Flirtation (1933)

Movie
Original title	flirtation
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1933
length	94 minutes
Rod
Director	Max Ophüls
script	Hans Wilhelm , Curt Alexander , Max Ophüls
production	Christoph Mülleneisen junior for Elite Tonfilm-Produktion GmbH, Berlin
music	Theo Mackeben
camera	Franz Planner
cut	Friedel Buckow
occupation
Paul Hörbiger : Hans Weyring, chamber musician Magda Schneider : Christine Weyring, his daughter Luise Ullrich : Mizzi Schlager Gustaf Gründgens : Baron Eggersdorf Olga Chekhova : his wife Willy Eichberger : Theo Kaiser, First Lieutenant Wolfgang Liebeneiner : Fritz Lobheimer, Lieutenant Paul Otto : Leopold von Eggersdorf, Major Antonie Jaeckel : his wife Werner Finck : Binder, cellist Werner Pledath : Colonel Placzek Ekkehard Arendt : Lieutenant von Lensky Else Reval : Glove shop owner also: Lotte Spira , Walter Steinbeck , Fred Goebel , Michael von Newlinski

Liebelei is a German film adaptation of the play of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler . Directed by Max Ophüls . In addition to Paul Hörbiger , Magda Schneider and Luise Ullrich, the main roles are cast with Gustaf Gründgens , Olga Chekhowa , Willy Eichberger and Wolfgang Liebeneiner .

The film premiered on February 24, 1933 in Vienna .

action

Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer has a relationship with Baroness Eggersdorf. When he met the girl Christine, the daughter of a chamber musician, during a visit to the opera, it happened to him. Both young people quickly fall in love with each other. But like a shadow over Lobheimer his past, which he is unable to clear up: the affair with the married baroness.

One day the unfaithful baroness's husband discovers evidence of their illegitimate relationship. Baron Eggersdorf is a man of rigid conventions. His rank and his social background call for satisfaction in the form of a formal satisfaction and the nobleman challenges the young lieutenant Lobheimer to a duel . Lobheimer's best friend, First Lieutenant Theo Kaiser, tries in vain to convince the military leadership to intervene in this matter before it is too late. Lobheimer is fatally hit in the duel. The baron, seeing his honor restored, leaves the clearing victorious.

Embittered by the completely outdated and equally senseless code of honor that cost his friend's young life, Lieutenant Kaiser said goodbye to the army and returned to civilian life. When Christine learns of the death of her lover, she throws herself out of the window in deep despair and endless pain.

Production notes

The film was made in December 1932 and January 1933. Fred Lyssa was in charge of production . For the Filmbauten was Gabriel Pellon responsible for the sound Hans Grimm . The German premiere of Liebelei took place on March 10, 1933 in Leipzig . Previous (silent film) versions were made in Denmark in 1913 and in Germany in the winter of 1926/27.

Contrary to the wishes of the production company Elite Tonfilm, Ophüls only engaged novice actors with little film experience for the main roles, including Magda Schneider , Luise Ullrich , Willy Eichberger and Wolfgang Liebeneiner . Only Gustaf Gründgens in the role of Baron Eggersdorf had already asserted himself as a new movie star since his leading role in M - A city seeks a murderer . For the four aforementioned actors, love turned out to be the starting shot for a long career.

The former silent film series star (Stuart Webbs detective films) Ernst Reicher , for whom Liebelei was to become the last German film, was involved in the production management. Immediately afterwards he had to emigrate.

The showing of the film, which was co-created by a number of subsequent emigrants , was not only banned by the Nazi authorities during the Third Reich, but also by the Allied military authorities in Germany after 1945. One reason for this is likely to have been the presentation of the estates in old Austria with their honorary trades, class arrogance and military habits (e.g. duels of honor).

French version

In the same year, Ophüls shot a French version of Liebelei entitled Une histoire d'amour . Ralph Baum assisted him. With the exception of Paul Hörbiger, Luise Ullrich and Willy Eichberger, almost all Liebelei leading actors also played their roles in this version. The old Weyring was played by Abel Tarride, Mizzi Schlager by Simone Héliard, Theo Kaiser by George Rigaud , Colonel Placzek by Georges Mauloy and the Concierge by André Dubosc. André Doderet was responsible for the dialogues and Ted Pahle for the photography . The French version was first performed in Paris on May 9, 1933.

Reviews

The critics consistently found words of praise for Ophüls' most important (and last) film before his emigration to France:

In Kay Weniger's “In life, more is taken from you than given…”, the biography of Max Ophüls says: “However, he only received an ovation with his last production in Germany, the congenial film adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's 'Liebelei'. With a sure instinct for atmosphere and style, Ophüls resurrected Austro-Hungarian Austria, a world of social strata frozen in conventions, a system that is doomed and its epoch, with their arrogance and honor. "

In Bucher's encyclopedia of the film you can read about Liebelei : “This film is Ophüls' most successful work before his emigration, alongside 'The Bartered Bride' (1932). In numerous noteworthy passages, the film reveals the director's extraordinary feeling for atmosphere, which he creates with almost no dialogues, just with his picture compositions and some music. Ophüls demonstrated no less great mastery in the management of his actors. "

The author and critic Karlheinz Wendtland spoke of a "great film with soft tones, to which the ban of the Allied military government (1945) did not [fit], especially since [the film] before the First World War [plays]". It also said: "This ban is all the more incomprehensible because the author and the director were not acceptable to the National Socialists for racial reasons."

The Lexicon of International Films wrote: "Ideally cast roles, virtuoso camera work, poetic milieu drawings and the complete lack of any sentimentality make the film an exception in German cinemas of the thirties, which has retained its youthful freshness over the decades."

In Reclam's film guide you can read: “Ophüls staged this model quietly and melancholy; Viennese charm is paired with resignation. All loud effects are avoided. "

literature

• Eberhard Berger love affair . In Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. Henschel Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1993, p. 315 ff. ISBN 3-89487-009-5

See also

• List of German feature films premiered in the German Reich during the Nazi era

Web links

• Flirtation in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Flirtation at filmportal.de
• Liebelei on filmposter-archiv.de
• Liebelei Wiener Illustrierter Film-Kurier No. 8 (Cover picture: Magda Schneider, Wolfgang Liebeneiner)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Liebelei (1933) full film, see opening credits
2. ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 375.
3. ↑ Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films , Verlag CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 785.
4. ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1933 and 1934, edited by the author Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, Chapter: Films 1933, Film No. 31.
5. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 5 , p. 2273. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
6. ^ Reclam's film guide . By Dieter Krusche, collaboration with Jürgen Labenski. Stuttgart 1973, p. 387