Lowlands (film)

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Movie
Original title Lowlands
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1954
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Leni Riefenstahl
script Leni Riefenstahl
production Leni Riefenstahl
Josef Plesner
Tobis film studios
music Giuseppe Becce
Herbert Windt
camera Albert Benitz
cut Johannes Lüdke
Leni Riefenstahl
occupation

Tiefland is a film adaptation of the opera of the same name from 1903 by Eugen d'Albert and Rudolf Lothar, made between 1940 and 1944 . Leni Riefenstahl was the producer, director and leading actress .

action

The Pyrenees at the turn of the century. The shepherd Pedro lives high up in the mountains. Wolves threaten his flock. One day he succeeds in catching one of the wolves and strangling it with his bare hands. When he proudly shows his master Don Sebastian the wolf's skin, he doesn't even notice it. The Marqués de Roccabruna is a bossy, cold-hearted and haughty man. He lets the brook, which supplies the fields and animals of the farmers in the area, be rerouted to use it exclusively for the breeding of his fighting bulls. As a result, the harvest is falling out more and more frequently and the farmers can no longer pay their rent.

One day Pedro met the fiery dancer Martha in the pub and his heart quickly caught fire. Sebastian too has his eye on the beggar dancer and invites her to his Castillo to make her his lover. He had actually planned to marry the extremely wealthy Amelia for very selfish reasons. Meanwhile, the plight of the peasants is so rampant that they begin to rebel. First they destroy Sebastian's weir, with which he diverted the water they so urgently needed to his bull breeding. Martha does not leave the misery of the poor indifferent either. She gives the miller and his wife a necklace that she had received as a gift from Don Sebastian so that the miller can at least pay his rent.

Don Sebastian then knocked Martha down in anger and chased away the millers. Martha has fled to the mountains, where Pedro finds her and takes her into his hut. But Sebastian's people soon find Martha's hiding place and bring the girl back to her master. When Amelia learns of Sebastian's liaison, she too puts pressure on them. He should part with the beggar dancer, or she should demand a decisive change that she had made out in favor of Sebastian. Sebastian's steward Camillo has an idea: Why should Pedro not marry the girl for pretense, and both move into the now free-standing mill in the lowlands, very close to the Marquis Castle? And so it happens. Martha is more than unhappy about this arrangement, especially since she realizes that Pedro, who would actually rather live in his mountains, genuinely loves her.

After marrying Amelia, Sebastian comes to the mill to claim his claims against his lover. Martha struggles violently, and her husband comes to the girl's aid immediately. Thereupon Don Sebastian tries to flee outdoors in a storm, but is stopped by a marching crowd of hungry and angry farmers who want to finally settle accounts with him. Pedro comes in and kills the hated patron just as he did the wolf. Pedro and Martha then return to the mountains.

production

Shooting began on August 1, 1940 with exterior shots, which were subsequently shot near Mittenwald , in Maxglan near Salzburg , in Krün near Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in 1942 in the Dolomites . From January 2, 1942, the film was shot in the Tobis film studios in Berlin-Johannisthal , the UFA town in Babelsberg, and in 1944 in the Barrandov studios in Prague to avoid the bombing of the Reich . The shooting ended towards the end of 1944. In the spring of 1945 the film was in the music synchronization stage, which was carried out in Kitzbühel , where Riefenstahl had withdrawn at that time. The premiere of the film was postponed indefinitely as the war ended in May 1945. The uncut material ended up in the hands of the French occupying forces, who kept it under lock and key until 1953 and only then released it. The world premiere of Tiefland , after the film had passed the FSK on December 21, 1953, was delayed to February 11, 1954 in Stuttgart .

The film was Riefenstahl's last complete feature film direction. Her assistant was Harald Reinl , and the actor Mathias Wieman was named as "artistic assistant" .

Before the Second World War , Tobis had plans to have the film directed by Hans Steinhoff . On February 1, 1940, the Film-Kurier announced that Leni Riefenstahl would take over the direction.

For the female lead, Leni Riefenstahl asked Hilde Krahl and Brigitte Horney , who both refused. After all, she played Martha herself, although she was actually too old for the role.

Born in Austria, Louis Rainer (also Luis Rainer , 1885–1963) (role of the shepherd Nando), who became an Italian citizen after 1918 through his South Tyrolean birthplace, was only allowed to play in the Nazi state for a long time with a special permit. As a foreigner he was subject on the one hand to the so-called "quota obligation" introduced by the National Socialists , on the other hand he was married to a woman classified as fully Jewish according to the Nazi racial laws . Rainer finally bowed to government pressure and complied with the demands while filming Tiefland : in 1941 he took German citizenship and divorced his Jewish wife the following year. After the war, Rainer settled in Switzerland (in Ticino ), where he also died.

The film structures were created by Erich Grave and Isabella Ploberger , who made her film debut here under their teacher Grave. Max Hüske and Walter Traut worked as production managers . Bernhard Grzimek was responsible for training the wolves.

Maria Koppenhöfer , who died in 1948, had to be dubbed for the 1954 premiere by Till Klockow .

As in Germany, the film was shown for the first time in Austria in 1954. In the United States, the Riefenstahl film only saw its showing in 1981, where it was shown in New York City in the original version with English subtitles.

As early as 1922, Adolf E. Licho had shot a silent film version of this subject that had remained almost unknown.

