Portrait of a stranger
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Portrait of a stranger |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helmut Käutner |
| script |
Hans Jacoby with the collaboration of Helmut Käutner |
| production | Sirius-Film GmbH, Munich ( Leo Kirch ) |
| music | Franz Grothe |
| camera | Werner Krien |
| cut | Anneliese Schönnenbeck |
| occupation | |
| |
Portrait of a Stranger is a German feature film from 1954. Directed by Helmut Käutner , Ruth Leuwerik and OW Fischer play the main roles in this love story caricaturing diplomatic life. With a confident mood, Käutner tracks down private conflicts in the Foreign Service and describes how a young diplomatic wife loses her husband's trust through intrigue.
action
Philipp Hernandez invites you to a garden party in Madrid . The host has pictures auctioned, the proceeds of which will go to a children's hospital to demonstrate that he has a heart for children. Among them is the portrait of a stranger , which Hernandez bought from the painter Jan Maria Keller in Paris for a high price. The nude picture shows the wife of the Embassy Counselor Walter, Nicole Walter. Hernandez has this with the calculus acquired from capital to beat. He wants to offer it to Walter in return for the diplomat to let him do his business, which is not always clean. Walter, however, with far too integrity , does not get involved in such a game. The picture goes up for auction, which causes a scandal . There is speculation with relish. Since Nicole is wearing the precious pearl jewelry in the picture that her husband gave her for the wedding, the picture must have been taken after the marriage. So she must have cheated on her husband. Now Nicole's past life suddenly plays a role again and everyone wants to have known that it had to be that way. Nicole had sung chansons in a bar before their marriage . The young woman assures her husband that she does not know how this scandalous picture came about. It is not easy for the diplomat, but in the end he believes her. Together they decide to go to Paris to find out what the picture is all about. Walter takes all of this with him, the whispering behind his back worries him more than he wants to let his wife know. Shortly before her departure, Nicole had a conversation with the ambassador's wife, who made it clear to her that her husband's career would be over if she continued to be the woman at his side.
Arriving in Paris, it turns out that Walter is briefly alone with the painter Keller in the studio and that Walter's doubts seem to be confirmed by misunderstood words. Nicole, who joins them, sees only one way out to save her husband's career: She resorts to the lie that the people who blaspheme in Madrid were right and that she is Keller's lover. Worried, Walter turns to go without realizing how big Nicole's sacrifice is for him.
Only now does Jan Maria Keller really become aware of what he triggered with his picture. He had sketched the face of the unknown beauty, which had strangely fascinated him, on a program sheet in the theater , looked for the beautiful woman during the break, but had not found her. He couldn't get the face out of his head, and in his studio, where his nude model Jacqueline had been waiting for him, he had placed the beautiful stranger's head on Jacqueline's nude body.
Jan, who has a terribly guilty conscience, is not only taking care of the young woman for this reason, he wants to make amends, but Nicole does not want to know anything about his wooing her. She loves her husband. But little by little, her feelings change, and she feels more and more comfortable in the company of this charming daredevil who makes her laugh again and again and lives far from all conventions . Jan jokingly asks her if she could love him? “No”, she replies, “a miracle would have to happen. A real miracle. For example: Snow in August! ”As crazy as Jan is, he lets this miracle happen. From sugar, flour and plaster of paris he conjures up ice flowers on the studio window. Although he enchants the young woman with it, there is no night of love. Jan doesn't want to force something that isn't given to him from the bottom of his heart. He loves this woman too much. Jan Maria Keller seeks out Nicole's husband and tells him the real story and that Nicole sacrificed herself for his sake. Walter senses that Jan is telling him the truth and is relieved that all doubts about his wife's infidelity have been removed. He looks for Nicole in the bar where she sings her chansons. First of all, the divorce should be pronounced, and then, when grass has grown over the whole thing, he says, one can move in together again and live together. Nicole knows at the same moment that they so not want to live. At Walter's side, she should always be considerate of what society expects. She would never really be free. She chooses against the man she once loved so much. She knows where she will find unconditional love with Jan, her painter.
Production notes
The film was produced by Sirius-Film GmbH (Munich) and distributed by Schorchtfilm. Ursula Maes was responsible for the costumes and Franz Mayrhofer for the mask . The film was shot from April 22nd to June 9th, 1954 in the Bavaria Film Studios Geiselgasteig in Munich . The outdoor shots were shot in Paris and Madrid as well as in Bayreuth . The buildings were created by Ludwig Reiber , Max Seefelder and Willi Horn. Utz Utermann and Herbert Junghanns took over the production management .
Ruth Leuwerik sings the chansons in the film herself. The music is by Franz Grothe , the lyrics by Helmut Käutner .
The premiere of the film took place on August 27, 1954 in the Marble House in Berlin .
The film was first broadcast by German television on March 25, 1983 on ARD .
Universal boss Al Daff had acquired a portrait of a stranger for the US market and stated, “We paid $ 30,000 for the film and spent around $ 50,000 on the dubbing. For the time being everything is still dead capital. ”Because it turned out that cinema owners and visitors, regardless of a dubbing, were not interested in unknown German stars. At the same time, however, after a test presentation in front of a US audience, two thirds of the female viewers rated OW Fischer as gorgeous. The film was released in the USA , in New York City, under the title Portrait of an Unknown Woman on April 25, 1958.
DVD
- OW Fischer Edition (3 DVDs): A heart plays wrong , Heidelberg romance , portrait of a stranger , release date: November 16, 2006, provider: Eurovideo Bildprogramm GmbH, length approx. 293 min.
Reviews
“Above all, it is the strong performance of the leading actress Ruth Leuwerik that captivates and arouses interest in the progress of her fate and the story of the film, while OW Fischer gives his artist with a tendency to over-acting. Helmut Käutner (' Under the Bridges ') sat on the director's chair , who knows how to skilfully stage the full budget. Nevertheless, his work has to record some lengths, during which you can get intoxicated by the opulent production design. "
“Käutner's poetic Schnulze lacks the delicacy of Douglas Sirk or Max Ophüls. Pretty pompous, but also staged with many lengths, the love film shows Ruth Leuwerik at the height of her fame, while OW Fischer somehow does not want to take his role. A typical example of why the cinema in the fifties didn't work. But despite the failure, the German cinema had a new dream couple, which could be seen again in the same year in the German high-quality glossy film ' Ludwig II ' - again under Käutner's direction. "
"Tough, unreal cinema romance - one of Käutner's weakest films."
Web links
- Portrait of an unknown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Portrait of an Unknown Title Page The New Film Program
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b . Dorin Popa: OW Fischer His films - his life. Heyne Film Library No. 32/111, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1989, pp. 75, 88.
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 400
- ↑ DVD portrait of a stranger at filmportal.de
- ↑ Portrait of a stranger at kino.de., accessed on May 24, 2012
- ↑ Portrait of a stranger at prisma.de, accessed on May 24, 2012
- ↑ Portrait of a stranger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .