Dagfin

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Movie
Original title Dagfin
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1926
length 124 minutes
Rod
Director Joe May
script Joe May
Hans Szekely
Adolf Lantz
Jane Bess based
on the novel Dagfin, the snowshoe walker by Werner Scheff
production Joe May
for May-Film AG, Berlin
on behalf of Phoebus-Film, Berlin
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Carl Drews
Edgar Ziesemer
occupation

Dagfin is a German silent film from 1926 directed by Joe May .

action

In a Swiss winter resort, Lydia Boysen, who has just divorced her husband, meets the young ski instructor Dagfin Holberg. It doesn't take long before they both fell in love. One day her ex-husband Axel shows up. Not so long ago he had tried to pair Lydia with Sabi Bey, the much older, rich Turk. A little later, Boysen is found lying dead in the snow. Dagfin and Lydia suspect each other of killing Boysen. To protect Lydia, Dagfin takes all the blame. Not entirely unselfish, he receives full support in his actions from Sabi Bey, who also promises to help Dagfin escape. The Turkish general hopes to get closer to his goal in this way and to finally win Lydia over.

Lydia, in turn, is ready to sacrifice herself for Dagfin. In order to be sure of Sabi Bey's support for the fugitive Dagfin, she follows the Muslim despot, who was once responsible for a slaughter among the Armenians and only barely escaped an assassination attempt, to his island castle in southern Germany. As luck would have it, Dagfin went into hiding right next door on the neighboring estate of Colonel von Gain. Tilly, the Colonel's daughter, has meanwhile fallen head over heels in love with the reclusive permanent guest. Gradually, Sabi Bey realizes that he will not stab Lydia in the future either and swallows poison out of desperation. As he dies, he confesses that he killed Axel Boysen. It was self-defense because Boysen blackmailed him. Lydia and Dagfin can now look to the future together.

Production notes

The film was shot from August to October 1926 in the Jungfrau region in Switzerland and on the Riviera . With a length of ten acts and over two hours, the film was extraordinarily long for the times. Dagfin passed the censorship (youth ban) on December 2, 1926, the premiere took place on December 20, 1926 in the Phoebus Palace.

The Filmbauten designed Erich Zander , Robert Wuellner was as always with Mays silent film productions manager . For Joe May, this was his last silent film that he both directed and produced.

Eugen Schüfftan took care of the trick photography with his own process , in which Helmar Lerski and Karl Puth were also involved.

Reviews

Hans Wollenberg judged on the Lichtbild-Bühne : “This is a film that grabs your nerves, that is full of tension, that tells gripping stories with captivating, piercing eloquence. From the strong effect to the finest value, May has left nothing to force the viewer under the spell of his film, which is just as little a work for the snob and the literary as it is for the famous "Lehmanns Lieschen", but a film for everyone, for is a world audience. How Joe May knows how to step up a plot, contrast characters, guide life curves back and forth, revive nature and the environment and create atmospheric, proves his outstanding skill once again. A love scene in a snowy summit world, the nervousness in a hotel lobby, an assassination attempt in the front garden of a villa, the thunderstorm night over a mountain lake (where you think you can feel the rain on your skin) - this and much more does it in this completely convincing authenticity so easily nobody after. And yet the strongest aspect of his direction is purely acting. He knows how to create an aura around the characters in his film, and how to direct internal conflicts like magnetic currents from the photographed shapes into the viewer's eyes and nerves. When these emotionally struggling people face each other, you can feel love, desire, jealousy, hate, disappointment and failure, nerves and pulse. The outstanding acting concept of this film is Paul Wegener's Turk. Wherever it appears, it fills the canvas and overshadows everything else. "

The Film-Kurier read: “Four authors are chasing after cinema excitement. To hunt? Reflect, think, think, simulate, mix ideas, motifs, sensations, people, fate - from the novel by Werner Scheff. A suitable material for today's film indeed. Its advantage: it is limited to a few people who are true to life - as far as they come from Europe. The exotic features of the film, however, a Turkish general and his Chinese secretary, correspond to the "romantic" nebulous view that normal people had about both racial representatives before the war. (...) Joe May directs. He sticks to the proven recipes of his great successes. Clarity and emphasis is his watchword. With his great love for the audience, he is also considerate of the last visitor, nobody should overlook anything, everyone should be able to participate in the play of light. Again and again, to the delight of the gallery, he points out that things are going to be tough, a chandelier flies from the ceiling, a chair slams against the door, temperament must be felt when Joe May plays his trump cards. (...) If the material deliberately does colportage, if it takes its advantages and characters - as in Dagfin's liberation scene from the dungeon - half seriously, half tragically, the best effect of the film grows from these intermediate moods and nuances. (...) Paul Wegener plays the double ego of a Turk, which he knows how to skillfully discover: a pursuer who is himself hounded, a murderer who is to be murdered. He is a gentleman and a cretin at the same time. After all, you feel sorry for his demonic airs, since he's just a poor hocus-pocus devil who has to poison himself. "

The Österreichische Film-Zeitung wrote: "The film was directed by Joe May, whose pronounced artistic sensitivity and trained eye for the requirements of a film that is supposed to offer the viewer more than an instant distraction can be seen everywhere."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Photo stage . Volume 19, No. 303, of December 21, 1926.
  2. ^ Film courier . Vol. 8, No. 298 of December 21, 1926.
  3. ↑ "Dagfin". In:  Österreichische Film-Zeitung , May 14, 1927, p. 31 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / fil

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