Annaluise & Anton (1999)
"Pünktchen und Anton" (original title)

Pünktchen and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public... See full summary »

Director:

Caroline Link

Writers:

Erich Kästner (novel), Caroline Link

Stars:

Elea Geissler, Max Felder, Juliane Köhler

5 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elea Geissler	...	Annaluise / Pünktchen
Max Felder	...	Anton
Juliane Köhler	...	Bettina Pogge
August Zirner	...	Richard Pogge
Meret Becker	...	Elli Gast
Sylvie Testud	...	Laurence
Gudrun Okras	...	Dicke Bertha
Benno Fürmann	...	Carlos
Michael Hanemann	...	Professor Bremser
Helmfried von Lüttichau	...	Giovanni
Thomas Holtzmann	...	Man in the pawnshop
Vincent Aydin	...	Ricky
Florian Wiechmann	...	Charly
Hubert Mulzer	...	Police officer
Arnd Klawitter	...	Card seller

Storyline

Pünktchen and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.

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Plot Keywords:

friend | friendship | mother daughter relationship | family relationships | father daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

Die Geschichte einer wunderbaren Freundschaft, erzählt von Caroline Link.

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Genres:

Family | Comedy | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Site in German about crew, actors and contents. Also contains production-notes.

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

11 March 1999 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Annaluise & Anton

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

DEM 5,700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bavaria Film, Lunaris Film, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Punktchen and Anton (1953)

User Reviews

Dumbed Down Version Of The Book

I normally don't like to compare a movie with the book it is based on (because a book is a book, and a movie a movie, simple as that), but in this case I have to make an exception. "Pünktchen und Anton" by Erich Kästner was a exceptionally progressive book when it came out, because it took children seriously, and unlike many other books of that time it didn't moralize or belittle them -- Kästner essentially wrote literature for children. Unfortunately, the movie is rather conventional in an end - of - 20.th - century way, in that it suckers up to the children and idealizes them. The result is an enjoyable, but rather conventional and very much unbrilliant movie, though I have to admit that my nephews enjoyed watching it (then again, they are young and haven't had the chance to develop a cinematic taste yet).

What spoilt it for me was that I frequently had the impression that the film makers had tried less hard than they would have with an adult movie, simply because they felt that the standards for a children's movie are by definition lower.