The Ferris wheel

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Movie
Original title The Ferris wheel
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1961
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Géza from Radványi
script Ladislas Fodor
production Artur Brauner
music Hans-Martin Majewski
camera Friedl Behn-Grund
cut Jutta Hering
occupation

The Giant Ferris Wheel is a film melodrama in the style of a family and time chronicle from 1961. Directed by Géza von Radványi , the dream couple of German films of the early 1950s, Maria Schell and OW Fischer , stood in front of the camera for the first time in eight years . The film was based on the play "The Fourposter" by Jan de Hartog .

action

It shows the chronicle of an upper-class, aristocratic Viennese family over three generations: from the end of the Habsburg Empire to the First Republic and the annexation of Austria under Hitler to the early post-war period. The eponymous Ferris wheel in the Vienna Prater is the meeting point for decisive events and encounters in the life of the protagonists and at the same time symbolizes the only constant in the troubled times of the 20th century for many decades.

Rudolf von Hill is considered the black sheep of a dynasty of watch manufacturers. As an officer, he was wounded in the First World War . Nevertheless, a promising future is looming for him. He takes over the factory from his father and marries the young Elisabeth, daughter of a bookseller. The troubled 20s also left their mark on the Hill couple. When Elisabeth goes too far overboard and gives in to her lust for pleasure, a marriage crisis ensues, but the two of them know how to master it. In 1940, the two von Hills suffered a severe blow of fate: They lost their only son.

When the Second World War comes to an end, Elisabeth dies of leukemia and their daughter Gisela goes to America as a newly married wife . Rudolf stays behind alone and soon feels lonely and abandoned. Then one day there will be a decisive turning point in his life and someone else will continue his work. Sitting in the Ferris wheel and reminiscing, Rudolf dies with a transfigured smile on his face.

Production notes, publication

The Giant Ferris Wheel was filmed between February 13th and April 30th, 1961 in Vienna (exterior shots) and in the CCC studios in Berlin-Spandau . Georg M. Reuther took over the production management , the film structures were designed by Willi Schatz and Johannes Ott . Rudolf Nussgruber was Radvanyi's assistant director; Claudia Herbig designed the costumes.

The premiere took place in July 1961 during the Moscow International Film Festival . The German premiere took place in Hanover on August 25, 1961 , where “the comeback of the dream couple in the fifties mobilized the masses” and let the fans flock, nothing went on on the streets. While OW Fischer took the spectacle “for granted”, “Atze Brauner was delighted that his bet on the couple who were no longer completely fresh seemed to work”. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who is currently in Hanover, was loudly pleased with the crowd, but was cleared up by Atze Brauner about the facts. Surprised, he wanted to know who was OW Fischer?

In May 1963 there was a publication in France; The film was also released in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The film was released by Universum Film GmbH on October 30, 2006 together with three other films by OW Fischer as part of the “OW Fischer Edition” on DVD.

The same material was filmed in Hollywood in 1952 under the title The Four-Poster Bed with Lilli Palmer and Rex Harrison in the leading roles .

reception

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films wrote: "A star film, cultivated in terms of dialogue and presentation, and with great audience appeal."

In its 39th edition of September 20, 1961, Der Spiegel found on page 91: “The film author Ladislas Fodor moved the location of the action from the American bedchamber to various Viennese dwellings and expanded the play with conventional jokes and boring sentimentalities. In the tear-free film passages, Maria Schell giggles and fools up to her film death from blood cancer; OW Fischer as a film husband only crosses the limit of the bearable in the last scene: with an ice-gray mustache and silver hair, he passes away, drunk with memories, in the ferris wheel of the Vienna Prater. "

Herbert Spaich writes in his biography of Maria Schell that “West German producers ” tried to avoid the threatened bankruptcy “in complete misunderstanding of the changed role of the film with clumsy pomp à la Schinderhannes or dramaturgical recipes from the day before yesterday”. A “classic example of this” is Das Riesenrad , “a plush film monster with which the former 'film dream couple' OW Fischer and Maria Schell from Arthur Brauner in conjunction with the“ Gloria ”film rental company was supposed to be revived”. The director Geza Radvanyi turned the “neat harmlessness of the original” into “a patchwork carpet from fifty years of German-Austrian history, marital happiness, marital oath and the little worries against the backdrop of incredibly big politics”. Spaich pointed out that a critic called the work "Ben Hur of bad taste" at the time. Maria Schell was "squeezed in by the script, a cumbersome direction and a vain partner", leaving "no opportunity for artistic development". In every scene she had to exude an unbearable mixture of Viennese charm and emotional bliss ".

The biographer of OW Fischer Dorin Popa also spoke of a "plush family epic" and referred to the reviews that were not very enthusiastic at the time. Jan de Hartog's two-person piece is "blown up into an exuberant film monster in Atze Brauner's producer hand, in which OW Fischer with intrusive Weaner charm and Maria Schell, very little soul, maintain their quiet happiness in fifty years of Austrian history". OW Fischer caused the usual difficulties in this film too, insisting that he was OW Fischer after all, to which Radványi replied: “That's you in Germany, Otto. But where are you abroad? Do they think you are a toothpaste. "

The critic Klaus Hebecker stated in his film telegram : “There is reason to be very angry. So much bad taste in a single, even ambitious film cannot be understood at all and cannot be excused with a single syllable. Anyone who loves film a little, even just a little bit, has to be angry here with his hair standing on end. Please don't tell us this film is 'only' aimed at entertainment. Not even the most primitive diversion should appear so miserable on the screen, so nefarious the kintop tear never wells. "

The Protestant film observer drew the following conclusion: "The image of time and man is too elegant and superficial to be convincing and truthful."

Awards

Moscow International Film Festival 1961

  • Nomination for the Grand Prix, nominee: Géza von Radványi

German Film and Media Rating (FBW) 1961:

  • Predicate: valuable

Belgian film press 1961:

  • European Gold Award in the "Best Leading Actor" category

Bambi Awards 1962

  • Bambi for OW Fischer in the category "Actor National"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Dorin Popa: O. Fischer His films - his life , Heyne-Filmbibliothek No. 32/111, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1989, ISBN 3-453-00124-9 , p. 134– 136.
  2. Para nosotros no hay adiós Fig. Spanish movie poster
  3. The Ferris Wheel, My Father the Actor, Farewell to the Clouds, Love Birds (Come on Sweet Death)
    Fig. DVD case OW Fischer Edition
  4. Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 6, S. 3117. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
  5. Das Riesenrad In: spiegel.de
  6. ^ A b Herbert Spaich: Maria Schell Your Films - Her Life , Heyne Filmbibliothek No. 32/99, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1986, ISBN 3-453-86101-9 , pp. 168-171.
  7. Evangelical Press Association, Munich, Review No. 569/1961