Horst in Translation ([email protected])
This is the 11th of 13 "Schulmädchen" movies and by now, there is nothing new or refreshing anymore about this series. The core issues this time is protection of young people and helping them in dangerous or critical situations. The film starts with a group of (seemingly) intelligent people having a panel discussion on the matter and they tell about the stories depicted in the film. Ernst Hofbauer took over from Walter Boos as director again and the writer is Günther Heller as always. Heiner Lauterbach is in the film again, for a third and final time. He is in his early 20s here and in this movie he has the most screen time compared to films 9 and 10. Lauterbach is an actor known more for charisma than for great range, but his scenes at the end are probably the best thing about this film, the only segment, which was a bit interesting. And that says a lot about the writing and especially about the actors earlier in the movie. The worst example of writing is possibly the story we hear from two people involved in it. A woman accuses a man of raping her. We are supposed to feel for the girl, but when she has told her story and the suspect comes in, we find out it was all a lie. It makes sense that he is acquitted because doctors found out the girl is, in fact, still a virgin. However, that whole dog reference was so random. The police let him go, because he had no big dog and that was the reason he was innocent??? Maybe the biggest wtf-moment in the entire series. On a side-note, Suzanne von Borsódy's father is also in this film.The movie is very short again, under 80 minutes just like the previous film. There are several (attempted) suicide references and the boyfriend of the first girl, who decides to kill herself, looks a bit like the young Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Rolf was his name I think. I mentioned the dog earlier and there is also a horse later on. They show his erect genital and a female character comments on it while making out with her boyfriend and that was a really cringeworthy scene too. I don't remember animals in the other films I have watched so far, but if they include them in the manner they included them here, they'd better do without them entirely. Pathetic. As is this movie most of the time. Not recommended. Also, the final words from the narrator were very pretentious once again and it's pretty ridiculous how he usually defends school-girls in these and yet, these films really hurt the image of school girls more than anything with the way they are depicted herein.
