Spring Symphony

Film biography, shot with the support of DEFA at original locations in Leipzig and Dresden: the love story between Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann, and the story of Clara's father Friedrich Wieck, who fights bitterly against this love. Friedrich Wieck is an instrument dealer, piano teacher and music teacher in Leipzig, and his daughter Clara (Nastassja Kinski) is a highly talented piano prodigy. One of his pupils is the young pianist and composer Robert Schumann (Herbert Grönemeyer), who wants to become a piano virtuoso but has to concentrate on composing because his hand is paralyzed. Schumann falls in love with Clara and the two want to marry, but first have to fight her father in court for permission. A year after the wedding, Schumann composes his "Spring Symphony" for Clara. "The shared fate of two 19th-century child prodigies as a lively sequence of scenes that replaces epic coloring with pointed individual episodes. The film avoids stiff pathos and visibly endeavors to bring the passions and problems of its characters to a modern audience - which succeeds convincingly thanks to the fresh performances of the actors." (Encyclopedia of International Film)