Schulmädchen-Report: Was Eltern nicht für möglich halten (1970)

Director:

Ernst Hofbauer

Writers:

Günther Hunold (book) and
Kurt Seelmann (epilogue in the book) ...

Release Date:

23 October 1970 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Sie sind erst 14, 15 oder 16 und doch ist ihnen nichts mehr fremd

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Topless | Cross Dressing | Breasts | Female Frontal Nudity | Pigtail

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Günther Kieslich	...	Dr. Bernauer (as Günter Kieslich)
Wolf Harnisch	...	Schulleiter
Helga Kruck	...	Frau Dr. Vogt
Friedrich von Thun	...	Reporter

Also Known As:

Confessions of a Sixth Form Girl (UK)
Schoolgirl Report Part 1: What Parents Don't Think Is Possible (literal English title)
The School Girls (USA)
Si Papa saait ça! (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Ung fri kärlek (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

West Germany:90 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 (cut) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Finland:(Banned) (1971) | Norway:(Banned) (for theatrical release 1971-2003) | Sweden:15

Company:

Rapid Film

Trivia:

According to producer Wolf C. Hartwig half of the interviews were faked, the other half were real.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Schulmädchen-Report 9: Reifeprüfung vor dem Abitur (1975)

Sleazy film that seems strangely innocent today

After a prologue in which one "schulmadchen" (basically a German high school girl)is caught having sex, concerned parents, teachers, and other students get together for a meeting, and this movie turns into a (mostly fake) documentary with a lot of talking heads and sexual scenes, ranging from innocuous nudity to softcore groping, being acted out as "illustration". Obviously, this movie uses the old exploitation trick of pretending to morally condemn or express liberal social concern over the same lurid subject that the movie itself is cheerfully exploiting. I'm sure when this movie was showing in a German theaters, there were a lot more dirty old men in raincoats than "concerned parents" in the audience(and any concerned parents that WERE there probably would have been well-advised to wear raincoats as well). I'm also sure that the makers of this, if interviewed today, would freely admit that the moralizing was just a lot of phony-baloney to ameliorate the (obviously very stupid) censors.

This movie seems pretty sordid on paper, but I actually found it strangely innocent compared to today. We STILL have this faux moralistic/secretly lecherous mentality today. Much of our current entertainment media, for instance, seems focused on following around under-age or just very immature young girls, morally clucking at their misdeeds while salivating over every sordid detail. And the more "legitimate" the medium and the more serious and shrill the moralizing, the more disgusting the hypocrisy. Moreover, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, etc. are (presumably) real people. The actresses in this movie are obviously not real "schulmadchen" (unless there was something strange in the German water back then, I'd guess most of these actresses had long since put their own school uniforms on mothballs). They not only don't look underage, but they don't act like real women of any age--they're fantasy figures like a twenty-five-year-old stripper with fake breasts dressed in a Catholic school uniform.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its necessarily healthy for the media to exploit even "fantasy teens" like with this film (or the "Porkies"-style teen sex comedies of my own adolescence), but given how much we let REAL teenagers be exploited today. . . well, I just wouldn't worry about it too much.