''Putting Things Straight'' (German title: “Ich räume auf”) is a 1979 film directed and written by

Georg Brintrup Georg Brintrup (born 25 October 1950) is a German-Italian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his non-narrative film essays on poetry and music as well as his biographical films. Life and career Georg Brintrup had already made ...

. The director's first TV-release, it was shot in

16 mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical Film gauge, gauge of Photographic film, film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm film, 8 and 35mm movie film, 35 mm. It is ...

. The filmscript is based on a polemic printed in 1925 ("Ich räume auf - Meine Anklage gegen meine Verleger") by the Jewish German poet

Else Lasker-Schüler Else Lasker-Schüler (née Elisabeth Schüler) (; 11 February 1869 – 22 January 1945) was a German-Jewish poet and playwright famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Berlin and her poetry. She was one of the few women affiliated with the Expres ...

, the principal woman representative of

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

Premise

The film describes a dispute between poetess

and her publishers. The film takes place in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

before, during and after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

it deals with the rights of the author quoting from

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

: "A writer is judged as productive, not on the amount of ideas he produces, but on the amount of money his publisher is able to profit from his works."Karl Marx: Theorien über den Mehrwert, Hrsg. Karl Kautsky, 1. Bd. Die Anfänge der Theorie vom Mehrwert bis Adam Smith.

Cast

Gisela Stein Gisela Stein (2 October 1935 – 4 May 2009) was a German actress. Biography Stein was born in Swinemünde (now Świnoujście, Poland) and educated at the Wiesbaden actors school. She began her stage career in Koblenz, Krefeld-Mönchenglad ...

–

*Frank Burkner –

Paul Cassirer Paul Cassirer (21 February 1871, in Görlitz – 7 January 1926, in Berlin) was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Im ...

Hanns Zischler Hanns Zischler (born 18 June 1947) is a German actor known for his portrayal of Hans in Steven Spielberg's film ''Munich''. According to the Internet Movie Database, Zischler has appeared in 171 movies since 1968. He is known in Sweden for his r ...

–

Alfred Flechtheim Alfred Flechtheim (1 April 1878 – 9 March 1937) was a German Jewish art dealer, art collector, journalist and publisher persecuted by the Nazis. Early years Flechtheim was born into a Jewish merchant family; his father, Emil Flechtheim, was a g ...

*Ulrich Gregor –

Kurt Wolff (publisher) Kurt Wolff (3 March 1887 – 21 October 1963) was a German publisher, editor, writer, and journalist. Wolff was born in Bonn, Rhenish Prussia; his mother came from a Jewish-German family. He married Elisabeth Karoline Clara Merck (1890– ...

*Hans Christoph Buch –

Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of ''The Forty ...

Harun Farocki Harun Farocki (9 January 1944 – 30 July 2014) was a German filmmaker, author, and lecturer in film. Early life and education Farocki was born as Harun El Usman FaroqhiMargalit Fox (3 August 2014)''New York Times''. in Neutitschein, which is n ...

– Friend of Flechtheim

Production

The film was first broadcast on December 23, 1979 by

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the con ...

. It was then shown at the 1980

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental f ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=1629297, title=Ich räume auf Films set in Berlin 1970s historical drama films Films based on poems Films set in the 1910s German historical drama films 1979 films Films about Jews and Judaism Films set in the 1920s 1970s German-language films 1979 drama films 1970s English-language films 1970s German films West German films