The Spreewald girl
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Spreewald girl |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1928 |
| length | about 78 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK youth ban at the time |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans Steinhoff |
| script |
Viktor Abel Karl Ritter |
| production | Olympia-Film GmbH, Berlin |
| music | Alexander Schirmann |
| camera |
Axel Graatkjær Alfred Hansen |
| occupation | |
| |
Das Spreewaldmädel (alternative title: Wenn die Garde marschiert ) is a German silent film from 1928 directed by Hans Steinhoff, set in a homeland film environment . The main roles are occupied by Claire Rommer and Fred Solm as well as Jakob Tiedtke and Wera Engels .
action
Lieutenant Leopold Graf von Yberg is billeted at Gut Milmersdorf during a maneuver of his unit. The young Annemarie, a dashing Spreewald girl, works there as a housekeeper. The lieutenant falls in love with Annemarie, who thinks he is an ordinary grenadier. The estate manager Joachim Künzel sees with suspicion how both are getting closer, also because Yberg's boy Johannes gets on well with the pig maid Steffi at Gut Milmersdorf. Künzel has his eye on Annemarie himself.
Many weeks later, Yberg only has vague memories of Annemarie and his engagement to a distant relative from his circle is imminent when Annemarie, whom Leopold could never forget, suddenly stands in front of him in the barracks yard. Although he is initially embarrassed to meet up in front of his comrades, his love for the young woman flares up again. Not only the father of his bride, who is also his superior, but also Annemary's aunt, who likes to read cards, try everything to talk the young couple out of a connection with reference to the class difference. However, Leopold really wants to marry Annemarie. However, when the young woman learns that Leopold already has a noble fiancee, she returns to Milmersdorf disappointed and injured.
Many weeks have passed again, and Annemarie's wedding to the estate manager Joachim Künzel is to be celebrated in the Spreewald. Leopold, who is now married, heard about the wedding from his boy Johannes and decided to personally present the couple with his present. Joachim finds out about this and is afraid that Leopold might win Annemarie over again. So he urges the marriage to be consummated as soon as possible. He drives the wedding party as well as the groomsmen and the pastor to a hurry to have his marriage ceremony in the church before Yberg arrives.
Production notes and background
The film was shot from March 4th to 25th, 1928 in the Jofa studio and in Lübbenau in the Spreewald , where the outdoor shots were taken. The cameraman Axel Graatkjær was responsible for the studio shots and the cameraman Alfred Hansen for the outdoor shots . Heinrich Richter was responsible for the buildings . The production company was Olympia-Film GmbH (Berlin), while Viktor Skutetzky was the production manager . The original length of the film was 6 acts, equal to 2,200 meters (2,193.60 m according to excerpts); the restored version is 2,148 meters long. The music, which was contributed by Alexander Schirmann for the premiere in the Emelka-Palast, was coordinated for a presentation speed of 28 frames per second.
After the film was banned from young people on April 18, 1928, test number B18742, it was officially premiered on the following day, April 19, 1928, in the Emelka-Palast in Berlin and was also shown at the same time Schauburg. On October 5, 2011, a restored version was shown at the Giornate del cinema muto, Teatro Verdi, in Pordenone . Gabriel Thibaudeau accompanied him on the piano.
Hans Steinhoff and Karl Ritter worked together for the first time in this film, and their collaboration, which took place five years later in the UFA Hitler Youth Quex film, is repeatedly referred to in the literature. In his statement on the Spreewald girl and its plot, Horst Claus pointed out that "the story of the unsuitable love between a housekeeper and a noble lieutenant" "Director and screenwriter mainly as an occasion for a comedy that has been carefully worked out in detail and is visually lovingly implemented" serve, "which - like the first showing of the version restored by the Federal Archives at the silent film festival in Pordenone in October 2011 - still works today and is well received by the audience." Claus continues: "Instead of a military film or a painful, sentimental one -sweet melodrams, the participants present an amusing comedy with sympathetic and attractive actors, which flickers over the screen in a relaxed and entertaining manner without ideological or political tendencies. "Claus was also of the opinion that the film gives today's viewers the opportunity to have an opportunity with Claire Rommer the (for years from the deu to rediscover the amusing and charming Dutch whirlwind Truus van Aalten ”, the audience to become the second most popular German film actress after Henny Porten”.
