Zur Sache, Schätzchen

Go for It, Baby

Retrospective 2019

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