Old Heidelberg (1923)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Old Heidelberg |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans Behrendt |
| script | Hans Behrendt based on motifs from the play of the same name (1901) by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster |
| production | Arzén of Cserépy |
| music | Marc Roland |
| camera | Guido Seeber |
| occupation | |
| |
Alt-Heidelberg is a German silent film from 1923 by Hans Behrendt with Paul Hartmann and Eva May in the leading roles of the noble, middle-class lovers. Werner Krauss can be seen in the leading role of the private tutor Jüttner.
action
The film largely sticks to the literary model in its plot. Hereditary Prince Karl Heinz von Sachsen-Karlsburg enjoys student life in picturesque Heidelberg. As a chaperon at his side, Dr. Jüttner, who should make sure that His Highness, comme il faut, remains nicely demure and concentrates entirely on the studies. Karl Heinz joins the student fraternity Corps Saxonia and gets to know Kätchen, the young niece of his host, with whom he lives. They both quickly fall in love.
After only four months, the raison d'être ends the carefree existence between the lecture hall and the wine tavern when shocking news arrives from the Principality: The Hereditary Prince's father is seriously ill, and so it is time for Karl Heinz to say goodbye - to both Käthi and Heidelberg to take up government business at home. Dr. Jüttner stays behind and soon dies in Heidelberg. The prince has not forgotten the city on the Neckar and, although he has married a befitting lady out of a sense of duty, he still longs for his Käthi. When he comes to Heidelberg to visit, he not only wants to meet his corps comrades again, but above all his young love from back then.
Production notes
Alt-Heidelberg was created in 1922/23 and was submitted to censorship on February 2, 1923 and banned from youth. It premiered on March 15, 1923. The six-act film was 2,321 meters long.
The film structures were designed by Ernő Metzner .
criticism
“The film 'Alt-Heidelberg' is essentially a reproduction of the Meyer-Förster drama. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the one hand, this creates a certain unity. The mistake of so many cinematic works, the fragmentation into episodes, is generally avoided. But one misses a certain colorfulness, an excess of temperament, mood and humor that one would have expected in an Alt-Heidelberg film. One would like to reproach the tasteful author-director Hans Behrend, who on the whole performed his office with great skill, with a certain puritanism in the treatment of the subject. At least the pace of the student scenes could have been more swirling. The song of lust for life sounds a little subdued. But it cannot be assumed that these small blemishes, as they are inherent in every human work, will impair the effect of the film on the uneducated viewer. Because no matter how contemptuously one turns up one's nose at the fable of 'Alt-Heidelberg', there are emotional moments in this material, to which everyone - including the hyper-intellectual (although he will of course not admit it at any price) - unconditionally surrenders. In addition, Hans Behrend managed to discreetly soften the sometimes annoying sentimentality of the drama in its adaptation. The result is a pleasant fictional film with picturesque group pictures, southern German romanticism and atmospheric pictures of 'old Heidelberg' the fine. "
“Wilhelm Meyer-Förster's play 'Alt-Heidelberg' was an indestructible box-office success that the German theater repertoire has seldom known. The plot combines all the elements that guarantee a wide impact on the audience; they will also ensure the success of the film 'Alt-Heidelberg', which Hans Behrendt edited and staged after the play, which was already shown by the premiere in the Kammerlichtspiele. From a strictly dramaturgical point of view, the plot has all sorts of dragons and stretches and often enough dissolves into episodic and passage-like elements. But what does this mean: the poetry of old Heidelberg, the romanticism of student life, the student love of the Hereditary Prince Karl Heinz, the girl charm of his Käti will never fail to have an effect on the hearts and sentiments of the audience, especially when they are so artistic in wine - and images bathed in the Rhine atmosphere are captured, as in this Cserépy film, and when the orchestra and choir accompany them with the atmospheric melodies of German student songs. Werner Krauss stands out from the portrayal as the creator of Dr. Jüttner, an incredibly real portrait of a person copied from life, one of his strongest artistic achievements; at all. Paul Hartmann gave Karl Heinz his dashing figure and his charming smile. Eva May was lovely, but you saw her in a much more differentiated way. Burg, Rex and Peer put their types down with routine. - With the support of the old master Seeber, who had been at the crank himself, the director managed to take those magnificent shots of the students drinking on the banks of the Neckar, the torchlight procession, the wine-blissful council bar, etc.
Web links
- Alt-Heidelberg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Alt-Heidelberg at filmportal.de