Originally, in the spring of 1928, the film adaptation of Angst , a novella by Stefan Zweig , was on Steinhoff's plan. Georg M. Jacoby, who acted as a producer, had to go to hospital because of a serious operation and Gustav Fröhlich , who was supposed to play the leading role, was only free from mid-May. During this time, Steinhoff shot the popular military comedy Das Spreewaldmädel , the story of which is based on an idea by Karl Ritter.
criticism
The trade press that existed at the premiere of the film was pretty unanimous in their judgment that Das Spreewaldmädel promised to be big business. In its issue of April 20, 1928, the Film-Kurier spoke of the fact that the film "best grotesque" and co-author Karl Ritter was a "seasoned veteran", "but with as much temperament and originality as consideration for the theater business" prevail. It went on: “And only because of that he is a hope, because he feels a lust for images and ideas that love their delights in the purely cinematic.” Ritters “fast, unscrupulous, lustful and a little Bavarian eye peering into existence”, was further closed read, will in the future "certainly make up some funny, lively, juicy film".
The Lichtbild-Bühne of April 20, 1928 attributed the “great success [...] for the most part to the skilled management of Steinhoff”, who “with a sure instinct for situational wit and visual humor really knows how to get something out of his actors (even if he does every - even the very oldest - punch line is right) ”.
The Reichsfilmblatt of April 21, 1928 was impressed by the film and attested to Steinhoff that he had worked out the nuances and details offered to him from the not particularly original plot and brought them to the fore, which enabled him to make the film a sway to do, which is "simple" but "very entertaining" because it has "speed and lots of ideas".
The magazine Film of April 21, 1928 stated that "the conventional manuscript, which in no way falls out of the usual framework ... has become completely a minor matter", "because Hans Steinhoff staged with pleasure and love, with nice ideas and taste", because he ensured a “compelling pace” and “always tried to be effective when editing the film”. “All incidents that were in and of themselves insignificant [were] told amiably. The film is really funny ", it said and further:" Steinhoff won so many humorous aspects from the milieu that all objections that could be raised against the subject are gladly forgotten. "
But there were also a few points where opinions differed. The rather bourgeois Berliner Tageblatt of April 22, 1928 categorically refused to go into “the apparently still not the last recapitulation of the military squabbles” and wrote: “Wanting to amuse the Kurfürstendamm with such grandiose nonsense is a company that is not Another word deserves. ”The newspaper Vorwärts , which was to be reckoned to the left wing of the Berlin daily newspapers, wrote bluntly:“ The authors Karl Ritter and Viktor Abel can come up with variations on the topic 'O what pleasure to be an imperial German soldier! ' not doing enough. Magnificent such a maneuver! The soldiers only kiss each other for life, do not need to work, do not have any service, and in the garrison they wear pretty uniforms. A really wonderful life, what is really behind it, is not mentioned in one word. And when the guards march with the flags, the spectators shudder in awe. The stupidity of certain sections of the population is just huge ... "
Unlike Ritter's later films, which were often determined by scenes that glorified the war, this film is determined by winking, wistful retrospectives on the imperial era, it was said in a review by the Zeughauskinos, which went on to say: "The plot is irrelevant, the characters are stereotypical, the gags are not necessarily new. But Steinhoff's production was so well received by the audience that Ritter and Steinhoff planned a 'Leutnant Katte' film a little later, the realization of which, however, failed due to the collapse of the Süd-Film. "
Web links
- The Spree Forest Girl in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Spreewald girl at filmportal.de