The eternal game

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Movie
Original title The eternal game
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1951
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director František Čáp
script František Čáp,
Hanns Wiedmann ,
as Johannes Kai
production Franz Cap production
for Merkur Film
music Bert reason
camera Georg Krause
cut Friedl Schier-Buckow
occupation

The Eternal Game is a feature film by František Čáp from 1951 .

content

Marie Campenhausen feels neglected by her husband Ulrich, who is constantly on business trips, and has therefore had an affair with the architect Werner Donatus for a long time. When she wants to go on a trip abroad with Werner, Ulrich suddenly comes home unexpectedly from a business trip and suspects Werner, who appears shortly afterwards, to be a rival. The men's conversation, which Marie tries to portray as a business meeting, is icy. Ulrich says through the flower that he knows about the relationship, but after Werner leaves Marie cannot show any love and flees out into the winter of Regensburg . On a street corner that, as if by magic, becomes a dead end , she meets an old woman who shows her three versions of her fate in a shard of glass.

Version 1 - The bell founding legend around 1500

Marie is married to the respected bell founder Werner Donatus. He is supposed to cast the big bell for the Regensburg Cathedral in the next few days and is preparing for it. Marie, on the other hand, does a similar thing with councilor Ulrich Campenhausen, who tends to sneak into her room at night, as he knows the master of the house doing the bell-casting work. The superstitious population, who from time to time see a man with purple clothes disappearing into Werner Donatus' house, believes in a connection between Marie's and the devil . Werner Donatus finds out about the relationship between the two and kills Ulrich the night Ulrich wants to see the bell being poured. Werner burns the corpse in the glowing bell dish. The people, however, believe that Ulrich was enchanted by Marie, who is ultimately burned as a witch .

Version 2 - Crucifix Legend 1661

Marie is the daughter of a wealthy patrician and, according to her mother's wishes, is supposed to marry the equally wealthy businessman Ulrich Campenhausen. However, her heart belongs to the sculptor Werner Donatus, for whom she was the model for a figure of a saint . When her mother Marie forbids contact with Werner, Werner appears drunk for the dedication of the saint in the cathedral. Marie cannot ignore the public shame either. Under pressure from her family, she becomes engaged to Ulrich. Werner deteriorates more and more until one day his old teacher Martin finds him lying drunk on the street. He tries to give his protégé courage to face life again by passing on an assignment allegedly directed at himself to create a figure of Jesus on the cross for the central nave of the cathedral . Werner fell seriously ill over the work, which in reality was not the result of any commission. Marie learns of his condition and leaves her fiancé and family to look after him. But the drugs are expensive and the money can only be obtained through a loan from Ulrich. The pledge is herself and so she agrees to be engaged again in her need. With the life-saving medication, she rushes back to Werner, who she only finds dead.

Version 3 - Dueling legend 1850

Marie is a simple laundress who has been persecuted by Premier Lieutenant Werner von Donatus for a long time. Marie becomes more and more frightened until one day she takes refuge from him in a church and in her panic climbs the bell tower. It doesn't go any further above, but the one who has followed her up to this point is not Werner, but Rittmeister Ulrich Graf Campenhausen, who confesses his love for her and asks her to become his wife. She agrees, but is initially greeted with suspicion by his family and employees, as Ulrich has to quit his service as an officer because of his marriage and renounce the majority. But Marie soon manages to win the hearts of the family with her style. Werner von Donatus, however, cannot get over his failure and a derogatory remark about Marie promptly follows Ulrich's invitation to a duel . Ulrich is killed in the process. Marie, who came running to the men in the field, went mad after the crime.

She grows older and in the end becomes that old woman who showed "today's" Marie the fate of the generations before her. Marie returns home and now knows that she will only give her love to Ulrich.

production

The Bavaria studio in Munich-Geiselgasteig served as the film studio . The external shoots and parts of the internal shoots took place in Regensburg until February 1951 . "That [...] a great feature film, which relocates its plot into three different centuries, finds everything it needs in buildings, alleys and interiors for its historical scenes in a single city, is probably unique in German film history" the critic. Scenes from the bell-founding legend were recorded in the Regensburg Imperial Hall , including the scene in which Councilor Ulrich Campenhausen commissioned the casting of a new cathedral bell. In the Gothic vaults of the town hall, a "real and lifelike bell foundry was built in all details", in which further scenes were created. Scenes from the crucifix legend were also created in the vaults of the town hall. Another location was the Regensburg Cathedral , where parts of the crucifix legend were filmed. The burning of the witches (bell foundry legend) was filmed in front of the west portal of the cathedral, while a sleigh ride in the snow was taking place on Baumhackergasse in Regensburg. The snow was specially approached by truck. Individual scenes were also shot in Ramspau . The organ recordings that can be heard in the film were made in Passau Cathedral . Using the example of the film, “it becomes clear what atmospheric significance the setting also has in the film, because the strong effect of this strip is due not least to the fact that he avoided the studio wherever he could."

Residents of Regensburg appeared as extras; a total of around 2000 people took part in the film. During the procession (crucifix legend) the real seminarians of the cathedral accompanied the statue; Regensburg's traffic director stepped in as the host in the inn scenes when the actual actor did not appear on the set.

The premiere took place on March 22, 1951 in the Regensburger Kammer-Lichtspiele and in the Bavaria-Filmtheater.

criticism

Contemporary critics called The Eternal Game a "happy, promising prelude to better film art". "When you have seen the film, you believe again in the courage of German producers that has not yet been broken and in the power of German filmmakers par excellence to break free from the slipping path and to pick up where the last milestone of German film was," said a critic in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung . "[M] an notes with genuine satisfaction that a film here tries to stand up for the continuance of marriage with seriousness and attitude," wrote one critic in 1951. "The film is an extraordinary and extremely gratifying event in German filmmaking today. "

The Lexicon of International Films rated The Eternal Game as "a visually demanding, but twisted fate."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ CineGraph - Lexicon for German-language film - Georg Krause
  2. ↑ a b Traffic Director as a film star . In: Tages-Anzeiger , 20./21. January 1951.
  3. ↑ hr .: Coming world premiere. Small interview with Franz Cap . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung , January 5, 1951, p. 12.
  4. ↑ hb .: The witch will continue to be burned today . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung , February 10, 1951.
  5. ↑ a b hb .: Witch burning and a missed opportunity . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung , February 14, 1951.
  6. ↑ a b qu .: "The Eternal Game" / world premiere in Regensburg . In: Mittelbayerische Zeitung, March 24, 1951.
  7. ↑ The Eternal Game . In: Tages-Anzeiger , 24./25. March 1951, p. 6.
  8. ↑ -osy-: "The Eternal Game", - a Regensburg film . In: Tages-Anzeiger , 24./25. March 1951.
  9. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 2. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 934.