The eternal song
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The eternal song |
| Country of production | Germany , Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1997 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Franz Xaver Bogner |
| script | Franz Xaver Bogner |
| production | Arno Ortmair |
| music | Hans-Jürgen Buchner |
| camera | Frank Bruhne |
| cut | Susanne Hartmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The Eternal Song is a German-Austrian feature film from 1997. Based on the template by Thomas Nippold, it tells the story of Pastor Joseph Mohr , the lyricist of the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night .
The title Das Ewige Lied , which appears in the film, comes from the band Haindling .
action
At the beginning of the 19th century, Joseph Mohr came to the village of Oberndorf near Salzburg as an assistant pastor , which was divided into an Austrian and a Bavarian half. The church-weary locals give him a cool welcome, only the sacristan Alois Hauser welcomes him.
The village climate is tense. The boatmen on the Salzach have the salt monopoly, which runs counter to the interests of the largest employer in the village, Johann Burgschwaiger, who is interested in building a railway line. There are also conflicts with him about the compensation of a skipper who sustained a serious leg injury while working.
There is a first dispute between Mohr and the village pastor Nöstler, who is on the side of Burgschwaiger, which is why nobody shows up for the service. Mohr holds this with the only people present, the sacristan and the village school teacher Franz Xaver Gruber, who works as organist . Nöstler is actually happy that “these godless heathens” don't come to his church. Teacher Gruber also complains to Mohr about the situation in the village. He has been teaching in a former barn next to a little mountain church for four years and has no school books. Agnes, a woman from the mountains, also works here and treats the sick. She was once Burgschwaiger's lover. In an emergency, the inhabitants of the higher mountain regions, from where the boatmen originally come, also come to her.
When Burgschwaiger has the family of the injured shipper forcibly retrieve the money that they got from his wife, the shipper dies trying to prevent this. When a funeral in the traditional cemetery on the Bavarian side of the village was refused, Mohr buried the deceased in a meadow. There is another conflict between Mohr and Nöstler when Mohr, against his prohibition, tries to accommodate the mute Maria and Hannes, the now orphaned children of the Schiffers, in the rectory; the village community takes Mohr's side and gives them shelter in the Schifferhaus. Mohr wins their trust through his way of approaching the villagers. Mohr and Gruber both play guitar and become friends.
Meanwhile, a relationship develops between Maria and Markus, the son of Hans Schlagerer, the spokesman for the boatmen. Maria is soon expecting a child. In addition to the economic situation in the town, Mohr also had problems with the organ .
Since Burgschwaiger no longer gives the boatmen a job, their children develop malnutrition. Nöstler sees the reason for this in the incitement of the villagers by the auxiliary pastor from Salzburg. Mohr, on the other hand, clears Nöstler's pantry and distributes the food to the villagers. When Mohr wants to report Nöstler's machinations in Salzburg , Nöstler thinks Mohr is the father of Maria's unborn child and wants to use this to his advantage. Burgschwaiger, on the other hand, has had enough of Nöstler's eternal promise that Salzburg would break the salt monopoly and lets him disappear by leaving him tied up in a boat on the Salzach. Mohr then took over the parish and managed to get the boatmen to participate in religious life again.
When the common grain stores in the Schifferhaus run out shortly before Christmas Eve, Schlagerer Mohr locks up in the church in order to, accompanied by some villagers, plunder Burgschwaiger's stores in his warehouse on the Bavarian side. This leads to a fight between the two men in which both are killed.
When the heavily pregnant Maria gives birth to her child, her brother, little Hannes, flees in the deep snow to the mountains, where he suspects his father is dead. In his search for the boy, Mohr loses his track and keeps hearing the yodelling calls of the mountain dwellers from afar . He finally returns and collapses exhausted in the mountain church. In the meantime, however, Hannes is found by the mountain people and brought down to the valley. Mohr and Gruber get the inspiration for the composition of a song from the yodel calls they heard, which Gruber composes in a short time and performs with the guitar at Christmas mass due to the lack of a functioning organ: Silent Night, Holy Night .
criticism
“Homeland film routinely staged for television about the creation of the Christmas carol Silent Night, Holy Night . [...] Performing excellent. "
"" The Eternal Song "is a modern Heimatfilm that not only has a great mountain landscape as its background, but also tells the gripping stories of a remote area and offers an insight into the social microcosm of a mountain village from the not so good old days; peppered with power struggles, gentle love stories and rebellious residents. And of course the song and the music play a special role in a film about the creation of the song "Silent Night, Holy Night". "
"Sounds conservative, but it's an exciting" Alpine West ". Truly a (Christmas) poem! "
Trivia
The genesis of the song is linked to the construction of the railway. Johann Burgschwaiger is shown with a picture of a train set including a steam locomotive. At that time, however, the first steam-powered railway line, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway , had not even been planned.
Web links
- The eternal song in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Eternal Song in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Eternal Song. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The Eternal Song ( memento from April 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), arte.tv
- ↑ The Eternal Song , tvspielfilm.de