Divided Heaven (dir. Konrad Wolf, 1964)

[GER199]

Please post your reviews of Wolf's film and comments on existing reviews under this thread.

[asiegler]

“Der geteilte Himmel”, or “Divided Heaven” was a very interesting film concerning the story of a young woman, Rita, who falls in love with a man, Manfred, in East Germany during the construction of the Berlin wall in 1961. Rita is only 20, and is just starting to attend a university and work in a factory building streetcars while Manfred is 29 and is finishing his studies at a university and looking for work. To the two lovers, their tale of devotion seems to be running a smooth course, but we as an audience know otherwise. Director Konrad Wolf’s use of jump cuts send the viewer back and forth in the timeline of the plot, revealing to us in the very first scene that this romance is doomed from the beginning. This otherwise simplistic plot thickens when the man learns of job opportunities in West Germany, and leaves their happy home, expecting Rita to follow him. This revelation in the plot cuts back and forth between scenes of Rita working in a factory and growing accustomed to her fellow workers and their various political stances (as East and West Germany becomes further divided) and future scenes of Rita returning to her and Manfred’s apartment which is now empty, leading to viewer to assume Manfred has decided to leave for West Germany without Rita, with little explanation of why. These jumps forward and backward in time are quite confusing at first, since there is little narration at first as to why Manfred has left Rita. Yet, as the story unfolds, we discover that Rita feels that her place in the world is with her companions in East Germany, and her inner feelings are confirmed when she travels to Berlin to visit Manfred and tells him she cannot follow him.
Overall, this film offers a compelling political twist on the traditional love story, but the use of jump cuts switching back and forth in time without much narration of the events happening in each scene presents a distinct sense of confusion, especially one who does not know the plot of the film from Christa Wolf’s novel.

[ekornfel]

One of the things I found most interesting about Divided Heaven was the portrayal of the factory workers. It quickly becomes clear that there are tensions between individuals: resentments, rivalries, petty jealousies. There are suspicions that the foreman is too ambitious, and one of the workers is regarded as a show-off. This is very different from the standard Stalinist portrayal of heroic workers selflessly devoting themselves to the cause of socialism. Another way in which the film departs from Stalinist "art" is that it does not take a worshipful view of the Communist Party. For example, Manfred is contemptuous of his father, who was a Nazi during the war, but joined the CP afterwards.

In the scenes at the teachers' institute, problems are caused by a student, Mangold, who is a self-appointed enforcer of political orthodoxy. He tries to have a student expelled simply because she concealed that fact that her father had fled to the West. It takes an impassioned intervention by the institute's director to defeat his witch-hunt. Interestingly, political orthodoxy is not an issue for the factory workers. Perhaps because of the concrete nature of their work, it is simply impossible for them to concern themselves with ideological nit-picking. They are more concerned with practical questions, such as how much labor is reasonable to expect of workers in a single day. The students at the institute, on the hand, perhaps because of the more abstract nature of their concerns, are sometimes prone to drift into dogmatism and phrase-mongering.

Divided Heaven provides a sharp contrast to the cartoonish depiction of East Germany in One, Two, Three, in which people are shown marching around with signs saying "Yankee Go Home". From what what I've read about the latter film, at the time of its release, critics thought this was brilliant satire.

[bjensvol]

Throughout watching Divided Heaven I couldn’t help but be reminded of another film I had seen for another class last year. The film I was reminded of was Breathless by the famous French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, 1960. To me it is fairly clear that Konrad Wolf had been heavily influenced by the French New Wave in making this film, which only makes sense seeing that it was filmed right about in the middle of the French New Wave’s craze (late 1950s-1960s). In addition to the inclusion of real locations throughout, the biggest giveaways of Wolf’s stylistic diversion are the frequent jump cuts throughout Divided Heaven. The same stylized jump cuts directors like Godard were so renowned for during the new wave. As I watched the film I couldn’t help but experience the same frustration I remember experiencing wile watch Breathless as the continuity of the film was made so extremely irregular. The fact that I the viewer at no point felt like anything but the viewer is also a key element of New Wave. However, as initially frustrating the montage was, the jump-cuts at the same time also advanced the overall development of the plot in the long run. It was the social and economic plight of post-war France is said to have been the reason for the rise of the New Wave technique as filmmakers were forced to seek low-budget alternatives to the usual production methods. Needless to say it is no far stretch to believe that other European countries’ directors were likely in the same boat as the French. Many people were furious when In his book Introduction à une véritable histoire du cinéma Godard revealed that, the elliptical editing of Breathless was a result from a need to reduce the original length of the film. As if the newly revealed fact somehow diminished the power of the film. But truly the fact that these directors were actually able to channel their artistic visions in a cost effective manner in my opinion, amplifies my appreciation of both films.

[Kiwilefty]

In its depiction of the emergence of the GDR, the film contrasts the two ideologies that formed the sides of German’s division on both a political and a personal level.
The conflicted image of socialism portrayed here presents a very different picture than represented in most films on that subject, which almost unvaryingly depict the evils of the GDR. It is surely relevant here that it was filmed before oppression and fear dominated the lives of the East Germans.

The film centers on Rita’s strife for identity and satisfaction in the disparity of the divided Germany. On a personal level, she needs to consolidate her socialist ideals with own happiness. Unlike Manfred, Rita has faith in the ideas behind socialism, for which she is willing to sacrifice some of her personal or material desires, but she also loves Manfred. Though it is traumatic, she ultimate finds Manfred’s cold, dry disillusionment, which led him to leave her, irreconcilable with her beliefs. On a political level, the trauma of the Germany’s division has caused a crisis of national identity. Though I don’t see the purpose of the film as a criticism of capitalism, it is clear that the director was in favor of socialism and the GDR. Manfred’s inability to feel a part of something bigger than himself leads to his ultimate portrayal as immature, contrasting with Rita and evidencing a reversal in their relationship.

I see this as a film about a love of being whole and the trauma of that discord, rather about than a “right” and “wrong.” In retrospect, I can’t help but applaud Rita’s determination yet pity her for the despondency she will soon experience as one of many whose genuine faith in the socialist system kept them in the GDR.

[tstriley]

“Der geteilte Himmel” by Konrad Wolf from 1964, known in English as “Divided Heaven,” depicts a love story during the time of the Berlin wall with a young woman named Rita and a slightly older man named Manfred. In this film, Rita is beginning her studies at a University, while working in a factory with many men of all ages, where there is definite drama between workers of different ranks and personalities. I found it interesting in this aspect that even though they are all on the same side of the wall they don’t seem unified as a people, instead there are constant jealousies and tensions between them. But as the story goes on, Rita and Manfred fall for each other and seem to be a sure thing. Unfortunately, with job opportunities in the West, Manfred leaves the East with Rita to find success in the West. This aspect of the film shows the separation that the Berlin wall created, not only between Westerners and Easterners but between lovers themselves. I am sure this situation had to have been an issue for many during that time. In the end, Rita finds her true home to be in the East, even after visiting Manfred in the West and goes on with her work and studies without him. I would have to say that overall, I wasn’t incredibly thrilled by this film but it is indeed an interesting story which is shows a difficult aspect of making work and love live harmoniously in the era of the Berlin wall.