''Love's Confusion'' (german: Verwirrung der Liebe) is an

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by Slátan Dudow. It was released in 1959.

Plot

Students Dieter and Sonja, who are a couple for several years, attend a masquerade. Dieter confuses young Siegi with his friend and dances with her. He cannot forget her even after realizing she is not Sonja, and falls in love with her. Sonja, bitter and jealous, starts an affair with Siegi's boyfriend, Edy. The two new couples go on vacation in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, where they encounter each other several times while enjoying the local attractions. They all resolve to marry their new partners. Only when they are headed toward the same registration office, do they realize their behavior was motivated by spite and anger. They again switch partners: Sonja marries Dieter and Siegi marries Edy.

Cast

Angelica Domröse Angelica Domröse (; born April 4, 1941, in Berlin) is a German actress, who became famous in the role of Paula in Heiner Carow's film '' The Legend of Paul and Paula''. Her Mediterranean appearance is the result of her biological father being a ...

: Siegi *

Annekathrin Bürger Annekathrin Bürger (born 1937) is a German stage, film and television actress. Bürger was a prominent actress in East Germany appearing in a number of films made by the state-run DEFA film studios as well as in television series such as ''Wolf ...

: Sonja * Willi Schrade: Dieter * Stefan Lisewski: Edy * Martin Flörchinger: Professor Boerwald * Erik S. Klein: Professor for social sciences * Friedrich Richter (actor), Friedrich Richter: Professor Böck *

Werner Dissel Werner Friedrich Dissel (26 August 1912 – 22 January 2003) was a Germans, German actor, director, and German resistance to Nazism, resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. Biography Dissel's began working as a newspaper photographer in the ...

: taxi driver * Ursula Fröhlich: Sonja's mother

Production

''Love's Confusion'' was Dudow's last film. Influenced by the relaxed political climate ushered with the Khrushchev Thaw, the picture was unprecedentedly libertine in regards to sexuality . The film was the screen debut of actress

, who has been selected from among 800 contestants who applied for auditions. Principal photography lasted eleven months. Dudow's work greatly exceeded its approved budget, which was originally set on 2,309,500

East German Mark The East German mark (german: Mark der DDR ), commonly called the eastern mark (german: Ostmark, links=no ) in West Germany and after reunification), in East Germany only ''Mark'', was the currency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germ ...

; additional costs reached some 925,000 DDM. Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler published an article in ''

Neues Deutschland ''Neues Deutschland'' (''nd''; en, New Germany, sometimes stylized in lowercase letters) is a left-wing German daily newspaper, headquartered in Berlin. For 43 years it was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ...

'' critical of the delays and expenditures. In addition, the director faced difficulties in including a scene featuring nude bathing. While the DEFA studio insisted on its removal, Dudow attempted to preserve it by turning it into a

dream sequence A dream sequence is a technique used in storytelling, particularly in television and film, to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flashforward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other ...

; he appealed to Minister of Culture

Alexander Abusch Alexander Abusch (14 February 1902 27 January 1982) was a German journalist, non-fiction writer, and politician. According to one source he was born into a Jewish family in Kraków, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. Accordin ...

, a former

naturist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

who appeared in Dudow's 1932 ''

Kuhle Wampe ''Kuhle Wampe'' (full title: ''Kuhle Wampe, oder: Wem gehört die Welt?'', translated in English as ''Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the World?'', and released in the USA as ''Whither Germany?'' by Kinematrade Inc.) is a 1932 German feature film abou ...

'' as a nude extra. Abusch forwarded the decision directly to

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...

, who denied the request.

Reception

''Love's Confusion'' sold 1,900,000 tickets in East Germany. While it was not met with approval by government officials and the cultural establishment, it enjoyed great popularity with audiences, becoming "a huge hit." ''

'' critic Horst Knietzsch wrote that the film was "an attempt to demonstrate in an amusing fashion the victorious strength of socialist life." ''

Der Morgen ''Der Morgen'' (''The Morning'') was a daily newspaper published in the GDR. ''Der Morgen'' was the central organ of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. It was published from 3 August 1945 on, six times a week. The premises of the first is ...

'' reviewer Christoph Funke commented that "the love of young people today... Knows no tragic consequences, since it is rooted in socialist order." West German Heinz Kersten noted that ''Love's Confusion'' was "refreshing" as it virtually lacked a political message, a rare feature in East German cinema. Antonin and Miera Liehm defined the film as an "exception among DEFA's productions and an honorable conclusion of Dudow's career."Liehm. p. 265.

References

Bibliography

* Joshua Feinstein. ''The Triumph of the Ordinary: Depictions of Daily Life in the East German Cinema, 1949–1989''. University of North Carolina Press (2002). . * Miera Liehm, Antonin J. Liehm. ''The Most Important Art: Soviet and Eastern European Film After 1945''. University of California Press (1977). * Hans-Michael Bock, Tim Bergfelder. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books (2009). . * Dagmar Schittly. ''Zwischen Regie und Regime. Die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen''. Links (2002). . * Ingrid Poss. ''Spur der Filme: Zeitzeugen über die DEFA''. Links (2006). . * Heinz Kersten. ''Das Filmwesen in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands''. Bundesministerium für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen (1963). ASIN B0000BK48Q.

External links

* *
Verwirrung der Liebe
'. cinema.de. *
Verwirrung der Liebe
'. progress-film.de. *

'. filmportal.de. {{Slatan Dudow 1959 films East German films 1950s German-language films Films set in Berlin German romantic comedy films 1959 romantic comedy films Films set in the Baltic Sea Films directed by Slatan Dudow 1950s German films