Annaluise et Anton

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.

I wouldn't normally go to a film designated as for children, but I was encouraged by the previous IMDB reviews. Pünktchen and Anton are friends. Pünktchen has rich parents but not enough attention from her mother. Anton is poor but with a lovely mother. There are a number of bad films this could be, ranging from fluffy candyfloss with a contrived and implausible happy ending, to grim social realism. But the film avoids all these traps and has a satisfactory and convincing ending. There is also a huge amount of very well done action, including a a little slapstick of the sort I'm more used to seeing in black-and-white with piano accompaniment. In particular this film ought to be nominated for a Food Oscar if such existed, because the number of times food is used as a plot device is staggering. I enjoyed this film and so did the children in the cinema.

This Caroline Link masterpiece deserves to be exported to the USA. Why? It can easily fall into the Kids & Family section in the USA, unlike Astrid Lindgren's films which often pack quite a punch of child nudity (remember Madicken/Madita? Even Pippi Longstocking had to be edited before being brought to the States).

This film was directed by the same gal who filmed the intense/suspenseful "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (Nowhere in Africa); besides, the same main actress of the latter, Juliane Köhler, also appears here as lovely Pünktchen's mother Bettina Pogge. Whereas Nowhere in Africa is not recommended in the USA for all ages (remember Köhler's topless & sex scenes and little Lea Kurka's nude buttocks?), having snatched instead an R rating, Pünktchen & Anton is absolutely safe for everybody; it can easily snatch either a G or a PG rating.

My favorite scene is Anton's own thrilling stunt driving the poor Volkswagen Microbus (risky, right? Kids aren't supposed to drive cars for real, but that didn't even deter Max Felder from performing his own major-league driving stunt). I think that stunt is unique in the cinematographic class (in most movies, children never really get the chance to drive cars during filming, but stunts-men do).

It's a great film, not only for children, it's a movie for the family. The "old" story of Erich Kästner from 1931 in a young and fresh adaption, but - thanks Caroline Link - you can recognize the story. The actors are playing great, the music is fantastic.