"Spur der Steine" or "Trace of Stones" is an East German black-and-white film, which is going to have its 50th anniversary next year. The writer and director is Frank Beyer, possibly the most successful filmmaker from the GDR, not only because of this movie here, but also because of the Oscar-nominated "Jacob, the Liar" from almost 10 years later. Anyway, this one here has Manfred Krug in the lead role. He is retired now, almost 80, but was among Germany's most known actors for a long time, especially in terms of television. in this film here he is still only 30 and plays a worked in a GDR factory. Things become chaotic when a woman starts working there and this is basically all this movie is about. I remember being told how significant it was and that we even watched it at school.
I could not see what the hype was about back then and I cannot see it now. This film clearly crosses the 2-hour mark, but I found neither any of the characters nor the story interesting enough for such a runtime. And even with all the power games and possible political impact etc, it still has a pretty weak romance plot. I usually like Krug much more than in this one. He had decent physical presence as always, but in terms of range I did not find him very convincing. Then again, his character was not written really well. And the constant mention of "Balla" got pretty annoying at some point. The other characters were never really mentioned by name and Balla maybe 50 times, probably so that we won't forget who the star here is. Then again, the other characters are even less interesting. This film is by no means a must see, not even for people who have an interest in German history. Not recommended and I really hope Beyer's other works are better than this one here. Very overrated piece.
I could not see what the hype was about back then and I cannot see it now. This film clearly crosses the 2-hour mark, but I found neither any of the characters nor the story interesting enough for such a runtime. And even with all the power games and possible political impact etc, it still has a pretty weak romance plot. I usually like Krug much more than in this one. He had decent physical presence as always, but in terms of range I did not find him very convincing. Then again, his character was not written really well. And the constant mention of "Balla" got pretty annoying at some point. The other characters were never really mentioned by name and Balla maybe 50 times, probably so that we won't forget who the star here is. Then again, the other characters are even less interesting. This film is by no means a must see, not even for people who have an interest in German history. Not recommended and I really hope Beyer's other works are better than this one here. Very overrated piece.