Work makes you happy
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Work makes you happy |
| Original title | Acciaio |
 | |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1933 |
| length | 67 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Walter Ruttmann |
| script | Walter Ruttmann Luigi Pirandello Emilio Cecchi |
| production | Emilio Cecchi Baldassarre Negroni |
| music | Gian Francesco Malipiero |
| camera |
Massimo Terzano Domenico Scala |
| cut | Walter Ruttmann Giuseppe Fatigati |
| occupation | |
| |
Work makes you happy is an Italian film from 1933 by the German documentarist Walter Ruttmann . The story was based on the novel Gioca, Pietro! by Luigi Pirandello , who also participated in the script.
action
In a steel mill in Terni, central Italy . The two ironworkers Mario and Pietro are at the center of the relatively straightforward event. Mario had in the meantime done his military service as a cycling sniper, but has now returned to the steelworks to earn his living again. In his absence, Pietro and the pretty Gina, with whom Mario had once been married, have become closer and are in a relationship, marriage not excluded. This naturally leads to some tension between the two steel workers. One day there is a serious work accident in the foundry in which one of the two rival men, Pietro, dies after being hit by a glowing ingot. Since it was generally known of the violent courtship of both men for Gina's favor, the terrible suspicion immediately arises that Mario might have had a hand in Pietro's death.
Ultimately, the buddies believe that Pietro's death must be premeditated murder - although the dying Pietro made it clear that there had been an accident. Mario is isolated and despised by the community. Pietro's father Giuseppe, on the other hand, only wants to give his son a dignified burial and deliberately goes side by side with Mario, the wrongly accused, in the funeral procession. But even this human gesture does not reconcile the environment; now Mario and Pietro's colleagues are even making life hell for their grieving father. After temporarily thinking of leaving the steelworks with Gina at his side and aiming for a career as a professional cyclist, Mario now decides: he wants to continue working in the foundry side by side with Giuseppe, the upright father of the dead friend thus also making the statement to those who slandered him that there was no reason for him to run away.
Production notes
Acciaio (in German: steel ) was created in autumn 1932 on site in a steel works in Terni in Benito Mussolini's fascist Italy and was premiered on March 31, 1933 in Rome. The German premiere, entitled Work makes you happy, took place a good month later, on May 1, 1933, in Bochum.
The boss of the Cinès Pittaluga Produzione, Emilio Cecchi , also took over the production management. Mario Rossi was the musical director. The film structures were created by Gastone Medin , the later director Mario Soldati was one of two assistant directors of Ruttmann. The German dialogues come from the Nazi regime benefactor Hanns Heinz Ewers .
useful information
Despite the collaboration of the famous writer Pirandello, the film was not a success in Italy and was considered “unsuccessful”.
Originally GW Pabst was supposed to direct, but he is said to have refused to work in fascist Italy. The great failure of the film led Cecchi to resign as head of production at the Cinès in 1933.
Reviews
The reviews at home and abroad, both contemporary and modern, were very cautious about the qualities of the film. In general, the banality, tenacity and poverty of the story were criticized, while the artistic (= documentary) representation of the world of work in the blast furnaces received praise.
The journal Der Kinematograph said on May 17, 1933: “Ruttmann brings out the connection between humans and today's technology extremely well. But he does not, in the manner of American technocrats, lapse into a dreary idolatry in front of the machine. For him it is not an end in itself, but a tool and only serves to keep the work going and thus to bring meaning to life. Walter Ruttmann uses the form of overlap that he has mastered with virtuosity. "
Herbert Jhering judged: Acciaio is “to be considered purely artistically. Its content is insignificant. Its artistic significance is nevertheless extraordinary, because it shows a sovereign and seldom mastery of the cinematic means ”.
On the same day, Kurt Pinthus pointed out in the 8 o'clock evening paper that the shots of the work shown in the film had gone into too much detail and that the plot of the game seemed correspondingly too stretched. Therefore, the applause from the audience at the Berlin premiere was rather restrained.
The Österreichische Film-Zeitung stated: “The film is characterized by the beautiful landscape, the urgency of the image design and the gripping musical background. Ruttmann used dialogues with the utmost care and brought out excellent acting performances from his four main actors. "
Jerzy Toeplitz writes in his History of Film 1928–1933: “ Steel was an ambitious film. (...) Pirandello's novella was a psychological study of the effects of death on human relationships. (...) He [Ruttmann] used all his energy and talent to reproduce the scenery of the work. (…) He created powerful sequences in terms of image and sound that had no relation to the drama of living people. (...) The film contained some pretty good milieu scenes from the life of the workers' settlement, but by and large it was unsuccessful. As a born reporter, Ruttmann was unable to cope with the fabulous tour. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ acciao in Irmgart Schenk's "Film and Cinema in Italy". Studies in Italian film history. Schüren-Verlag Marburg 2014
- ↑ Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films, Verlag CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 670.
- ↑ Jerzy Toeplitz : Geschichte des Films, Volume 2, 1928–1933, Ostberlin 1976, p. 317
- ↑ ibid.
- ↑ Der Kinematograph, No. 94, May 17, 1933
- ↑ Berliner Börsen-Courier , No. 228, of May 17, 1933
- ^ "Steel" (Acciaio). In: Österreichische Film-Zeitung , April 8, 1933, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ History of the film, Volume 2, p. 317 f.
Web links
- Work makes you happy in the Internet Movie Database (English)- incorrectly listed here under the cynical concentration camp motto of the German National Socialists “ Work makes you free ”
- Work makes you happy at filmportal.de