The Eskimo baby

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Movie
Original title The Eskimo baby
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1918
length 62 minutes
Rod
Director Heinz Schall and
Walter Schmidthässler
script Louis Levy
Martin Jørgensen
production Alfred Duskes
for Neutral-Film
music Maud Nelissen (2012)
camera Carl Ferdinand Fischer
occupation

The Eskimobaby is a German silent film in four acts by Heinz Schall (or Walter Schmidthässler ) from 1916, which had its premiere in 1918 due to the First World War .

action

Anna von Thorn visits the parents of her fiancé Knud Praetorius. Knud is currently in Greenland , but informs his parents in a letter that he will be returning home shortly. He brings a surprise from Greenland. The surprise is called Ivigtut Sigurdsen and is an "Eskimo female". Ivigtut appears completely uncivilized in the trousers of her people and carelessly pulls the emergency brake on the train because she is not aware of the consequences. At the reception on the platform, Knud proudly shows Ivigtut the waiting professors and his parents and explains that Ivigtut doesn’t shake hands, but smile. Rubbing nose to nose is also a sign of affection. Ivigtut is brought to the family home, even if Anna von Thorn is not very enthusiastic about the presence of the Eskimo woman.

In the house, Ivigtut marveled at a mirror that was alien to her, was enthusiastic about the electric light of the lamp and happily pressed the doorbell that called the maid. The meal that follows is chaotic, as Ivigtut does not use any cutlery and shows no other table manners. Ivigtut also keeps the house residents busy at night. Because she is bored in her room, she rings the doorbell until everyone in her room appears. After Knud has spoken to her well, Ivigtut looks for a place to sleep: She lies down on the bed's polar bear skin rug.

In Knud's lecture about his Greenland trip, which he gave to the Geography Society, Ivigtut was the focus of interest. She, in turn, is enthusiastic about an older man with a beard and sideburns who not only smells like polar bears, but also loves to play with his facial hair. The next day Anna has to be calmed down by Knud's mother, since she believes that Knud has fallen in love with Ivigtut. The mother suggests that everything will turn out fine by the evening party at the latest. Ivigtut will not take part in the event in the house of the Praetorius family, as she is not socially acceptable because of her pants. Knud also shares this opinion, who carefully prepares Ivigtut so that she is not allowed to celebrate with the rest of the party in the evening. Ivigtut pouts, cries and decides to travel back to Greenland. She rowed a little on a boat and ended up in town. She “hunts” some clothes in the Jordan department store and is happy not to come home empty-handed. It is incomprehensible to her why she is caught by a department store detective and taken to the director of the department store. The director calls Knud and he asks to speak to Ivigtut. However, at the sound of the voice through the phone, she only calls out "The great spirit!" And can no longer be tamed. Knud picks her up, pays for the things she no longer wants to give, and brings the young woman home. At the party, Anne expects Knud to finally propose marriage to her after three years, but nothing like that happens. Ivigtut has imaginatively combined the stolen things, including a stocking, a corset and a shirt, with her Eskimo costume and appears at the party. Knud brings her back to her room.

Some time later, Knud had to travel for a few days. He doesn't take Ivigtut with him because she has been feeling bad for some time. Anna wants to use the time of his absence to get rid of Ivigtut. She has learned that the Nautilus will be sailing to Greenland shortly . She makes it clear to Ivigtut that Knud will not come back. Ivigtut has a seizure and collapses shortly afterwards. The doctor called recognizes the reasons for their behavior: a short time later Ivigtut gave birth to a healthy boy. Knud is ordered back home by telegram and, unlike the rest of the family, is enthusiastic about the news. It turns out that Knud and Ivigtut were married in August 1917 in Cape York , Greenland. Anna breaks ties with the Praetorius family. A little later, Knud and Ivigtut travel back to Greenland with their child, although Knud's parents have since made friends with the idea of ​​an Eskimo daughter-in-law.

