The Punch Bowl (1959 film)

Maibowle May Wine Englishlanguage title The Punch Bowl is an East German musical comedy film, released in 1959. It was directed by Gnter Reisch.

The film was commissioned for the tenth anniversary of East Germanys independence, and the decision to begin the project was taken on the 5th Congress of the Socialist Unity Party, at July 1958. It was a musical comedy, one of the pictures which authors Antonin and Mira Liehm considered as an attempt by DEFA to balance the effects its heavily ideological works had on the public. Although it was lighthearted, director Gnter Reisch emphasized the happiness experienced by the citizens in the socialist system and the importance of the chemical plants development one of them served as the setting for the plot. The directors decision was influenced by the response to his last film, the 1957 Trail in the Night, which was negatively received by the State Film Board due to a scene featuring rockandroll music.Maibowle had its premiere in East Berlins Cinema Babylon onOctober 1959, and its commercial release followed in December 4. The film was well received, and attracted a fairly large audience. West Germanys Catholic Film Service noted that the picture had a weak script, but its momentum and cabaret scenes compensate for it. In the same time, the comical character of the eccentric politician Frisch was criticized by the East German Film Board. The Liehms considered it as one of the two smoothest among the poorly crafted, simple minded East German comedies of the late 1950s, along its 1960 sequel New Years Eve Punch. Ralf Schenk wrote that the film was an attempt to create comedy combined with slogans praising the Socialist society and the qualities of chemical ingredients. ........

Source: Wikipedia