Pharaoh's wife
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Pharaoh's wife |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1922 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ernst Lubitsch |
| script | Norbert Falk , Hanns Kraly |
| music | Eduard Künneke (cinema music) |
| camera | Theodor Sparkuhl , Alfred Hansen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Pharaoh's Wife is a German feature film by Ernst Lubitsch from 1922.
action
The film tells the story of the Greek slave Theonis who unintentionally starts a war between Egypt and Ethiopia after she fled Ethiopian slavery and the pharaoh fell in love with her.
background
The monumental historical film was one of the most elaborate and expensive German productions of its time. Original-size backdrops were set up in the Berlin film studios and at outdoor locations in Berlin and the surrounding area. For example, in a dune landscape that existed at the time, called “ Rauhe Berge ”, on the eastern edge of Berlin-Steglitz near today's “ Insulaner ”, backdrops for an Egyptian city and a temple complex were built. In an extensive sand pit east of Berlin, a battle between Egyptians and Nubians was re-enacted with thousands of extras.
The Pharaoh's wife was supposed to be Lubitsch's ticket to Hollywood , but he only made the move to the USA in 1923, after he shot the film Die Flamme in Germany, which is still only fragmentarily today . However, The Pharaoh's Wife was first performed in the USA (on February 21 or 22, 1922 in New York) and only three weeks later in Berlin (on March 14, 1922 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo ).
Since the Americans were fixated on a happy ending at that time, the 6th act with all its drama was simply left out of the US version of "The Pharaoh's Wife" (The pharaoh, believed dead, returns, claims his throne, his from the people Desired successor renounces the throne out of love. The people are upset and stone the young "ex-Pharaoh" and his lover. The old Pharaoh suffers a fatal heart attack when he tries to ascend the throne.).
reconstruction
Parts of the film have been lost to this day, but the plot could be reconstructed with the help of recordings, the script and photos from the set. The Munich Film Museum has reconstructed a 100-minute viraged version. In cooperation between the Filmmuseum München, the film archive of the Federal Archives and the rights holder Alpha-Omega digital in Munich, work has also been ongoing for some time on a digital restoration of the film, including the newly recorded original music and newly discovered film fragments. A material find in Italy brought the George Eastman House film archive in Rochester, USA into possession of four rolls of nitrate film , which belonged to a contemporary Italian version of “The Pharaoh's Wife”. It was only through the cooperation of the GEH with the current restoration that essential parts of the film could be added that were previously thought to be lost.
The reconstruction of the film was essentially based on a Russian nitrate film fragment that was no longer in a condition that could be copied. To digitize these film parts, special mechanical devices were devised and built so that this Nitro from the time of its creation could be scanned with good sharpness and high resolution. The Italian nitro was added to this Russian material during the current restoration and added almost 30 minutes to the film.
The original music for large orchestra for "The Pharaoh's Woman" by Eduard Künneke was recorded in the spring of 2005 with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra of the Saarländischer Rundfunk, under the direction of Berndt Heller, in sync with the film. The reconstruction of the music for the film was carried out on behalf of the Ries & Erler publishing house by Berndt Heller (granting of the first processing rights for the digital film version), the production was supported by GEMA .
Material comparison
What is interesting about the two basic film materials is that the cut versions were completely different in their message. While the Italian rental copy had ornately designed font titles and shows a lovesick, vulnerable Pharaoh who gambled away his power through his love for the slave girl Theonis, the Russian nitro copy is titled in sober letters and completely missing all the content that the ruler considered weak, soft or represent in love. A ruler weakened by love was - it is assumed - not a desired screen character in Russia at that time, as the murder of the last tsar was only four years ago when the film was released. Even if it was already foreseeable at this point that the Bolsheviks would win the Russian Civil War , their power was not yet fully consolidated. Humanly portrayed monarchs could have aroused feelings of sympathy in the population, which would have been counterproductive for the new rulers.
Premiere and re-performance
On September 17, 2011, the finished result of this restoration was performed again for the first time with live music in the Neues Museum Berlin . This revival was staged by WDR media designer trainees via live stream. The orchestral music for the film, once composed by Eduard Künneke , was performed by the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln under the direction of Frank Strobel . The new synchronization of the music in connection with the restoration stipulated a frame rate of 20 frames per second.
The image restoration including the digital virage was carried out by Alpha-Omega digital in Munich, who were already responsible for the digital image restoration of the famous silent film classic Metropolis . As the rights holder of the film, Alpha-Omega digital also produced electronic media in the final version, such as DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The publications have been available since the end of June 2012.
Web links
- The Loves of Pharaoh in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Pharaoh's wife on filmportal.de
- The Pharaoh's wife at arte.tv
- Review of the restored version on critic.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ About the film (Alpha-Omega digital GmbH). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; Retrieved December 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ About the film and the restoration (ARTE). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; Retrieved December 5, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Pharaoh's Wife (Municipal Cinema Freiburg, with contemporary newspaper criticism). Retrieved December 5, 2015 .
