Cornwall Rhapsody
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Cornwall Rhapsody |
| Original title | Love story |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leslie Arliss |
| script | Leslie Arliss Doreen Montgomery |
| production | Harold Huth |
| music | Hubert Bath |
| camera | Bernard Knowles |
| cut | Charles Knott |
| occupation | |
| |
Cornwall Rhapsody is a 1944 British love story directed by Leslie Arliss, starring Margaret Lockwood , Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc . The literary source was a novella by JW Drawbell .
content
England, at the time of World War II. On the wild Atlantic coast of Cornwall , people marked by life and war events meet, whose paths will cross fatefully. After the successful pianist Lissa Campbell was diagnosed with a heart defect, she resolved to make the most of her remaining months. She wants to enjoy life in this romantic spot in the far south-west of the country and then checks into a pretty hotel. Right at the start, Lissa met retired Yorkshire businessman Tom Tanner. He senses something is wrong with Lissa, but doesn't dig any further. While walking along the cliffs, Lissa comes across former British Air Force pilot Kit Firth. Kit has been released from further missions after a shrapnel got into his eye when he was shot down by enemy planes. Obviously the doctors are not able to remove them safely, and so he was told that in a few months he would lose his sight completely. Kit has been secretly practicing Braille to prepare for the X day. The local circumstances could not be more beautiful - "Magnificent landscape, luring lake, glistening sun, close-ups in postcard style" as Die Zeit noted slightly mockingly in its 1946 review - but also not more tragic, for a blossoming love between the two shattered by their ailments .
Lissa felt creative hope when a little later Tom showed her the hotel's grand piano. She sits down at the piano to compose a new piece of music, inspired by her blossoming feelings after meeting Kit. He introduces Lissa to his old friend Judy Martin, who plans to perform the Shakespeare play "Storm" in an amphitheater with a romantic view of the sea. Since Kit has come across a rock containing molybdenum and the recovery of this so-called transition metal would be financially worthwhile, he offers the businessman Tom to exploit the rock with him if he would be willing to finance Judy's piece in return. Tom is far less enthusiastic about this suggestion than about theater maker Judy, who reminds him of his late wife. Kit confides in Judy that he cannot get involved with Lissa because he will soon be blind. Lissa forces Kit to talk about his feelings, and he says he doesn't know if he'll have the same feelings for her in six months as he does now. He and Lissa decide to leave each other without much drama, should that moment come for either of them.
Tom has now decided to work with Kit and wants to get him the job of taking care of the exploitation of the molybdenum mine. However, with increasing fear of the future, he loses his confidence in life, whereupon Tom challenges him with the words that he is a coward. Lissa also challenges Kit by asking him if he only turned down Tom's interesting offer because he was scared. A first dispute arises between the two lovers about this matter. "The bittersweet enjoyment of life on a tragic background could be savored if ... not another pretty and harmless-looking, but scheming girl played along", as the "Zeit" criticism goes on to say. That girl is Judy, of course, and Kit encourages her to confess his feelings for her to Lissa. The two are interrupted by news that there has been a disaster at the mine and that a group of men, including Tom, are trapped underground . While Judy and Lissa wait anxiously, Kit descends the mine to help the trapped. He reaches the people who have been buried but is trapped with Tom and the miners on site when the mine roof falls down. Kit finds a way out, but that would require using a large amount of dynamite. His risk pays off and everyone will be saved. Tom and Lissa agree that they misjudged Kit. He's clearly not a coward, but they still don't know what drives him, why he is the way he is. Lissa visits her lover and sees him practicing Braille .
He tells Lissa that he will go blind within the next three months due to an accident in the Royal Air Force and that he has turned down Tom's job offer because he wants to spend the remaining light time outdoors. An eye operation would be possible, but this would have very little chance of success. Judy, according to Kit, advised against it. Lissa disagrees with this decision, and knowing about Judy's influence on Kit, she goes to her rival and demands that she advise Kit on surgery. A heated battle of words ensues in which Judy confesses to secretly loving Kit. They make a deal: If the operation is successful, Lissa will give up her right to Kit. At the premiere of the play "Sturm" an over-nervous Judy refuses to perform before she hears the result of the operation. Lissa tries to appease the angry audience by premiering her piece of music composed here on site. In the end, Lissa faints, overwhelmed by emotions. Conscious again, Lissa learns that Kit's operation was a success. Now she tells Judy the reason why she doesn't believe in a future with Kit, because she only has a short time to live. When she visits Kit in the hospital, Lissa says goodbye to him and says that she is going on a tour of North Africa to entertain the troops stationed there. She is not sure when she will come back.