Political background and legal disputes

Riefenstahl conscripted for lowland over one hundred Roma from the Nazi labor camp Maxglan in Kendlersiedlung near Salzburg. Since real Spaniards were not available, the director organized “southern-looking” prisoners for the Spanish extras. The publisher Helmut Kindler , who raised this case shortly after the end of the war, was sued by Leni Riefenstahl and convicted by the Munich District Court in 1949 for defamation . Although Riefenstahl knew exactly that the prisoners would later be brought to the gypsy camp Auschwitz for murder , she denied this on April 27, 2002 in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau .

In addition to the Roma from the Maxglan gypsy camp , Riefenstahl also deployed Sinti from the Berlin-Marzahn rest area . When Riefenstahl-Film GmbH paid the special equalization tax due for Jews and “ Gypsies ” for 68 Berlin Sinti on April 6, 1943 , they had been deported to the Auschwitz gypsy camp since March .

The director Nina Gladitz took up this dark chapter again in her documentary Time of Silence and Darkness, which was broadcast on WDR in 1982 . As a result, Riefenstahl sued again, this time against her colleague. “The core of the legal dispute is Nina Gladitz's assertion that Leni Riefenstahl “ forced ” gypsies from the Maxglan concentration camp (Austria) as extras for Tiefland , promised them to intercede for them, but then to leave them to their fate. For many, the end was Auschwitz, only a few survived. ”Gladitz won the case on three of four counts. Only in one point, namely that Riefenstahl did not know what would happen to the extras after the shooting, was the director right, as it could not be proven that she was wrong. At the time of her 100th birthday, the Tiefland case and the forced recruitment were the subject of legal disputes with Riefenstahl.

The smallest actors Rosa Kerndlbacher (later married Winter) and zzilia Reinhardt also worked in the lowlands , although not mentioned in the cast list . These are two of the Sinti , known by name , who were requested by Riefenstahl for the shooting from the “Gypsy camp” Maxglan in order to portray “Spanish” girls as extras. The extra Josef Reinhardt was also one of the lowland survivors of the "gypsy camp". In the premiere version, almost all the scenes in which the forced recruits appear have been erased.

Reviews

The lexicon of the international film wrote about Tiefland : “Visually and musically sometimes atmospheric, but extremely boring with coiffed pathos. One of the many shortcomings: director, author and producer Leni Riefenstahl is out of place in the female lead "

The film's large lexicon of people was particularly reminiscent of the long-term effects of lowlands , i.e. H. to the lengthy legal aftermath: “Because of the alleged mistreatment of the Gypsies involved, who were temporarily allowed to leave the concentration camps for the film and for whom Leni Riefenstahl is said not to have campaigned against her promises, the film fell into twilight and became the subject of a [...] trial . "

The French journalist Georges Sadoul described the film, which moves “close to the limits of the ridiculous”, as “mediocre, sadistic” and “bombastic”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Motifs from the drama Terra baixa by Àngel Guimerà and the novel by Echargue were also used.
  2. ↑ GW Pabst , Arthur Maria Rabenalt and Veit Harlan were at your side in an advisory capacity .
  3. ^ All dates and locations according to Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme . Volume 13, 1944/45, Berlin 2002. p. 231.
  4. ↑ See Bogusław Drewniak: Der deutsche Film 1938–1945. A complete overview . Düsseldorf 1987, p. 456.
  5. ^ Christa Bandmann, Joe Hembus: Classics of the German sound film 1930-1960. Munich 1980, p. 241.
  6. ↑ Lt. Film archive Kay Less .
  7. ↑ See romev.de
  8. ↑ Investigation procedure instead of a congratulatory telegram . In: manager magazin. August 22, 2002, accessed May 5, 2015.
  9. ↑ Reimar Gilsenbach : Oh Django, sing your anger. Sinti and Roma among the Germans . Berlin 1993, p. 167.
  10. ↑ Der Spiegel , issue 48 of November 26, 1984, p. 234.
  11. ↑ Nina Gladitz in an interview
  12. ↑ In Kay Weniger's Between Stage and Barrack. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists 1933–1945 . Berlin 2008, the following can be read about this entire topic on page 17: “A number of members of these clans thus initially escaped the misery of the camp and were taken to the location near Mittenwald, where they could expect better food than in the camps. But despite all the promises made by the individualist director, who is highly respected by the regime, working in front of the camera by no means meant a pass to freedom - on the contrary. The 'gypsies' were no longer needed after the shooting was over. Contrary to Riefenstahl's promise to stand up for them, the small actors, classified as racially inferior by the system, had to return to the camps - almost certain death before their eyes. The surviving 'Tiefland' participant ,zazilia Reinhardt, who was 15 years old at the time of shooting, was an eloquent contemporary witness at the trial against Leni Riefenstahl in 2002, just before the filmmaker's 100th birthday, and punished her statements that she had all 'Tiefland' gypsies Seen again safe and sound after 1945, lies. "
  13. ↑ See on this between the stage and the barracks , p. 203 (Kerndlbacher) and 17 (Reinhardt).
  14. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 8, p. 3778. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
  15. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 6: N - R. Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 532.
  16. ↑ Quoted from Christa Bandmann and Joe Hembus: Classics of the German sound film . Munich 1980, p. 241.