Minderjärige klagen an, while partly retaining the original intentions of Harald Röbbeling’s excellent Asphalt (since it is in fact a much more softened reworking of it), is much weaker, much less incisive than the original and decidedly uncohesive, with a frame story that seems almost artificial, to the point of making it scarcely credible.
Asphalt takes its cue from some real-life stories and adopts a mise-en-scene that closely resembles Neorealism. And so, the result is a film divided into five episodes, incredibly rational in its irrationality. A film that openly speaks out against the war and – although the war has been over for many years now – points the finger directly at a hypocritical and conservative society.
Few people know that one of the most important periods in Austrian cinema was the 1920s. During this period, in fact, films with a biblical or epic character were mainly produced in Italy and Austria. This is the case (if we want to remain in Austria) with Samson and Delilah – directed in 1922 by the Hungarian Alexander Korda – as well as with the famous Sodom and Gomorrah, by Michael Curtiz.