The Miracle (1912)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The miracle |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany , Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1912 |
| length | 80 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Max Reinhardt Michel Carré |
| script |
Karl Vollmöller , Joseph Menchen , Michel Carré |
| production | Max Reinhardt |
| music | Engelbert Humperdinck |
| camera |
Harold Jeapes , William Jeapes |
| occupation | |
| |
The Miracle is a black and white silent film by Max Reinhardt and Michel Carré from 1912 . The Austrian-German co-production is based on the stage work Das Mirakel by Karl Gustav Vollmoeller .
That same year, another film version of the substance was entitled The Miracle Marie - An ancient legend in which Mime Misu directed.
content
The plot is based on a medieval legend Marie, which in its original form in Caesarius of Heisterbach in Dialogus miraculorum be found. In an old monastery there is a statue of the Virgin Mary holding little Jesus. She is known for being able to perform miracles, which is why many pilgrims and people with ailments choose their way to see her. The young nun Mégildis has developed a special relationship with her. One day when she is picking flowers in the monastery garden to decorate the altar at the feet of the Virgin, she is kidnapped by a beaming young knight without much resistance, on the contrary, she has been secretly relieved of the temptations that she suspected, dreamed outside the monastery walls. However, it is the beginning of a long odyssey for the young woman that is accompanied by numerous humiliations and is filled with great suffering. Ultimately, she is even suspected of witchcraft .
Since the merciful Virgin Mary in Mégildis takes her place and carries out the nun's duties in the monastery, nobody notices that Mégildis is gone. However, the nuns first get excited when they only find her cloak and other insignia instead of the statue of the Virgin Mary and they have no explanation for this, which the Mégildis, whom they believe, does not provide.
After many years of moving into the country, Mégildis returns on Christmas Eve with her child, born in shame, weak, broken, remorseful and visibly aged, and thanks to the Virgin Mary, she takes the place in which she represented her. Mégildis falls gratefully at her feet and kisses the hem of her cloak before she wraps herself in her nun's costume again. Then she puts her child in the arms of the Madonna, who is accepted by her. When the other nuns realize that their statue of the Madonna is back, they fall gratefully and happily on their knees and the big bell begins to ring.
In contrast to the medieval legend, the baby Jesus plays an important role here. The immaculate conception is reinterpreted in that the nun's baby is adopted by the Blessed Virgin instead.
Production, background, publication
In view of the overwhelming public success of the Singspiel template, Vollmoeller decided in 1912 to film the material. To do this, he revised the piece and shortened the sequence of scenes from 4 to 2 hours. Following the Vienna performances in September 1912, filming began in the vicinity of Vienna. The production costs at that time were around 1 million marks. Humperdinck's songs Romanze , Die Lerche , Klage , Lullaby , Come here death and Christmas were integrated into the pantomime scenes .
To what extent Max Reinhardt, who fell out with the American producer Joseph Menchen during the shooting, which led to the Frenchman Michel-Antoine Carré taking over the direction, is involved in the film is not known. Reinhardt never made a final statement and the Jeapes cameramen questioned only answered evasively. Maria Carmi, who played the Madonna, was the wife of the author of the original Karl Gustav Vollmoeller. It was her first film that resulted in a successful career.
The presentation of the film was unique and overwhelming, as Variety wrote: The front of a cathedral formed the frame of the screen, incense was lit in the cinema , a robed choir entered the stage and the music used sound effects to emphasize the plot . The film had its world premiere on December 21, 1912 at the Covent Garden Royal Opera House in London. On February 13, 1913, the film ran for the first time in the United States, in New York. It was not until May 15, 1914 that the German premiere took place in Berlin.
The silent film at the time had a length of four acts at 1,459 meters, about 80 minutes. The censorship measure of the Reichsfilmzensur on May 27, 1921 resulted in a shortening to 1,269 meters (approx. 70 minutes).
The film was a remarkable work of art for its time. On the one hand, it was not shot in the studio, but at various locations ( Kreuzenstein Castle in Leobendorf , Lower Austria , church in Perchtoldsdorf , Wald), and on the other, it was shown in cinemas in color (hand-colored) and with sound (live orchestra and choir). On the occasion of each premiere, the rooms were furnished with an elaborate stage design as if for a play.
Since the end of the Second World War, the film was considered lost . In June 2011 it became known that a copy is in the French CNC film archive in Bois-d'Arcy .
Criticism, reception history, impact
The industry journal of the entertainment industry, Variety , spoke of a “celluloid drama” that couldn't be more beautiful, and that in some ways was even superior to the original stage version. The presentation of the film was remarkably impressive, as was the general effect of the pictures, which were natural in their colors and with their abundant captions embodied the progress in the history of the film. No spoken game could offer more.
However, the British magazine The Bioscope criticizes the fact that an image seen through the camera is completely different from the one seen with the naked eye, and criticized the lack of adaptation, which sometimes leads to ridiculous effects. So the images from the cathedral would help people swell from dwarfs to giants, which is almost ridiculous.
The history of the film's impact (2,000 participants) ranges from the London world premiere in 1912 (10,000 viewers) to the US premiere in 1913 and the German premiere in 1914. After that, the film developed into a long-seller, which was mainly sold in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the 1914 World War –1918 and then repeatedly until the end of the twenties. The religious consecration play was last performed in 1948 at the Salzburg Festival , where it was shown in 1926. With five new productions by Reinhardt (Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg and other cities) it ran both in Europe and the United States and came to almost 300 performances in New York alone and a six-week tour through the USA and was one of the "theatrical mass phenomena" at the time. .
In view of the global economic crisis in 1929, the plans of the Hollywood studios to produce a sound film of the material with the help of Vollmoeller and Reinhardt came to nothing. It was not until 1959 that Hollywood resurrected “The Miracle” (German title The Madonna with the Two Faces ) in a kitschy version as a sound film.
Web links
- Miracle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Miracle Movie posters and film images in the IMDb
- The miracle in the online film database
- The miracle at filmportal.de
- Maria Carmi in her role as Madonna on flickr.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Mass and Mysticism - The Miracle adS pppmt.de. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e The Miracle adS thebioscope.net (English). Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ↑ a b Gerhard Lamprecht: German silent films 1913 . Deutsche Kinemathek eV, Berlin 1969, p. 45 .
- ↑ a b film length calculator , frame rate : 16 2/3
- ↑ The Miracle , 1st film section of a total of 7
- ↑ Vollmöller, Karl Gustav at leo-bw.de. Retrieved August 24, 2017.