Classics Not Only For Children

EMIL UND DIE DETEKTIVE (Emil and the Detectives, Gerhard Lamprecht, GER 1931) Two years after the introduction of sound film, Lamprecht has this first film adaptation of Erich Kästner's children’s book start with a wink of the eye as a silent movie: dramaturgy, picture composition and the mode of depiction make one think of past times and practices, before the medium underwent a change—until, shortly after the warning whistle of a child amidst the noisy world of the children, the story begins. On a train trip to Berlin, somebody steals 140 marks from Emil, which he was supposed to bring to his grandmother in Berlin. At the Bahnhof Zoo train station he notices the theft and along with a group of Berlin kids chases after the thief (Fritz Rasp). A thrilling pursuit through Berlin bathed in bright summer light, through a city of kids, for whom the adult world is at times a huge adventure playground. (April 3, 10, 17, 24; from 6 years of age)