The Flying Classroom (2003)

A boy who was once a perpetual outcast finds friends in a new boarding school, united with his new peers gets involved in a heated rivalry with a group of students from a neighboring school.

Director:

Tomy Wigand

Writers:

Henriette Piper (screenplay), Franziska Buch (screenplay)

Stars:

Ulrich Noethen, Sebastian Koch, Piet Klocke

8 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ulrich Noethen	...	Dr. Johann 'Justus' Bökh
Sebastian Koch	...	Robert 'Nichtraucher' Uthofft
Piet Klocke	...	Kreuzkamm Senior
Hauke Diekamp	...	Jonathan Trotz
Philipp Peters-Arnolds	...	Martin Thaler
Frederick Lau	...	Matz Selbmann
Hans Broich-Wuttke	...	Uli von Simmern
François Goeske	...	Kreuzkamm Junior (as François Göske)
Theresa Vilsmaier	...	Mona Egerland (as Teresa Vilsmaier)
Nicky Kantor	...	Der schöne Theo (as Nicolas Kantor)
Jaime Ferkic	...	Wawerka (as Jaime Krsto)
Tilmann Süß	...	Hacke
Lisa Sommavilla	...	Rosie
Constantin Gastmann	...	Fässchen
Harald Richter	...	Der Kapitän

Storyline

A boy who was once a perpetual outcast finds friends in a new boarding school, united with his new peers gets involved in a heated rivalry with a group of students from a neighboring school.

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Plot Keywords:

music school | boys' school | school principal | new kid | concert | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Family

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Did You Know?

Trivia

After Annaluise & Anton (1999) and Emil and the Detectives (2001) it is the third German cinematic modernization of a novel by Erich Kästner within 5 years. Also Franziska Buch was working on the script for this movie and for Emil and the Detectives (2001).

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Crazy Credits

The movie begins with the quote from the original novel (chapter "The second section of "Forwards"): "How can an adult totally forget his youth that one day he won't even know how sad and unhappy children could be? It doesn't matter if you cry because of a broken doll or because you lose a friend later. Erich Kästner"

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Connections

Version of The Flying Classroom (1973)

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Soundtracks

Keep The Faith
Written, composed and performed by Sebastian Johannes Maul

User Reviews

The ever lasting story

The third display of Erich Kästner's classic "Das Fliegende Klassenzimmer" passes through some perceivable changes. The story adopts clever into the modern time era, still keeping the tragic elements of the divided Germany alive in the form of past memories. But, nevertheless it seems that the real punch-line of Kästners story was lost somewhere throughout the attempt to adjust the characters and main story to our time. The deep emotional fracture, and the virtue of the historical background story aren't quite noticeable. Both crucial elements of Kästners novel - not only the carefully designed historical ballast and action but also the in-tensed psychological element, that clearly incorporation of the partitioned boarding school in the characters of Bökh and Kreuzkamm, together loose their meaning and significance. Also, like with the most movies made by a novel/book, the complexity of the single characters develops only in limited directions.

On the other side, the persuasive performances by all the main actors, and the fact that across the movie all unnecessary clichés we used to see in such teenage movies do not appear, leads to a positive evaluation of this movie. It certainly is both delightful and interesting to see how Kästners story and imagination after decades have past, at least in some basic outlines

Details

Official Sites:

Constantin Film [Germany] Official site [Germany]

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

16 January 2003 (Germany)

Also Known As:

A repülő osztály

Filming Locations:

Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,378,807

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktions GmbH, Lunaris Film, Odeon Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1