The song of life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The song of life |
| Country of production | German Empire |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 56 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alexis Granowsky |
| script |
Viktor Trivas Dr. H. Lechner with dialogues by Walter Mehring |
| production | Tobis-Film, Film-Kunst-AG, both Berlin |
| music |
Franz Wachsmann with songs by H. Adams and Friedrich Hollaender |
| camera |
Viktor Trinkler Heinrich Balasch |
| cut | Hans Oser |
| occupation | |
and as singers: Ernst Busch , Harald Paulsen , Leo Monosson , Greta Keller . | |
Das Lied vom Leben is a German feature film from 1931 by Alexis Granowsky .
action
Hamburg, at the beginning of the 1930s. The old, wealthy Baron von Hammen invites you to an engagement party in view of his upcoming marriage to the young Erika Walter. However, Erika is only willing to enter into this connection because she drives sheer financial hardship into this marriage. During the festivities, the young woman realizes the wrong path she is about to take and realizes the mendacity and falsehood of this upper-class ambience of supposed decency. Erika flees: from the unloved man, from the impending social constraints and from the responsibility towards one's own life.
Arrived on the Elbe , she wants to throw herself into the water with suicidal intent. Then a young man named Igor arrives and stops her from doing this act of desperation. He gives her a lecture, a fiery plea for life and love. The two young people meet and Erika is soon pregnant. The birth of your child is complicated and your baby can only be born with a caesarean section. The difficult birth almost leads to Erika's death, but when she sees her boy for the first time, all pain is forgotten and she knows that she will raise an assertive person on earth.
Production notes and censorship issues
The song of life was written in Hamburg in the winter of 1930/31 (external locations for Elbbrücken and the Hagenbeck zoo , where the animal photos were taken). Another location was the Cecilienhaus in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where the birth scenes were recorded under the direction of the gynecology professor Wilhelm Liepmann (1878–1939). The sound recordings were directed by Hans Conradi . Hanns Eisler contributed songs under the pseudonym H. Adams.
The film passed the initial censorship on March 10, 1931 and, with a decision of March 18, 1931, was only “allowed in closed in front of doctors and medical enthusiasts”. A protest was lodged against this and Das Lied vom Leben was again submitted to the censorship. On April 13, 1931, the decision on general admission, but combined with a youth ban. Previously, a few scenes, including the presentation of a caesarean section , had to be removed. The premiere took place on April 24, 1931 in the Terra-Lichtspiele in Berlin's Mozart Hall. When the screening of the film in Munich was scheduled for October 1, 1931, the police department of the Bavarian capital stopped this and suggested that the film be revoked. Then further scenes (so-called banana scenes, depictions of a human skeleton and a skull) had to be removed.
reception
Paimann's film lists summed up: “It is characteristic of this film that its strongest impression is based on a detail (caesarean section operation) that is actually a foreign body in the fluttering action, which forms a mosaic of episodes, image passages and symbolic details. Before that, after an effective exposure, an excess of directorial gimmicks: animated pictures, prismatic shots, assembly scenes. On the other hand, the illustration of the precision of a modern operation, the composition of landscape and work images, game scenes, complementary music, the same exact image and sound editing are brilliant. Only two main actors, in their bitter, restrained play fitting into the given framework. Finally songs which, summarizing the events, underline their deeper meaning. (…) In spite of all understanding and appreciation for avant-garde works, the question of whether one has not gone too far in the endeavor to offer unusual and unusual products at any price cannot be avoided. In any case, a ... absolutely noteworthy cultural film. "
The Österreichische Film-Zeitung wrote about the film after the Berlin premiere: “The film deals in many symbolic forms with human life, with its natural, main, decisive stages: birth, love, separation, aging. A game plot rolls by, for example. (...) Interspersed in the plot are, as a juxtaposition, recordings and scenes from the lives of different animals, in whose games, touching in their natural impartiality, the meaning of life is still recognizable. "
“This film is a poem. Each act is a stanza, strictly self-contained, masterfully worked through. Here again the director's performance stands above the performance of the author, the composer, the actors and the technician. The others only offer the raw material from which the director, as the true composer of the 'song of life', forms his work. And this time Granowsky has proven to be a brilliant film composer. His song of life is the first sound film to be completely detached from the theater and designed with new means of expression. Here, for the first time, the new art of sound film bears poetic testimony to the life of this time. "
Web links
- Program for the film on walter-mehring.info
- The song of life on film.at
- Censorship decisions on filmportal.de
- The song of life in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The song of life at filmportal.de
- The song of life on film.at
Individual evidence
- ↑ Censorship templates on filmportal.de
- ↑ Das Lied vom Leben in Paimann's film lists ( memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ "The Song of Life". In: Österreichische Film-Zeitung , May 2, 1931, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).
