Hot Summer-1968
Director Joachim Hasler
Starring Chris Doerk, Frank Schobel
Scott’s Review #1,173
Reviewed August 27, 2021
Grade: B
One of the strangest films I’ve ever watched, Hot Summer (1968), deserves enormous accolades for even being filmed, produced, and existing.
You see, it’s the only film (that I know of) to come out of East Germany before the wall came down in 1989 and the unity was gained.
This is astounding in itself, despite the film’s warts.
The film’s bubblegum musical nature shatters the starkness and seriousness that envelop the German stereotype. This is an oddity in itself.
It’s patterned after the trite, summery United States beach movies of the 1950s and 1960s, when teenage characters flocked to the beaches in search of romance with their contemporaries.
In this film, they do so through song-and-dance numbers led by two East German pop idols of the time, Chris Doerk and Frank Schobel.
The film’s genre pretty much sucks and isn’t my favorite, but Hot Summer offers a liberal helping of sun, perfect smiles, and beach bodies to keep viewers at least interested.
The acting is not great, nor is it expected to be.
As goofy as possible, the musical comedy follows a group of teenage girls heading to the Baltic coast together for their summer vacation.
Naturally, they wind up meeting a similar group of amorous teenage guys, leading to quarrels and flirtatious competitions played out in lively song-and-dance numbers as the individuals hook up.
Despite being made during the Cold War, the film contains no political or anti-war messages, which surprised me. If there were any subliminal intentions related to this, like the groups sticking together, they didn’t register with me. I think this is a positive.
Hot Summer is pure summer fun- nothing more and nothing less.
The songs are a significant win and rather hummable, especially the title track. It stuck in my head for some time after the film had ended. One character performs a lovely ballad amid a campfire that is quite beautiful and incredibly atmospheric.
The numbers are mainly professional because real-life pop stars Doerk and Schobel do the bulk of them.
Still, Hot Summer has a couple of downsides. Why the decision was made to pattern a film, especially one as groundbreaking as being the sole East German film during the Cold War, by using a subject matter as hokey as the summer beach theme is beyond me.
Indeed, better genres exist to borrow from.
My hunch is that Joachim Hasler, who directed the film, desired a release from the bleakness of his own culture and saw America as the land of freedom and fun.
The choreography is a bit stiff, if not downright amateurish, which adds to the bizarre nature of the overall product.
Indeed, nothing like the exceptional choreography of, say, Oklahoma (1955) or West Side Story (1961); instead, we get rigid dance numbers.
Kudos to the film for being made at all. Hot Summer (1968) is hardly a great film, but it does hold the viewer’s interest. It contains enough fun and frolics, along with good-looking young people, to avoid being a snooze.