Now that Lissa is gone, Kit Judy proposes marriage at a party, which she immediately accepts. While looking for a station with dance music on the radio, Kit ends up on a radio broadcast in which Lissa can be heard. He switches off immediately, but Judy notices his reaction and realizes that he is still in love with her rival, the talented pianist. Back at home, Lissa plays a fully orchestrated concert version of her piece, composed in Cornwall, at the Royal Albert Hall . After the performance, she sees Kit and Judy standing in a side wing of the concert hall. Lissa confesses her secret to Kit and explains that her health condition means that she and Kit can never be together. Kit denies their concerns. He makes it clear to her that every portion of happiness, be it small or large, is worth grasping and holding with both hands. Then the two lovers embrace.
Production notes
Cornwall Rhapsody premiered in London on October 12, 1944, with a mass start on November 20 of the same year. The German premiere took place on April 16, 1946.
John Bryan designed the film structures, his draftsman was Peter Murton . Elizabeth Haffenden took care of the costumes. Jack Asher was (unnamed) a simple cameraman, Louis Levy took over the musical direction.
useful information
In the second half of the Second World War, the producing film company Gainsborough Pictures , starting with The Lord in Gray , developed into the most important company when it came to producing opulent costume dramas and tearful love tugs. Almost all of Gainsborough's films in the 1940s, almost all of which were released on the German market immediately after the end of the war, developed into big box office magnets in Europe - "although the critics wrote them with contempt", as Jörg Helbig recalled. occasionally also on the US market and also produced numerous film stars, above all Margaret Lockwood, James Mason , Patricia Roc, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger. Gainsborough's greatest hits include Gaslight and Shadow , Madonna of the Seven Moons , Cornwall Rhapsody, The Woman Without a Heart , Three Marriages , Dangerous Voyage and Paganini .
Reviews
Die Zeit wrote: “What is remarkable is that in this film ... the viewer is introduced to a figure who initially envelops the embarrassing, dubious atmosphere of a cowardly slacker in order to make the hero emerge all the more radiant. (...) Like many others of its kind, this music film also suffers from a lack of factual point of view. Music alone as a luxuriant, sentimental expression of feelings (...) It is always to be feared that a look behind the scenes will disillusion you, but also a terminally ill pianist who has just collapsed under the news that her friend, healed by a happy operation, will forget her seems to have, when she goes to the festive Albert Hall for the greatest concert of her life, she will have to forget her personal suffering for a moment ... (...) That is too cheap. The happy ending with the motto 'Tomorrow we can be dead, so let's enjoy life', was born out of the war and stamps the film antiquarian. In response to the observer's question: 'Why does this kitsch move me?' the quick answer was: 'Kitsch always stirs.' "
The Lexicon of International Films found: “A love drama between a slowly blind former British aviator of the Second World War and a concert pianist who was doomed to die from a severe heart condition. Wistful colortage story with beautiful landscape shots from Cornwall and effective music. "
Halliwell's Film Guide gave a terse judgment of a “maudlin love story”.
“The beautiful areas of England can be admired in German cinemas early on: even if only in the good old black and white look, but at least. (...) The London flick seems ... a little pompous and the whole story is melodramatically inflated. The Second World War, which is still ongoing in the film - the production year of the Gainsborough film is 1944 - plays a central and important role. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Jörg Helbig: History of British Film. Verlag KB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999. p. 82
- ^ Cornwall Rhapsody in Die Zeit of May 23, 1946
- ^ Cornwall Rhapsody. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 622
- ↑ Cornwall Rhapsody in those days Cinema
Web links
- Cornwall Rhapsody in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Love Story on screenonline.org