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Zur Sache, Schätzchen

Go for It, Baby
Retrospective 2019
© Deutsche Kinemathek / Schamoni Film & Medien
Martin, a bohemian who earns his living as a commercial songwriter in Munich’s arty Schwabing district, believes in the right to be lazy. At a public swimming pool on his birthday, he meets Barbara, a young woman from a wealthy family. They go to the zoo, where he kidnaps a goat kid, and he invites her home that evening to show off his flip-book. “Making out” is as much a part of his eloquently expressed pseudo-philosophy, in which imagination counts for more than experience, as the fatalistic adage, “it’s going to end badly”. And, indeed – after witnessing a burglary, Martin himself comes under suspicion … In her enormously successful comedy, director May Spils proffers Werner Enke’s character as an alternative model to the traditional “male archetype”, who displays traits of the “Great Refusal” delineated by 60s-era philosopher Herbert Marcuse. That applies to the relationship between the sexes as well, as evidenced when Martin, during small talk with Barbara, asks in all innocence “are you even in a position to support me?” While feminists in the United States were busy burning their bras, in Go for It, Baby, it was the men’s trousers that were going up in flames.
by May Spils
with Werner Enke, Uschi Glas, Henry van Lyck, Rainer Basedow, Inge Marschall, Helmut Brasch, Joachim Schneider, Fritz Schuster, Edith Volkmann, Martin Lüttge Federal Republic of Germany 1968 German 79’ Black/White Rating R12

With

  • Werner Enke
  • Uschi Glas
  • Henry van Lyck
  • Rainer Basedow
  • Inge Marschall
  • Helmut Brasch
  • Joachim Schneider
  • Fritz Schuster
  • Edith Volkmann
  • Martin Lüttge

Crew

Director May Spils
Screenplay May Spils, Rüdiger Leberecht, Peter Schlieper
Cinematography Klaus König
Editing Ulrike Froehner, Heidi Genée, May Spils
Music Kristian Schultze
Sound Clemens Brendel, Horst Weiser
Peter Schamoni

Additional information

DCP: Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin

May Spils

Filmography

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019