Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening (1929) — drama film. Directed by Richard Oswald. Starring Toni van Eyck, Ita Rina, Carl Ballhaus, Rolf von Goth. This page maps 6 characters and 8 relationships between them as an interactive character network.

Spring Awakening (1929) Poster

Interactive Features for Spring Awakening

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Story Analysis

A sexual tragedy of youth exploring the conflict between Eros and Thanatos

Drama · 10/10 · 95 min · 1929

Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.

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Related entry on Wikidata (Q14949930), public domain (CC0).