November 3, 1918

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Movie
Original title November 3, 1918
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1965
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK ?
Rod
Director Edwin Zbonek
script Franz Theodor Csokor
production Walfried Menzel
music Carl de Groof
camera Rudolf Sandtner
cut Paula Dvorak
occupation

November 3, 1918 is an Austrian literary film adaptation from 1965 based on the play of the same name by Franz Theodor Csokor .

action

The film takes place on November 2nd and 3rd, 1918 , the day on which the armistice of Villa Giusti was signed, in a shelter in the Carinthian Karawanken , which is used as a home for the wounded. The house has been snowed in for three weeks.

Punctually at midnight, the guard on duty tends the fire and tears off the calendar sheet. The nurse makes one last tour and finds all the men asleep. Only the colonel is still reading Xenophon's anabasis . A medical emergency, Vanini's 13th hemorrhage, abruptly ends the night. The Jewish doctor saves his life - and the men celebrate exuberantly, admonished by the doctor not to drink so much; but they are the last bottles anyway.

The bunch is colorfully thrown together from all areas of the dual monarchy : a German from Carinthia, a Slovenian from Carniola, a Hungarian from Arad and a Czech from Prague wish to have a hemorrhage with Lieutenant Vanini from Trento! After a tussle about a joke about the nurse, the soldiers dream of life after the war and sing themselves to sleep with the "black and brown girl". Sister Christine is at the end of her nerves, the doctor wants to send her down into the valley in the morning.

Morning is breaking, the soldiers. Orvanyi fires an entire machine-gun magazine "for the crow soup". The sister drives down into the valley. The doctor sends all the men to the deck chairs, where they ponder their situation and the camp fever until lunch . The doctor: "A kind of barbed wire disease, Colonel. The isolation undermines us." The colonel urges discipline. The others are tired of war and long for their home.

At lunch the men are more cheerful again, especially after the colonel brings his personal wine reserves. In the group a "man's song" is composed:

Men made the world.
Men brought death.
Cripples and women cry and complain, men will carry the cross.

And the colonel swears the men to a fatherland above the peoples : from Lake Constance to the Iron Gate, from the Tatras to the sea - we hold it tight between us. And so nobody will snatch it from us, not today and never again! Our fatherland, comrades! . But men's faith has faded.

Suddenly distant howitzer fire can be heard, the men rush in front of the house. Looks like a lost battle. A figure trudges up through the snowstorm, the colonel thinks he is a deserter, Ludoltz wants to shoot him immediately, but Zierowitz prevents the hit. The man is arrested and initially interrogated by the colonel alone. The machine mate Pjotr ​​Kaciuk, thirsty and starving, reports on the sinking of his ship, the SMS Viribus Unitis , on November 1st in the port of Pula . The colonel doesn't believe him. Pyotr also reports on the handover of the fleet, showing him the bow flag of the Viribus Unitis. The colonel, who is still incredulous, declares him arrested. Pyotr replies: And in whose name, Comrade Colonel? (...) The army to which you count yourself no longer exists today!

The Colonel orders that the long-disrupted telephone connection be restored at any cost. Since the rest of the officers had already decided and ordered this, the Colonel feels snubbed. Adam, guarding Pyotr, starts a conversation with him. He doesn't believe him either that the war is over. Meanwhile, the phone line can be repaired. But the Villach squad no longer exists , and the response from Ljubljana is in Slovenian . Zierowitz is the first to understand, while the others still do not want to admit the situation: You live in a carcass and pretend that it is still alive!

Back in the house. Pyotr explains the course of the end of the war by gradually cutting the areas lost for the empire from the map. Only Austria remains. Some understand, but most insist that Pyotr lies, must lie. Kaminski asks for a vacation, he would like to die at home. The colonel dismisses him and the doctor. He should accompany him, but have a surgeon sent as a replacement. The Colonel lets the tattered bow flag of the Viribus Unitis hoist in front of the house - only Ludoltz follows him to show his honor. Pjotr ​​and Adam set off down into the valley together.

The cohesion of the six remaining officers falls apart - like the Reich. The Colonel turns to the officers with a final appeal, but finally leaves them to decide how to proceed and says goodbye with the honor! While those who stayed behind were still arguing, a shot was fired - the colonel was dead. He was buried covered by the flag of the Viribus Unitis. The men say goodbye with soil from Hungary, soil from Poland, soil from Carinthia, Slovenian soil, Czech soil, Italian soil and finally the Jewish regimental doctor with soil from Austria .

Everyone is preparing for the march into the valley - with the exception of the Slovenes and the Carinthian, whose speech the Nazi is increasingly shining through. After Zierowitz leaves, Ludoltz is the only one left with his machine gun. The film ends on the stroke of midnight with a volley from Ludoltz at an unknown target.

background

From the opening text: (...) as improbable as this army of Wallenstein, Prince Eugen, Archduke Karl was, just as improbable it ended in November 1918! She never returned home. The new empires that arose from the collapse of Austria-Hungary or grew as a result of it, had recalled their compatriots from this army.

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