Amphitryon - happiness comes from the clouds
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Amphitryon - happiness comes from the clouds |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1935 |
| length | 105 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Reinhold Schünzel |
| script | Reinhold Schünzel |
| production |
Universum Film AG , Production Group Günther Stapenhorst |
| music | Franz Doelle |
| camera |
Fritz Arno Wagner , Werner Bohne |
| cut | Arnfried Heyne |
| occupation | |
| |
Amphitryon - Happiness Comes from the Clouds is a musical comedy by Reinhold Schünzel from 1935. It builds on Heinrich von Kleist's Amphitryon from 1807, Molière's Amphitryon from 1668 and Titus Maccius Plautus Amphitruo .
content
The women of Thebes are desperate: when will their men finally return home from the war against Boeotia ? Although Alkmene is optimistic in front of the residents of Thebes, she too is desperate: She prays to Jupiter that Thebes may quickly win the war. Jupiter, on the other hand, would have almost slept through her call for help had it not been woken up by the lively Mercury on roller skates . While Mercury generally rejects people, Jupiter is spontaneously enthusiastic about Alkmene. He would love to appear to her as god, but he has a resolute wife in Juno , under whose slipper he is. So he pretends to want to go to a spa in Thebes because of a back problem , which Juno wants to see relocated to Sparta , after all , only the specialists are there. In addition, Mercury should accompany him, which the latter is stunned to note.
Jupiter and Mercury float towards earth and go to Thebes, where both recognize that their statues, which are worshiped by the women, do not resemble them at all, so the little Mercury appears here as a young man bursting with strength. In reality, Jupiter's flowing hair has long since given way to half- bald head . The first attempts by Jupiter to approach Alkmene therefore fail. Meanwhile, the scratchy and dominant Andria, Alkmenes' servant, is quite taken with Mercury, as her husband Sosias, who is in Amphitryon's entourage, is a notorious drinker. In addition, Mercury suggests that she might buy a long-awaited hat.
Since Alkmene only loves Amphitryon, Jupiter decides to transform into her husband. Mercury is transformed into the good-for-nothing of Sosia and is not very enthusiastic. Both arrive at their "wives". While Mercury is immediately showered with accusations, Andria secretly flirted with the fashionable hat, which Sosias / Mercury naturally did not bring as a gift, Jupiter hopes for a quick night of love with Alkmene. Samos , however, serves him - Amphitryon's favorite drink - which Jupiter cannot tolerate. He sleeps the night of love and wakes up with a hangover . Meanwhile, Andria is surprised by her new "husband", who suddenly refuses alcohol and wants to be washed by her.
The next morning is complicated. The real Sosias comes home because Jupiter has once again turned the war that the Thebans believed lost. He meets Mercury in his form and is imprisoned by the real Amphitryon for apparent early morning drunkenness. Amphitryon for his part is astonished not to be received enthusiastically. Alkmene is offended because her husband obviously preferred alcohol to her the night before. Amphitryon, on the other hand, suspects a rival as the reason for his resentment about his return and turns to a lawyer who is none other than Jupiter. While Amphitryon looks for the possible adulterer in his papers, Jupiter returns to Alcmene and hopes to be able to spend another night with her. But now he has a cold and the doctor orders him to be strictly bed rest.
Juno has meanwhile noticed that her husband would like to be unfaithful to her and appears in Alcmenes palace. She disenchants her husband, who returns to her contrite. Amphitryon, in turn, realizes that Alkmene has been loyal to him all along and is reconciled with her. Sosias also got a happy ending: Mercury secretly passed him the hat Andria wanted, so that she, too, was reconciled with him in the end.
production
As early as 1934, Ufa had secured the rights to Schünzel's Amphitryon fabric and estimated 750,000 Reichsmarks for a film adaptation . With a production cost of 2 million Reichsmark at the end, Amphitryon - Happiness Comes from the Clouds became the most expensive Ufa production of 1935.
