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February 11, 2015
Schoolgirl Report Volume #13: Don't Forget Love during Sex
Vergiss beim Sex die Liebe nicht - Der neue Schulmachenreport 13. Teil
Walter Boos - 1980
Impulse Pictures All Regions DVD
I would have to watch this particular scene over again just to make sure if there was a literal translation, or of someone was having a little fun with the subtitles. In one of the several vignettes that make up this German film, a young woman describes an equally youthful Lothario as not being kosher(!). This brief moment comprises the most humorous moment to be found in this last entry of the Schoolgirl series, soft core theatrical films that could no longer compete against the tide of hardcore pornography available to be seen at home with recently available videotape.
And speaking of brief moments, screenwriter Gunther Heller has two stories that hinged on women's underwear. The framing device in a high school rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet, with the teacher discussing the meaning of the balcony scene with his students. Shakespeare probably never imagined Juliet in tight white hot pants and high white boots, at least in this rehearsal version. The students and teacher discuss the importance of balancing sex with love or vice versa, going off in tangents about other students attempting to navigate their way towards adulthood, or what they imagine is being adult.
Drama, usually of sleazy guys taking advantage of young women, alternates with tepid comedy. I don't know if John Hughes had seen this film, or if someone had told him about it, but one of the vignettes anticipates Sixteen Candles, where a young man makes a bet that he can get the panties from a female student. In another episode, the chubby younger sister tags along with a pair of more conventionally attractive girls on a bicycle trip. The filmmakers return to yet another scene of making hay in the hayloft, with someone's idea of comedy having one of the boys stuttering his way through an attempt at seduction. An older couple spies on the kids, but it is the chubby sister who has the most fun with a chance encounter with a handsome stranger.
We're not talking Fassbinder here, but there may be some viewers who will find the cultural attitudes expressed here of interest. A sexually blackmailed panty thief is the daughter of Greek "guest workers". There is also a rivalry between one of the students with a girl from France, complete with assorted name calling and remarks bases on stereotypes. Other viewers might simply cringe at the bad hair and awful clothing that passed for fashion. Boos and Heller dispense with any pretense that opened the other films in the Schoolgirl series that we were watching a documentary, while the sanctimonious closing narrative about the importance of love with sex is dispensed with quickly. What is sad about this last Schoolgirl film is that while none of the entries were more than mildly humorous or erotic, what we have here is mostly worn out and limp.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at February 11, 2015 06:31 AM