Blondie's Number One

Gabi, a young, foreign woman living in Berlin who is in trouble with the German authorities, is looking for a random man to marry in order to be able to stay in West Germany. She ensures the "help" of her latest erotic acquaintance, to search the streets for possible candidates. Rather than looking for men, the search turns into one long marathon of "hanging out", making love and smoking dope, at the end of which Blondie still hasn't found a suitable man. The entirety of this first feature film by former cinematographer Robert van Ackeren (BÜBCHEN, DEADLOCK) feels improvised; it seems unlikely that there ever was an actual script or even a clearly drawn concept or line-out. At times, the film even borders documentary mannerisms but the unlikely execution of a likely starting point (functional marriage to get a visa) by both the filmmakers as well as the characters themselves ensures that despite the seedy and spontaneous naturalism, even sensualism of the images, an atmosphere of psychological stylization remains - subliminal if not apparent. In its essence, BLONDIE'S NUMBER ONE is a portrait of Bohemian youth (sub-)culture in 1970's West Berlin - drawn with a indescribably dry wit as the thriving ideas behind this culture could be just about anything in this film. Very clearly, van Ackeren sympathised with his characters but at the end of the one day within the film is set, it becomes clear that the general air of "total relaxation" has also resulted in a certain indifference which is not exactly beneficial to Gabi's existential problem - a problem which you'd expect her seemingly leftist environment to care about. Still, the film approaches its theme, the Zeitgeist and the milieu with a refreshing openness which can rarely be found in films of the "New German cinema". The film was deemed "obscene" by the German film classification board...