Five Cartridges
| Fünf Patronenhülsen | |
|---|---|
 1960 poster | |
| Directed by | Frank Beyer |
| Written by | Walter Gorrish |
| Produced by | Willi Teichmann |
| Starring | Erwin Geschonneck |
| Cinematography | Günter Marczinkowsky |
| Edited by | Evelyn Carow |
| Music by | Joachim Werzlau |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 84 minutes |
| Country | East Germany |
| Language | German |
Five Cartridges (
Plot
During the
After the battalion leaves, the group fends off the
After finding Vasia, the volunteers make their way across the Sierra in the hot summer, and run out of water. All the wells in the area are guarded by the Nationalists. The group's members become desperate with thirst, and their attempts to get water are frustrated. They begin to quarrel among themselves. Vasia, mad with thirst, wanders into a village in search of water and is caught by the
The others, almost too dehydrated to move, cross the Ebro and rejoin the battalion. When the cartridges are unsealed, they learn that the message was: "Stay together, so you will survive".
Cast
- Fritz Diez as Major Bolaños
- Erwin Geschonneck as Heinrich Witting
- Ulrich Thein as Vasia
- Armin Mueller-Stahl as Pierre Gireau
- Manfred Krug as Oleg Zalevski
- Hans Finohr as Pedro
- Edwin Marian as José Martinez
- Ernst-Georg Schwill as Willi Seifert
- Günter Naumann as Dimitri Pandorov
- Johannes Maus as Karl
- Jochen Diestelmann as Jerri
- Harald Jopt as Sanchez
- Dom de Beern as Otto
- Fritz-Ernst Fechner as Jirka
- Hans-Hartmut Krüger as legionnaire
- Fred Ludwig as sergeant
- Hans-Ulrich Lauffer as nationalist officer
Production
Director Frank Beyer told an interviewer that he was drawn to making Five Cartridges due to it having "three dimensions: a political subject, a thrilling story and a dialog-poor, mostly picturesque narrative." The film was one of the first to employ the technique of a storyboard, enabling Beyer to "plan all the necessary arrangements for a scene before its shooting began".[1]
The principal photography took place in Bulgaria and in DEFA's studios in Berlin. The intro song, "Die Jaramafront", was performed by Ernst Busch.[2]
Reception
Five Cartridges won Frank Beyer great acclaim.[3] Beyer, composer Joachim Werzlau, set designer Alfred Hirschmeier and cinematographer Günter Marczinkowsky were all awarded the Heinrich Greif Prize on 13 May 1961.
Paul Cooke and Marc Silberman viewed the film as a classical anti-Fascist work, noting that it was a political statement rather than a war film.[4] Stefan Deines wrote that it was not surprising that Pierre - whose country, France, was the only one among those represented at Five Cartridges in which the communist party opted not to try and take power - was the one who left the group, and subsequently killed. They also noted other communist political influences on the plot, like when José chalks a message for the nationalist soldiers in which he asks them why they are fighting against their working-class brothers. In another scene, a Falange officer tells his colleague, "If you could tell me how can the communists endure without water while we cannot, you will be promoted to General."[5]
Seán Allan and John Sandford characterized the film as an "expressionist drama in which the lonely heroes are set against the inhuman landscape and an invisible enemy" and thus bearing "remarkable similarities" to the westerns of
References
- ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3. Page 154.
- ISBN 978-3-901932-09-0. Pages 74-76.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-6172-1. Page 153.
- ISBN 978-1-57113-437-0. Page 103.
- ISBN 978-3-8233-6168-8. Pages 435-447.
- ISBN 978-1-57181-753-2. Page 29.
External links
- Five Cartridges at IMDb
- Five Cartridges at filmportal.de/en
