The great love game
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The great love game |
| Country of production |
Germany Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1963 |
| length | 137 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Weidenmann |
| script | Herbert Reinecker |
| production | Adolf Eder for team film (Berlin) and Wiener Stadthalle (Vienna) |
| music | Charly Niessen |
| camera | Georg Bruckbauer |
| cut | Alfred Srp |
| occupation | |
and in other roles Paul Hoffmann , Egon von Jordan , Fritz Tillmann , Ulli Lommel | |
The great love game is a German-Austrian love film from 1963 by Alfred Weidenmann . The literary adaptation is based on the play “Reigen 51” (1951) by Michael Kehlmann , Helmut Qualtinger and Carl Merz .
action
In twelve episodes, Weidenmann's staging takes up the Schnitzler dance motif, modernizing and varying it. Encounters with very different people who are strangers to one another lead to a dance of love that runs off without feelings or depth. It starts with the policeman going to a call girl. Your next client is a student who starts a brief affair with his headmaster's young wife. The school director, in turn, is having a flirtation with a secretary who is having an affair with another man, briefly just the boss.
The boss's divorced wife longs for something a lot younger and starts a quarrel with a student who, in turn, has an amorous relationship with a pretty, young French woman. The latter is having fun with an Italian guest worker who earns his living more poorly than rightly as a waiter. In him, Octaviano, a wise, no longer very young actress takes a liking; perhaps because he is so completely different from the men with whom the grande dame of the world usually deals. During a train ride, however, she lets herself be “conquered” by a gallant and charming diplomat of her generation. The dance closes when the diplomat ends up in the arms of the prostitutes from the beginning of the film after an interlude with an elderly lady.
Production notes
The shooting took place between July 22nd and September 27th, 1963 in Vienna and Berlin . The great love game was premiered on November 12, 1963 in the Luitpold Theater in Munich . After several FSK exams, the entry age was raised to 18 (only for adults). The Vienna premiere was set for November 24, 1963. Since January 1965 the film has also been shown in Denmark, Japan, Finland, the USA and Mexico.
The film constructions came from the hands of Otto Pischinger and Herta Hareiter . Karl Spiehs took over the production management, Heinz Pollak the production management. Gert Wilden was responsible for the musical arrangements .
Ulli Lommel , who was 18 at the time of shooting , made his film debut here. Hildegard Knef sang the song "One and One That Makes Two".
Elisabeth Flickenschildt received the film tape in gold in 1964 for her performance .
criticism
In its issue of November 20, 1963, Der Spiegel found: "With Arthur Schnitzler's" Reigen ", the distributor assures, the film - it was originally supposed to be called" Reigen 63 "-" only has the dramaturgical arc "in common. This is true. Neither the revealing joke nor the melancholy charm of the piece and its filming by Max Ophüls suit him. Director Alfred Weidenmann and his scriptwriter Herbert Reinecker present the promiscuous goings-on of their heroes, partly in a playful, partly self-important way. They serve German home-style cooking with an honest twinkle in the eye. If one wants to believe them, nothing rules the relations of the sexes but an undifferentiated drive and striving for profit. Erotic tension does not arise in any of the twelve episodes. The reference to contemporary realities remains limited to tortured jokes. "
“In twelve loosely interlinked episodes, fleeting erotic relationships are portrayed as examples of modern substitutes for love. According to the Reigen scheme, the types and partnerships presented should result in a social cross-section. Film prepared by Weidenmann / Reinecker with a star cast and a touch of ironic resignation. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “Bar of new thematic ideas. Only using the round motif and without retrospective profundity just turned to today. Brilliantly cast and, apart from certain stretches in the middle, loosened up by colorfully mixed cityscape passages, dialogues rich in punch lines and elegantly presented with a leitmotif, pleasing in terms of camera and sound. "
Eugene Archer wrote in the New York Times on July 31, 1965 about the film, which was shown in the US under the title “And so to Bed”: “Lilli Palmer is a delightful actress. As a worldly wise European movie star whose romantic approach is alternately aggressive and submissive, as the occasion demands, she gives a surge of amusing gusto to the last couple of episodes in… "And So To Bed." Except for Miss Palmer's wry encounters with a bumbling bellhop and a smooth diplomat who takes her by surprise on a train, the film is merely a crude reprise of the ever-serviceable "La Ronde" motif. (...) However, Hildegard Neff, playing the prostitute, is as striking a type as ever; Alexandra Stewart is interestingly glacial as the academic woman, and Daliah Lavi is the kind of obliging secretary any businessman would hire without a typing test. Peter Van Eyck, Thomas Fritsch, Daniele Gaubert and Paul Hubschmid do what they can to combat Alfred Weidenman's routine direction and a shoddy script. Until Miss Palmer's late, galvanic entrance, it is a lost cause. "
Web links
- The great love game in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The great love game at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The great love game in Der Spiegel 47/1963
- ↑ The great love game. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The great love game in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ And so to Bed in The New York Times . Translation: “Lilli Palmer is a delightful actress. As a world-experienced, European film star whose romantic approach is sometimes aggressive, sometimes submissive - whatever the situation demands - conveys a wave of amusing enthusiasm in the last episodes of ... "The great love game". Except for Miss Palmer's ironic encounter with a clumsy bellboy and a lithe diplomat who caught her off guard in one go, the film is just a crude reprocessing of the ever-useful "round dance" motif. (...) Nonetheless, Hildegard Knef stands out as always in the role of prostitute; Interestingly, Alexandra Stewart is chilly as a scholarly woman, and Daliah Lavi plays the kind of devoted secretary any businessman would hire right away, without a typewriter exam. Peter Van Eyck, Thomas Fritsch, Danièle Gaubert and Paul Hubschmid do what they can to fight against Alfred Weidenman's experienced directing and a lousy script. Until Miss Palmer's late, electrifying appearance, this is a hopeless case. "
