The Queen's Heart

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Movie
Original title The Queen's Heart
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1940
length 112 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Carl Froelich
script Harald Braun
production Carl Froelich for Tonfilm-Studio Carl Froelich & Co. (Berlin) on behalf of UFA (Berlin)
music Theo Mackeben
camera Franz Weihmayr
cut Gustav Lohse
occupation

The Queen's Heart is a 1940 film directed by Carl Froelich about the life of Queen Mary of Scots .

action

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, is being held captive by Elizabeth I of England at Fotheringhay Castle , and the verdict is due to fall within the next few hours. The next day she learns of the decision of the throne court, which Queen Elizabeth I also agreed to: Maria Stuart is to die the next day by the ax. She collapses and recalls the events that now lead to her death.

Coming to Scotland from France, she meets with rejection as the legitimate Queen of Scots: Her brother Jacob Stuart , who until then has ruled in her place, sees her as a woman unable to rule the "rough" and "masculine" country of Scotland and thinks she is should have stayed in "feminine" France. The Lords, especially Lord Bothwell , are critical of Maria Stuart and Johanna Gordon , whose family has been persecuted by the Stuarts for years, tries to poison Maria Stuart with wine as soon as she arrives. The Privy Council, which Maria Stuart convenes to announce the first political decisions, does not appear - Jacob, who is the only one present, tears up her decision paper. Lord Bothwell arrives when the Queen is alone again and harasses her because he has fallen in love with her. Maria Stuart has him arrested for insulting the Queen, even if she is impressed by his behavior.

Elizabeth I sends her confidante, the English pair and Scottish Lord Henry Darnley , to Scotland to spy on her behalf and to turn the population against Maria Stuart. Darnley, however, falls in love with Mary Queen of Scots and even leads her to Lord Bothwell's castle, where the Scottish lords are secretly discussing the deposition of the Queen. Maria Stuart dares to go to the meeting alone and is captured. She is only released on the basis of an oath to marry a Scotsman the next day. Maria Stuart's choice falls on Lord Bothwell, whom she still believes in captivity. However, he has already fled with Johanna Gordon and married her - Johanna wants revenge on Maria Stuart, Lord Bothwell wants power. The common army is to overthrow Maria Stuart. She is now forced to marry Lord Darnley, but her Italian singer David Riccio assists her in government affairs .

Maria Stuart has meanwhile become the mother of her son Jacob . Lord Darnley is indignant when he sees himself mocked by a juggler in a crude play as effeminate, and therefore easily falls for the schemes of the lords who call Riccio his rival and also call him the father of the child. Lord Darnley has Riccio murdered. At the same time, Lord Bothwell's army appears, having Mary Stuart brought to Lord Bothwell's castle "for their own protection" and provisionally taking over power in the country. Lord Darnley has meanwhile contracted smallpox . On the instructions of her lover Lord Bothwell, Mary Queen of Scots has her husband taken to Edinburgh , where he is killed in the explosion of his home.

Elizabeth I is now sending an army to Scotland, ostensibly to free Mary Stuart from Bothwell's power and to offer her an exile in England. Meanwhile, Mary Stuart marries Lord Bothwell, who has separated from Johanna Gordon. This appears together with the English army under the leadership of Jacob Stuart for the wedding and gives the couple secret love letters from Maria Stuart to Lord Bothwell, which are primarily a burden to the Queen. Lord Bothwell, faced with the choice of assisting Mary Queen of Scots and dying or denying her, turns away from her and is dragged to death for treason against the Queen. Maria Stuart's page Olivier is killed while trying to hide the letters. When Jacob Stuart also takes her child from his sister in order to protect it from Elizabeth I, Maria Stuart accepts the offer of the English Queen and goes into exile in England.

The framework from the beginning is resumed. Maria Stuart is led to the scaffold and kneels before the executioner .

The heart as a motive

The motif of the heart runs through the entire film. The extremely emotional Maria Stuart, whose life is guided by love in the film, is contrasted with the cold Elizabeth I, who has obviously suppressed all love in her life. When Elizabeth I learned of the birth of the Scottish heir to the throne, she exclaimed: “I rule and love her!”; Maria Stuart's last pathetic words in the film are: "Kings win in life, hearts in eternity." Maria Stuart is apparently guided exclusively by emotions, so she says: "My heart seduced me, I only followed him." The greatest mistake of her life, marrying Lord Darnley, is an exception: "It's about the crown, not your heart," says Darnley in the film. In the course of the plot, however, there are signs that their son will be a good ruler, as one of the ladies-in-waiting around Maria Stuart says: "He will have a big heart."