The shooting for Amphitryon - Happiness comes from the clouds took place from February 8, 1935 to May 1935 in the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg . The film was banned from youth by the censors. The first performance was on July 18, 1935 in Berlin's Gloria-Palast .
During the Nazi era, the film was “not an overwhelming success, but a solid success”, remained in distribution until 1945 and was shown without changes even after the war ended. It was released on DVD in 2005.
criticism
The majority of contemporary critics viewed Amphitryon in a friendly manner. In 1935, Paul Ickes wrote in the Filmwoche that this film was “among the valuable comedies that are so rarely given to the film, the best and most successful that we have ever recorded.” The Rheinische Post praised the film as “overcoming gravity of the human-all-too-serious ”and lead to a“ true thoroughbred comedy ”. The Kasseler Post found that “the consistent rejection of the clumsy style of old-fashioned operetta, the easy merging of game and music” would become artistic reality in Amphitryon and attract the masses. Thomas Mann, on the other hand, described the work in his diary on September 27, 1935 as a “silly Amphitryon film”.
Amphitryon - Happiness comes from the clouds was on the one hand certified by the film critics of the late 20th century as a "dismantling of rule in myth" and the film was seen as an "example of the careful distance from the given program line". The lexicon of international films called Amphitryon - Happiness Comes from the Clouds as a “disrespectful and ironic comedy”, although the film “has all the clichés of tabloids and operettas”. Thanks to Schünzel's “cunning direction”, the film contains “some swipes at authorities and militarism ... [and] that 1935!” Above all, the subtitle From the clouds, happiness comes in connection with the descent of two gods was a parody of the same year published film Triumph of the will by Leni Riefenstahl , whose opening sequence considered Adolf Hitler's plane to touch down at Nuremberg was filmed.
In addition to the interpretation as a parody-critical entertainment film, attempts were also made to move Amphitryon - Happiness Comes from the Clouds close to a propaganda film . It has been criticized that the monumental buildings on the scene of the return of the Theban troops from the war looked "as if they were designed by Albert Speer ". In addition, "[they] would copy the Nazi party rally grounds completely unironically". Karlheinz Wendtland, who described the film as a “wonderful satire”, rejected this criticism, as always in comparable cases, and cited as an argument that the party congress did not take place until September, but the film was shot in May. However, Riefenstahl's film was about the 1934 party congress and had already been shown in theaters before Amphitryon was released.
Awards
Amphitryon - Happiness comes out of the clouds was awarded the title “artistically valuable” by the film testing agency .
See also
literature
- Jan Hans: music and revue film . In: Harro Segeberg: Mediale Mobilmachung I. The Third Reich and the film . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7705-3863-3 , pp. 203-229.
- Manfred Hobsch : love, dance and 1000 hit films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89602-166-4 , pp. 92-93.
- Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies, born in 1935 and 1936 . Third edition. Medium Film Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-926945-08-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan Hans: Music and revue film . In: Harro Segeberg: Mediale Mobilmachung I. The Third Reich and the film . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2004, p. 204, footnote 2.
- ↑ Jan Hans: Music and revue film . In: Harro Segeberg: Mediale Mobilmachung I. The Third Reich and the film . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2004, p. 204.
- ↑ Manfred Hobsch: Love, Dance and 1000 Schlagerfilme , p. 93
- ↑ Peter de Mendelssohn (ed.): Thomas Mann: Diaries 1935–1936 . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1978, p. 180.
- ↑ Karsten Witte: Laughing heirs, great day: Comedy film in the Third Reich . Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-930916-03-7 , p. 88.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 1. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 126.
- ^ Hans Helmut Prinzler: Chronicle of German Film 1895-1994 . Metzler, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-476-01290-5 , p. 116.
- ↑ Jan Hans: Music and revue film . In: Harro Segeberg: Mediale Mobilmachung I. The Third Reich and the film . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2004, p. 205. Cf. Francis Courtade, Pierre Cadars: History of the film in the third realm . Hanser, Munich 1975, p. 249.
- ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. Born in 1935 and 1936 , p. 56