Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Angelica Domröse | ... | Paula (Adam) | |
Winfried Glatzeder | ... | Paul | |
Heidemarie Wenzel | ... | Die Schöne (Ines) | |
Fred Delmare | ... | Reifen-Saft | |
Rolf Ludwig | ... | Professor | |
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Käthe Reichel | ... | Frau des Schießbudenbesitzers |
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Hans Hardt-Hardtloff | ... | Schießbudenbesitzer |
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Frank-Otto Schenk | ... | Kollege Schmidt (as Frank Schenk) |
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Dietmar Richter-Reinick | ... | Kumpel |
Eva-Maria Hagen | ... | Die Blonde | |
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Jürgen Frohriep | ... | Martin |
Christian Steyer | ... | Colli | |
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Willi Schrade | ... | Liebhaber der Schönen |
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Peter Gotthardt | ... | Musikerkollege |
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Marga Legal | ... | Nachbarin |
Paul and Paula have had bad experiences with love: Paul is financially well off but has lost all affection for his wife, and Paula leads a troublesome life raising two children on her own. They meet and discover a strong passion for each other. Life seems like a dream when they're together - but their short flights from the burdens of reality are once and again interrupted by Paul's ties to family and career. Written by c.winter
Die Legende von Paul und Paula captures the spirit of the changes and upheavals of the late 1960ies / early 1970ies upheaval like no other film. Outstanding acting and the on-screen chemistry between Angelica Domröse and Winfried Glatzeder (basically they're the Brangelina of early 1970ies East Germany) make up for the movie's slow and somewhat inane first third, and some dated flourishes such as the Sergeant Pepper-style scene on the barge. The movie manages to convey that the GDR wasn't the worker's paradise many like to remember it as, without ever being in-your-face type of critical.
Unlike some reviewers have hinted, the movie was never banned in the GDR, although it can't have been popular with the party big whigs. In fact it was even the most popular homegrown movie on the other side of the wall.