Chronicle of a murder

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Movie
Original title Chronicle of a murder
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1965
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Joachim Hasler
script Angel Wagenstein
production DEFA , KAG "Heinrich Greif"
music Gerd Natschinski
camera Joachim Hasler
cut Hilde Tegener
occupation

Chronik eines Mordes is a German feature film from the DEFA studio for feature films by Joachim Hasler from 1965 based on motifs from the novel Die Jünger Jesu by Leonhard Frank from 1947.

action

The focus of the plot is the Jew Ruth Bodenheim, whose story is told in three time levels in the film, which are presented here chronologically:

She lives in a town in southern Germany with her brother David, who is over ten years her junior, and her parents. The National Socialists have consolidated their power and Ruth and her parents have to wear the Star of David on their clothes. The suitcases for transport to a warehouse are already packed, but Ruth's father Lion, a teacher, wants to start the new school year. All Jewish children come to school with their relatives and Lion can start on the first day of school. Suddenly the door opens and the district leader of the NSDAP Zwischenzahl enters the room with several SA men who force several Jewish citizens into the room. Suddenly he gives the SA men the order to shoot into the group of people. Only David can secure himself from access because he is hiding.

Ruth was taken to a concentration camp and then, at the age of 17, put in a brothel for German military personnel in Warsaw . Here she experiences the end of the Second World War with the invasion of the Red Army .

Back in her hometown, which is now in the American zone of occupation , she finds her brother again, who is learning to play the organ in church. Her childhood sweetheart Dr. Martin is employed here in the clinic as a doctor after his military service. But Ruth cannot return his love, because the memory of the time in the brothel cannot get out of her head. In the meantime, Mr. Zwischenzahl is also in American captivity, where the American Captain Liban is trying to prove that he was complicit in the National Socialist crimes. However, he has to be released from prison on the basis of an order from a higher authority. But he makes sure that David is sent to France with a group of orphans , where he can also learn to play the piano. When Ruth hears about Zwischenzahl's dismissal, she goes to his apartment to shoot him. But here she has to find out that he is no longer in Germany. Over time, Ruth and Dr. Martin closer, who then marry later.

Ten years later, Dr. Martin and his wife go to a bar in town to celebrate his promotion to chief doctor with her and his boss . When getting out of the car, Ruth discovers that the whole street is full of posters for the election of the mayor with a picture of Zwischenzahl who has returned to town. For them this is the reason to try to file a lawsuit with public prosecutor Dr. To submit to Hoffmann. She has a folder with documents on all those involved in the death of her parents and responsible for their being brought to the brothel. Her husband collected this, but only to get compensation for the injustice suffered. He wants to use it to cover the cost of a house still to be built. However, Ruth does not want compensation, but rather a reappraisal of the events and condemnation of those responsible. But her husband has been trying to talk her out of these demands since the end of the war, because he too is dependent on the city's dignitaries .

When she realizes that she cannot find an open ear for her concerns in the official services, she decides again to shoot Zwischenzahl. She wants to use the celebration of his election as mayor. She lets him come from the hall into the hall and shoots him, so that he is immediately dead. As she leaves, she puts the folder with the documents on the table so that it is clear who killed him. Her will is that a trial be opened against her so that she can expose the atrocities committed by the National Socialists in her city. The attempt by the city officials, together with her husband, to persuade her to flee to Rome , because a process should definitely be prevented, fails. Ruth is arrested and taken to the remand prison. When Dr. Hoffmann a Dr. Martin is supposed to sign a confirmed report on Ruth Bodenheim's mental illness, he will quit his position as public prosecutor and will assist her as a lawyer .

Production and publication

Chronicle of a Murder was shot by the Heinrich Greif artistic working group under the working title Jünger Jesu as a black and white film in total vision and had its world premiere on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the Leipzig Trade Fair on February 26, 1965 in the Capitol cinema in Leipzig . A preview followed by a discussion in the foyer took place on November 15, 1964 at the Berlin Kino International in an event organized by the Young World film club . The official theatrical release began on March 4, 1965 at Kino International with a premiere party. The film was shown for the first time on 26 August 1974 in the first program on GDR television .

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Walter Janka .

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Dr. Hoffmann Jiří Vršťala Herbert Köfer
Dr. Schäure Bohumil Šmída Harry Studt

criticism

Helmut Ullrich states in the Neue Zeit :

“An extreme story. Certainly. But there is something symptomatic about it. In 1946, Wolfgang Staudte was able to close his film The Murderers Are Among Us with the hope of legal justice, even though this hope has already evaporated into allegorical terms. "

In the Berliner Zeitung , Dr. Manfred Jelenski to read:

“Some scenes, however much as most of them hit reality, are a bit straightforward. Gert Natschinski, who wrote the music, which essentially varied from a Jewish song motif, had made it a little too easy for himself with the musical characterization of some of the marginal scenes and figures. That doesn't change the meaning of this film ... "

The lexicon of international films writes that the film is a stylistically inconsistent, but theatrically brilliant examination of the fascist past and West German present within a crime story.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of December 4, 1964, p. 4
  2. ^ New Germany November 16, 1964, p. 2
  3. ↑ Neue Zeit of March 5, 1965, p. 4
  4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of March 9, 1965, p. 6
  5. ↑ Chronicle of a Murder. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 16, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used