Affair Nina B.
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Affair Nina B. |
| Original title | L'affaire Nina B. |
| Country of production | Germany France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| script |
Roger Nimier Robert Siodmak based on the novel of the same name (1958) by Johannes Mario Simmel |
| production | Ciné-Alliance, Paris Filmsonor, Paris Henri Baum |
| music | Georges Delerue |
| camera | Michel Kelber |
| cut | Henri Taverna |
| occupation | |
| |
Affair Nina B. is a Franco-German feature film from 1961 based on a novel by Johannes Mario Simmel . The couple Nadja Tiller and Walter Giller and the French Pierre Brasseur play the leading roles under the direction of Robert Siodmak .
action
The news hits like a bomb: The successful businessman Mr. B. (in the French version: Michel Berrera), an obscure puller with hidden connections in the highest economic and political circles in the Federal Republic of Germany, has died in an ominous manner. Some of the most important decision-makers in the still young Federal Republic breathe a sigh of relief because Mr B. was anything but popular. His prosperity and power was based solely on his basic unscrupulousness, with which the financial juggler put competitors and politicians under pressure and blackmailed them. Mr. B. obtained secret documents from the GDR regarding the Nazi past of prominent German citizens, which he forced to comply with his new knowledge. One of the blackmailed is a certain Schwerdtfeger, who was heavily involved in torture and mass shootings during the war as an SS group leader in German-occupied countries. But Schwerdtfeger and his cronies don't just want to accept this. Schwerdtfeger, an elegant and cultured businessman with numerous international contacts, takes a counterstrike and blackmails Mr B. in return, because his business conduct is anything but clean.
In this web of lies and deceit, dark pasts, intrigues and blackmail, a second plot arises, in which Mr B.'s wife Nina and the recently hired chauffeur Holden are the central protagonists. One month before his violent death, B. hires the young and discreet man to be his driver, who becomes his confidante on a financial project with an African developing country. In the course of the marriage, Nina B. has moved away from her husband inwardly, she often only feels disgust and has already attempted suicide. Finally, Nina begins an affair with Holden, who soon becomes overly attached to her. In the meantime Schwerdtfeger has collected so much material against his fiercest opponent Mr. B. that he is temporarily arrested. However, intrigues and brawls mean that the proceedings against him are suddenly dropped again. In the end, there is a dead person in the unloved Nina husband, not the victim of one of those he blackmailed, but assassinated by the hand of his wife, who carried Mr B. into the afterlife with an overdose of pills.
Production notes
Affair Nina B. was created from February to March 1961 in the Studio de Boulogne, Paris. The locations for the outdoor shots were Wiesbaden , Frankfurt am Main , Hanover , Oestrich am Rhein and Berlin-West . The premiere took place on June 7, 1961 in Paris, the German premiere on September 12, 1961 in the Zoo-Palast in Berlin.
The film structures were designed by Jean d'Eaubonne , assisted by Raymond Gabutti , and the costumes by Rosine Delamare .
This film was, after Mein Schulfreund , Siodmak's second adaptation of a Simmel novel.
Differences to the novel
Siodmak and its French producer have changed some names. Julius Maria B. (rummer) of the novel in this film has become Michel B. (errera), while the literary Holden's first name is Robert, while in the (French) film version Antoine.
Reviews
“Nadja Tiller returned to the site of her Rosemarie success - Frankfurt am Main - to pose in a hair-raising Germany colportage. In furs, negligés and lingerie, she plays the hysterical and frigid central character of a confused and tension-free story: after she sought suicide in vain and then spent a night of love with her chauffeur (portrayed by her husband Walter Giller), she promotes her film husband , a mysterious financial slide (Pierre Brasseur), using pills to death. Director Robert Siodmak equipped the society riot with current catchphrases such as development aid (business with Africa), war crimes (SS tormentors as West German economic leaders), Soviet zone (car hunt in the forest of Potsdam). "
"Nadja Tiller surprises as a desperately rebellious woman: a cosmetically beautiful appearance turns out to be a stepped person who fights for his freedom with all means."
The Süddeutsche Zeitung found that Simmel's novel was “a crime story with a financial background”, and that Siodmak staged the film version “a little veiled, arousing psychology and a desire for combination, definitely exciting”.
In the lexicon of the international film it says: "A not always easy to understand, freaky attempt to combine time criticism, marital problems and a crime plot in an entertaining way."
Individual evidence
- ^ CineGraph - Lexicon for German-language film - Robert Siodmak
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung of October 27, 1961
- ^ Affair Nina B. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed October 14, 2015 .
Web links
- Nina B. Affair in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Affair Nina B. at filmportal.de