The portrait
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Mistress of the Pussta |
| Original title | The portrait |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Feyder |
| script | Jules Romains |
| production | Vita-Film, Vienna |
| camera |
Léonce-Henri Burel Paul Parguel |
| occupation | |
and Vilma Bánky , Suzy Vernon , Eugen Jensen , Viktor Kutschera , Ria Jászony , Mary Zaile | |
The portrait , awarded in Germany under the title Herrin der Pussta , is an Austrian fictional film by the Belgian director Jacques Feyder with the French Arlette Marchal in the lead role.
action
The eponymous portrait is exhibited in a photographer's showcase and attracts the attention of four men who are absolutely fascinated by the lady depicted. Each of them, a painter, an engineer, a seminarian and a diamond cutter, then goes in search of that mysterious beauty.
This is actually called Madeleine Fontevrault, is the wife of a significantly older man and lives in a secluded mansion in the middle of the Hungarian Puszta, both wealthy and deeply unhappy . Fate wills that each of these men who search for this woman unrecognized from one another will never meet the one depicted in the portrait and that all those involved will be left deeply frustrated.
Production notes
Although a Viennese production filmed in Hungary, the portrait was first shown in Belgium (on October 2, 1923 as L'image ). The first presentation in Austria took place at the beginning of October 1924, but the film was not presented to a cinema audience until the following autumn of 1925. Originally lasting over two hours, the film was shortened to 2,336 meters (a good one and a half hours) when it was awarded in Vienna in 1925.
Alexander Ferenczy designed the film structures, Walter Robert Lach assisted chief cameraman Léonce-Henri Burel .
Reviews
The reviewer of the Neue Freie Presse stated that he was “too deeply moved” by Feyder's production and saw “the most real poetry” in the film.
Georges Sadoul found that the portrait attracted attention "through an unusually clever script".
Jerzy Toeplitz 's “History of Film” called the film, like other productions by Feyder of those years, “honest, if not significant”.
Web links
- The portrait in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The portrait at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ "The Portrait". In: Neue Freie Presse , October 10, 1924, p. 25 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Georges Sadoul: History of the cinematic art. Vienna 1957, p. 202
- ↑ Jerzy Toeplitz : History of the film, Volume 1 1895-1928. East Berlin 1972. p. 464.