Alexander Nevsky (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Alexander Nevsky |
| Original title | Александр Невский |
| Country of production | Soviet Union |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 112 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Sergei Eisenstein , Dmitri Wassiljew |
| script | Sergei Eisenstein, Pyotr Pavlenko |
| production | Mosfilm |
| music | Sergei Prokofiev |
| camera | Eduard Tisse |
| cut | Sergei Eisenstein, Esfir Tobak |
| occupation | |
| |
Alexander Newski is a Soviet period film by director Sergei Eisenstein from 1938, the focus of which is the Russian national hero Alexander Yaroslawitsch Newski .
action
Russia in 1242: parts of the country are occupied by Mongols and another threat approaches Novgorod from the west . An armed force of the Teutonic Order and the Order of the Brothers of the Sword , which is united with it, has already taken the strategically important city of Pskov , in which the invaders rule with extreme brutality. Now the hour has come for Prince Alexander Yaroslavich Newski in Novgorod . First of all, he succeeded in strengthening the will to fight and the feeling of togetherness of his compatriots and spreading confidence in victory. Ultimately, the battle on Lake Peipus was of decisive importance . Under Newski's leadership, the troops of the knights are lured onto the frozen lake and then defeated there. Nevsky is enthusiastically celebrated at the end of the film.
Background and meaning
Alexander Newski represents a milestone in Sergei Eisenstein's work. He left the Soviet Union in 1929 to try different projects in Hollywood , none of which was realized. Since the studio system could not cope with Eisenstein's way of working (and vice versa), he left the United States in resignation and committed himself to a film project in Mexico . His film Que Viva Mexico remained unfinished and later appeared in a mutilated version. Eisenstein never recovered from the debacle. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1933, but only began working on a new film again after a two-year hiatus. Work on this film, The Beshin Meadow , was discontinued after creative differences with Boris Shumyatski , the general director of the film headquarters. The commission to shoot Alexander Newski saved Eisenstein's career. The film became his first lengthy sound film and the first completed film under Eisenstein's control since 1930.
Alexander Newski is also significant in terms of film history because of the film music composed by Sergei Prokofjew . This is also because the artistic collaboration between Eisenstein and Prokofiev was not limited to having the composer deliver music for the film that had already been edited. Rather, some of the images - for example the scenes of the decisive battle on the ice, reminiscent of a ballet - have been cut to the music. A revolutionary approach for the time. Based on its soundtrack was later Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky 78 op. .
Like other works of Soviet filmmaking in the 1930s and 1940s , Alexander Nevsky can also be seen in connection with the political conditions in the Soviet Union. This applies in particular to the relationship with the Third Reich . The intention was to stir up an aversion to Germany with this film: accordingly, the characterization of the opposing knights of the order in the costume design , who do not shy away from any atrocity. Implied swastikas on the bishop's miter as well as the footmen's helmets, reminiscent of German steel helmets, contribute to the anti-German attitude. Among other things, the hand outstretched in the Hitler salute is used as the crest of a pot helmet , symbolically falling to the ground with the slain Teutonic Knight in a battle scene.
The great propagandistic importance of Alexander Newski on the part of the Soviet state leadership is already clear from the fact that Sergei Eisenstein, who had previously risen to an internationally highly respected film artist with the Battleship Potemkin (1925), at the request of the dictator Josef Stalin with the This film had been commissioned to direct. Eisenstein then used this film to polish up his slightly damaged political image, which had led to the provision of Dmitri Wassiljew as co-director. As well he succeeded is the one Stalin's statement, Eisenstein had through his work as "good basically Bolshevik proven", on the other hand the Order of Lenin , who gave him in recognition of his work on Alexander Nevsky from the Supreme Soviet conferred is.
Nine months after the premiere in the Bolshoi Theater on November 23, 1938, the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact with Hitler's Germany on August 23, 1939 . The film Alexander Newski was no longer allowed to be shown in the Soviet Union and Eisenstein was engaged in the production of the opera Die Walküre by Hitler's favorite composer Richard Wagner at the Bolshoi Theater . After Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Stalin ordered the film to be shown in every Soviet cinema. As a contribution to the motivation of the Red Army troops fighting against the German Wehrmacht , it was also shown in front demonstrations.
In the early Federal Republic of Germany, the Interministerial Committee on East-West Film Issues banned the public performance of Alexander Nevsky . Only a variant shortened by a third, which turned the message of the film into the opposite, was approved.
Over the years the reproduction quality of the original material had deteriorated so significantly that it was no longer possible to reliably reconstruct Prokofiev's film music on this basis. This only changed after the original score reappeared in 2003. The German conductor Frank Strobel then succeeded in the reconstruction, which could then be heard in the Berlin Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt and in the Moscow Bolshoi Theater.
References
literature
- Ulrich Wünschel: Sergej Prokofiev's film music for Sergej Eisenstein's Alexander Newski . Verlag Wolke, Hofheim 2006, ISBN 3-936000-63-8 .
Web links
- Alexander Nevsky in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Alexander Newski atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Footnotes
- ↑ Bert Hoppe : On the ruins of Königsberg. Kaliningrad 1946–1970 (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history , vol. 80). Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-64580-3 , p. 44.
- ↑ Stefan Buchloh Pervers, endangering young people, subversive. Censorship in the Adenauer era as a mirror of the social climate . Frankfurt 2002, pp. 231-232.