The song “Where is your heart” sung in the film also deals with the heart that longs for love (“In its dark chamber is awake / my heart, it beats and waits.”), Finds love (“It finds you and laughs happily my heart. ") and finally breaks (" Heaven is near, the world sounds, / in his deepest dream bursts / my heart, it breaks and waits. "). Riccio says in the film about Maria Stuart: "She wraps her heart in melody."

Contemporary critics also chose the motif of the heart to evaluate the film. Regarding the realistic, gloomy backdrops of the castles, Theodor Riegler writes: “In this world Maria Stuart loves and suffers, here the queen's heart is bleeding to death. ... You believe her the enigmatic demonia of a heart that is entangled in a tragic guilt out of an urgent longing for life. ”Also because of the attempt to see the cause of the conflicts between England and Scotland in the 16th century exclusively in the love affairs of Maria Stuart, the Film panned by the critics. "The film was full of kitsch, " said supporting actor Will Quadflieg in his autobiography We Always Play :

production

The Queen's Heart was filmed in the Babelsberg film studios from November 1939 to March 1940 . The premiere took place on November 1, 1940 in the Ufa-Palast in Munich ("Luitpold-Theater"). On October 29, 1940, the censors did not approve the film for young people. The film testing agency awarded the titles artistically valuable and culturally valuable .

The film is interrupted by numerous songs, most of which are sung by Zarah Leander:

  • One black stone, one white stone (Zarah Leander)
  • Where is your heart (Zarah Leander)
  • Slumber song (Zarah Leander)
  • Once a strange guest comes to you (Zarah Leander, Friedrich Benfer)
  • Just don't think about it, nothing should offend us (Erich Ponto)

The lyrics are by Harald Braun, the music by Theo Mackeben. The Queen's Heart was also published as a novel by Harald Braun in 1941.

criticism

The Queen's Heart became a failure in its day and is still considered one of Zarah Leander's weakest films today. The lexicon of international films criticized the film as a work “from the Nazi era with an anti-British tendency”. Based on the cold ruler Elizabeth I, the history of "British imperialism" should be shown and at the same time the striving for world domination, which would have consequences "for all continents and in all centuries up to the present day".

In addition, the cast of Zarah Leanders as Maria Stuart was criticized. “Zarah Leander as Maria Stuart was a strange cast”, says Will Quadflieg, and the lexicon of the international film writes: “The extremely wrong cast of the main role with Zarah Leander (who does not have to do without chansons here either) adds the involuntary comedy to the kitsch . "The film is superficial and pseudo-historical," in her stiff, magnificent robes as Maria Stuart, she [Zarah Leander] could hardly move. "At the same time, The Queen's heart clearly accommodated the leading actress in one aspect:" No other actress in the film Ufa suffered as beautifully as Zarah. "

See also

literature

  • Harald Braun : The Queen's Heart. Novel . Book decoration based on mezzotints by Walter Erich Herbst. Ufa-Buchverlag, Berlin 1941.
  • Franz-Jürgen Kleinert: "The Queen's Heart" - Maria Stuart. The adaptation of the classic drama in the feature film of the Third Reich . Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7609-5231-3 (= Pahl-Rugenstein-Hochschulschriften Gesellschafts- und Naturwissenschaften No. 231.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lyrics quoted from "The Queen's Heart". Today's program, 8th year, No. 600.
  2. ↑ Theodor Riegler: Ballad of life, love and death. Report on the formation of the Ufa film “A Queen's Heart”. III. A recording day . In: Filmwelt , No. 5, February 2, 1940, p. 10f.
  3. ↑ Will Quadflieg: We always play. Memories . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 110.
  4. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 3. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 1594.
  5. ↑ Theodor Riegler: Ballad of life, love and death. Report on the formation of the Ufa film “A Queen's Heart”. No. I. In: Filmwelt , December 8, 1939 .; See also: Jo Fox: Film propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany. World War II cinema . Berg, Oxford and New York 2007, p. 167.
  6. ↑ Quadflieg, p. 110.
  7. ↑ LdiF, p. 1594.
  8. ↑ LdiF, p. 1594.
  9. ↑ Yvonne Tiedt: The stars shine. The heyday of German cinema . Lingen, Bergisch Gladbach 1995, p. 115.
  10. ↑ Tiedt, p. 108.