runs into the night only to end up in a secretive gay bar where he meets Matthias (handsome young Dirk Kummer) invites him home, and in a beautifully captured moment has a wholly satisfying physical encounter. Both men are enraptured.

Philipp returns to Tanya who questions his evenings' whereabouts and Philipp manages to keep his secret: the relationship suffers. Philipp has meetings with his mother and during one of these meetings his mother tells him she is sure Tanya is pregnant: she has all the symptoms of morning sickness and 'a woman can tell'. Philipp, though mortified, declares he will remain with Tanya, and at a party when the couple encounters Matthias (Philipp and Matthias greet each other with passion), Philipp introduces Tanya as his wife. Matthias is shocked and hurt and flees, and outraged Tanya discards Philipp. Philipp roams the streets and parks looking for Matthias, realizing they can now be lovers, but doesn't find him. He instead encounters one of his high school students Lutz (Robert Hummel) and has a one-night stand. In a sleazy gay bar Philipp meets an old man (brilliant actor Werner Dissel) who relates how life as a gay man during Hitler's reign had resulted in incarceration in a concentration camp, that gay men will always be persecuted. Returning to his classroom Philipp is informed that he is under observation because of his sexual activity. Struck by silence, Philipp stands before his class, his future unknown.

This story by Wolfram Witt as directed by Heiner Carow is as fine as any relating the terrors of coming out. That it is performed by such a fine cast is even more impressive, and the real banner that flies over this film is that it doesn't attempt to provide answers or maudlin endings. It merely stops - leaving the futures of each of these well-drawn characters to the imagination of the audience. It is powerful, it is well made, it is worthy of continued appreciation as a brave little film from another period in time, a period that continues into the present in so many places. Highly recommended. Grady Harp