Austerlitz - splendor of an imperial crown
Austerlitz - Shine of an Imperial Crown is a French-Italian-Yugoslav monumental film from 1960 about the love affairs and early war successes of Napoleon Bonaparte . Directed by Abel Gance , Pierre Mondy played the French Emperor , framed by a large, international star cast.
action
The film, designed over long distances like a colorful picture sheet, covers Napoleon's life and reign from 1801 to 1805. The first half focuses on his rise in the French power apparatus and his love affairs with various women, above all Joséphine de Beauharnais and Élisabeth de Vaudey. In the second half of the film, Napoleon's political maneuvers and his military aggressions gain in importance. The most important historical stations discussed are the Peace of Amiens (1802), the imperial coronation of Napoleon I (1804), an encounter with the American submarine engineer Robert Fulton and the Battle of Ulm (1805), which resulted in a decisive victory the French ends. Napoleon, who is often presented as an impulsive and quick-tempered military leader, now finally challenges the great European powers Austria and Russia with his rushing manner. On December 2nd, 1805, the three armies meet at Austerlitz for the first decisive battle , which ends in a devastating defeat for the Austrians and Russians. The detailed, lavishly designed battle scenes determine the last quarter of this film.
Production notes
Austerlitz - Shine of an Imperial Crown was filmed from October 12, 1959 to January 26, 1960 in co-producing Yugoslavia for cost reasons. The original almost three-hour spectacle was premiered on June 17, 1960 and was shown in Germany from October 7, 1960. There the film was cut down to 138 minutes. With this ambitious large-scale production, Gance returned thematically to its greatest triumph, the 1926 Napoleon film .
Roger Richebé helped Abel Gance direct. Jean Douarinou created the film structures. The countless historical costumes were designed by Elisabeth Simon, Léon Zay and Ferdinand Junker.
synchronization
The German voices were:
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Carnot | Jean Marais | Siegmar Schneider |
| Pauline Bonaparte | Claudia Cardinale | Marion Degler |
| Alboise | Michel Simon | Eduard Wandrey |
| Robert Fulton | Orson Welles | Arnold Marquis |
| General Weyrother | Jack Palance | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Lucien Bonaparte | Rossano Brazzi | Gert Günther Hoffmann |
| Pope Pius VII | Vittorio de Sica | Curt Ackermann |
| Exelmans | Guy Delorme | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| Ségur fils | Jean-Louis Trintignant | Herbert Stass |
Reviews
"Conventionally, the French 'old master of historical films', Abel Gance, cranked down the battle of three emperors in Yugoslavia: masses of extras under the command of a dozen stars, widescreen and color, as well as a script that consistently changes from patriotic reading book anecdotes and indiscreet valets- Memoirs. Napoleon (Pierre Mondy) appears as the great man with the small weaknesses, the outstanding battle leader with a weakness for snuff. Tito's cavalrymen perform the best as an extra series in combat on both sides, but above all for Yugoslavia's currency coffers. "
“The announced stars (Cardinale, Carol, Caron, Marais, de Sica, Welles, Palance) only lead a shadowy existence around Pierre Mondy. As Napoleon, he tries as authentically as possible to cover the period from the imperial coronation to the victorious battle of Austerlitz. The portrait is only half a success. The countless figures around Napoleon have only indistinct role contours and confuse instead of interest. Studio sets predominate in the battle scenes. Abel Gance chose a gold frame that was far too huge for his too small history painting. "
In the lexicon of the international film it says: “A picture book about Napoleon, whose colossal effort is not in proportion to the formal and intellectual achievement. Abel Gance takes up the Corsican's biography exactly at the point at which his famous Napoleon film (1925-27) had ended; it begins with the Peace Treaty of Amiens in 1802 and breaks off three years later with Austerlitz. Only the first part, devoted to the hero's erotic adventures, contains traces of witty and amusing irony - the endless battle theater that takes place offers at best the opportunity to discover a legion of stars in colorful disguises. "
“With his last works, two brightly colored history picture sheets, the director wanted to continue his heyday of historical picture sheets twice. But neither of the two outwardly pompous, but hollow in terms of content, two and a quarter hours long works, 'Austerlitz' and ' Cyrano and d'Artagnan ', possessed the staging power of Gance's once groundbreaking hymn to the Corsican emperor. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: "According to the personal of the great Corsican and his environment, in which Mondy cuts a good figure, one, with not inconsiderable effort with, possibly historical, but not always happily built into the (synchronous) dialogue."
Web links
- Austerlitz - shine an imperial crown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean-Claude Sabria: Cinéma français. Les années 50. Paris 1987, no.75
- ↑ according to synchronkartei.de
- ↑ Austerlitz - splendor of an imperial crown. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 28, 2015 .
- ↑ Shine of an imperial crown in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
