Berlin Alexanderplatz

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Movie
Original title Berlin Alexanderplatz
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1931
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Piel Jutzi
script Alfred Döblin ,
Hans Wilhelm ,
Karlheinz Martin
production Arnold Pressburger
music Allan Gray ,
conductor: Artur Guttmann
camera Nikolaus Farkas ,
Erich Giese
cut Géza Pollatschik
occupation

Berlin - Alexanderplatz is a 1931 feature film by Piel Jutzi . It is based on the novel of the same name by Alfred Döblin , published in 1929 . Heinrich George and Maria Bard play the leading roles .

action

Franz Biberkopf, released from prison after four years in prison - he had killed his girlfriend while intoxicated - tried to find his way back into everyday life and ran a street shop on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. He gets to know and love Cilly. Their former friend Reinhold is a gang leader who wants to persuade Biberkopf to participate. When Biberkopf resists, he is thrown from a moving car in front of another. He loses an arm, lies in hospital for weeks and, demoralized, joins Reinhold.

In Mieze, who sings with a blind man in backyards, he finds a new friend. Since she has a deep dislike for Reinhold, he lures her into his car and kills her in a forest. Biberkopf learns of the murder through Cilly and goes to Reinhold's local pub to settle accounts with him. The police arrested Biberkopf, whom they suspected of killing Mieze. Klempner-Karl, however, reveals the real perpetrator Reinhold, who is sentenced to 15 years in prison. At the side of Cilly, Franz finally succeeds in returning to bourgeois life. He's back on Alexanderplatz and sells stand-up men .

background

After a conversation with Emil Jannings about the stylistic possibilities of the medium film, Döblin became interested in the film adaptation of his novel. In an article for Film-Kurier , he emphasized that the sound film "(...) allows Franz Biberkopf to speak directly and therefore (is) more acoustically real than the novel ever can". The initiative for the filming came from the later leading actor Heinrich George. Initially, UFA had acquired an option on the film rights, but UFA did not exercise this option for unknown reasons. At the end of 1929 Arnold Pressburger acquired the film rights to the novel for Allianz-Tonfilm GmbH (Berlin). Alfred Döblin and Hans Wilhelm then worked on a script. Karl-Heinz Martin was in charge of the dialogue. The film was produced by Arnold Pressburger for Allianz-Tonfilm GmbH (Berlin). The shooting took place from May to June 1931 in Berlin. The buildings were designed by Julius von Borsody . The score is by Allan Gray . Well known is the march over the roofs of Berlin (text: Erik Ernst ), which at the beginning of the film musically translates Franz Bieberkopf's confusion on his journey through Berlin.

The film inspection agency approved the film on September 30, 1931, but with the restriction of youth prohibition . The premiere took place on October 8, 1931 in the Berlin Capitol am Zoo . Südfilm AG (Berlin) took over the distribution of the film.

The production of the film falls before the Nazis came to power . Unlike the novel, the film does not contain any specific references to politics, homosexuality or Jewish issues. Unlike the novel, the film ends with a happy ending , which was intended to avoid National Socialist campaigns against the film and film censorship .

reception

The contemporary reception was reserved. Herbert Ihering complains about the "dramaturgical failure". The film lacks the “connection to a cinematic form”. The achievement of Heinrich Georges is outstanding. But this “grandiose solo number” lacks authenticity. Siegfried Kracauer criticizes that the film lacks the courage for colportage. “First to reduce a large-scale accusation about the colportage and then to want to transpose the colportage back to the level of the novel with ornamental dummies: that is impossible. Boredom is the only consequence of such a lack of consistency ”.

The film testing agency awarded the film the title “artistic”.

In 1979/1980 Rainer Werner Fassbinder made another film version of the novel in the form of a television series in 13 episodes and an epilogue (approx. 930 minutes, see Berlin Alexanderplatz (television film) ).

In 2020 the feature film Berlin Alexanderplatz was made , in which the director Burhan Qurbani freely relocated the plot to the Berlin of the present.

more publishments

On February 22, 2008, a digitally edited version of the film was released on DVD by Arthaus Filmvertrieb in Berlin .

literature

  • Sebastian Bernhardt: Comparison of the novel “Berlin Alexanderplatz” with the film version from 1931. Grin, Munich 2007.
  • Michael Hanisch: Berlin - Alexanderplatz. In: Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 267 ff.
  • Dieter Krusche: Reclam's film guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010518-8 .
  • Mario Slugan: Montage as Perceptual Experience: Berlin Alexanderplatz from Döblin to Fassbinder . Boydell & Brewer, 2017, ISBN 978-1-64014-005-9 .
  • Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. Born 1931. (2nd, revised edition. Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-926945-09-5 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ versions. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on September 23, 2016 .
  2. ^ Film courier . Berlin August 16, 1930.
  3. ^ Gabriele Sander: Explanations and documents on Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz. Phillip-Reclam-Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-15-016009-X , p. 229.
  4. ^ Tony Fitzmaurice: Screening the City. Verso, 2003, ISBN 1-85984-690-4 , p. 72.
  5. ↑ Peter Jelavich: Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film and the Death of Weimar Culture. Berkley University of California Press, 2006, ISBN 0-520-24363-3 , p. 232.
  6. ↑ Examination / censorship. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on September 23, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Peter Jelavich: Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture. Berkley University of California Press, 2006, ISBN 0-520-24363-3 , p. 235.
  8. ↑ Berlin Stock Exchange Courier . No. 472, October 9, 1931.
  9. ^ Frankfurter Zeitung . No. 761/2, October 18, 1931.