production

Along with Im Lebenswirbel , Dora Brandes , The Rose of the Wilderness , The Stock Exchange Queen , The First Patient , The Orphanage Child and The ABC of Love , the Eskimo Baby was one of eight films that Asta Nielsen shot in the summer of 1916 for Neutral-Film under the simplest conditions . Nielsen financed The Eskimobaby and the other films herself, and the shooting took place in the Union studio she rented in Tempelhof. After the completion of Dora Brandes and Das Liebes-ABC , there were payment differences, so that Nielsen, according to his own statement, dissolved the cooperation with the film company in court and sold the negatives that had been shot but not yet completed to another film company. According to the contract, she was obliged to insure the negatives, whereby the insurance costs should be paid to Nielsen in the event of any damage. In fact, all six original negatives of the films were destroyed in a fire in a photocopier a few months after the shooting ended. However, the rental company claimed the insurance money for itself. The ensuing legal process between the company and Asta Nielsen was not decided in Nielsen's favor until 1922, when the sum insured had already become worthless due to inflation .

Nielsen wrote in 1928 that she “was no longer able to finish the six films [including The Eskimobaby ]” because her daughter Jesta was ill and she therefore had to travel from Berlin to Copenhagen in 1916 . Nevertheless, the film premiered on April 4, 1918 in the Berlin Marble House . The Berlin censors subsequently banned the film from children in December 1918.

From the originally 1489 meter long film, a 1125 meter long nitro copy with Danish subtitles has been preserved in Det Danske Filminstitut . The film was restored until 2000, whereby a dupnegative with German subtitles was made of the Danish copy in cooperation with the Deutsche Kinemathek . The German version ultimately formed the starting material for the publication: The film was released on DVD with new music by Maud Nelissen in 2012 with three other Asta Nielsen films as part of the Edition Filmmuseum series of the Filmmuseum Munich .

criticism

The contemporary critics praised The Eskimobaby and Nielsen's performance: In the film, she reveals “all her fine art of design and amazing beauty” and gives “an abundance of downright overwhelming moments, so that one can only say: everyone should watch this film!” Other critics were that the film "does not have a very rich content, ... but because of the game Asta Nielsen [represents] something special in itself". Only Nielsen could have dared to play the role of Ivigtut, who in relation to the appearance of the figure “is a renunciation. The Nielsen play is overwhelmingly funny, shows in every scene deep thought-through, the use of any situation is the best example of mastering all cinematic possibilities. Even where humor takes on grotesque forms, ”said Der Kinematograph in 1918.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lt. The Eskimo baby. In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films. 2010, p. 235. Some sources name Walter Schmidthässler as a director.
  2. ↑ a b Asta Nielsen: The silent muse. Life memories. Henschel, Berlin 1977, p. 204.
  3. ↑ The ABC of Love. In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films (= Kinothek Asta Nielsen. Vol. 2). Filmarchiv Austria Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-83-4 , p. 213.
  4. ↑ Asta Nielsen: My way in the film. Part 7: The sad story of my war films. In: BZ am Mittag , October 6, 1928.
  5. ↑ Thomas C. Christensen: The lost shadow. Copying situation of the long feature films Asta Nielsen . In: Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema (= Kinothek Asta Nielsen. Vol. 1). 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-82-7 , p. 466.
  6. ↑ Frank Brenner, Annette Groschke: Between Backfisch and Börsenkönigin - Asta Nielsen in 4 films. Booklet for the DVD Four Films with Asta Nielsen. Edition Filmmuseum, No. 67, 2012.
  7. ↑ The film. 1918, quoted from Das Eskimobaby. In: Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus : Classics of the German silent film. 1910–1930 (= Goldmann 10212 Goldmann Magnum. Citadel Filmbücher ). Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10212-X , p. 182.
  8. ^ Argus: News on the Berlin film market. In: The Cinematograph. No. 588, April 10, 1918, p. 27.