The Artificial Silk Girl (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The artificial silk girl |
| Country of production | Germany , France |
| original language |
German Italian |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Julien Duvivier |
| script |
René Barjavel Julien Duvivier Robert A. Stemmle based on the novel of the same name (1932) by Irmgard Keun |
| production |
Kurt Ulrich Alf Teichs (chief dramaturge) |
| music | Heino Gaze |
| camera | Göran Strindberg |
| cut | Klaus Eckstein |
| occupation | |
| |
The artificial silk girl is a 1959 film adaptation of the eponymous contemporary novel by Irmgard Keun . Under the direction of the French doyen Julien Duvivier played Giulietta Masina in the title role.
action
The Federal Republic of Germany of the present. Eighteen-year-old Doris Putzke works as a secretary for a lawyer in Idstein im Taunus . She lives in poor conditions. The stepfather has no job and gives himself up completely to alcohol, the mother earns a starvation wage as a cloakroom attendant at the theater. A large part of Doris' salary goes towards her poor accommodation. Doris dreams of a better life, of money, a beautiful house and rich men who can stand it. She no longer wants to starve any longer, no longer live from hand to mouth, and she also thinks that she deserves exactly such a life in luxury with parties, wealthy men and gifts. Having morals is only a hindrance, and she sees no need for it. Doris knows that she will not achieve social or financial advancement on her own with her work and starvation wages, and so from now on she begins countless love affairs and hops from one man to another - the main thing is that he can do it for enjoyment, a fun-loving, young one To have a blonde by your side, you pay well. Miss Putzke quickly begins to see through the nature of men. She ensnares them and knows how to coax expensive gifts from them. She is always on the verge of prostitution .
Even her boss in the office falls for the child-wistful looks of his typist; Doris knows how to distract her employer from the typing errors that she makes time and again with just the blink of an eye. But one day he wants more, and Doris Putzke firmly rejects him. Lolita then loses her job. One of her later lovers, the well-established, plump Arthur Greenland, will one day smear honey around her mouth and advise Doris to give film a try. But the reality is different, and so Doris is delighted that her mother can provide the now unemployed with an extra role at the theater where mother Putzke works. Doris quickly realizes that the drama students dream of higher things just like the office girls. In order to gain recognition, Doris claims to have a relationship with the theater director. In fact, Doris gets a small role and is accepted into drama school. Her lie about being the director's mistress is exposed. At the same time, Doris' only great love from bygone days returns to the city. To show him that she "made it" and to win him back, Doris steals a fur coat. But then she panics that she will be arrested by the police and Miss Putzke flees to Berlin.
Doris is fascinated by the hustle and bustle of the big metropolis, the many people and neon signs. Her fur should become the ticket to a world full of promises and above all the entrance to the rich men whom she only has to wrap around her finger. Doris hopes to find accommodation with Tilly Scherer, whose husband is currently working on assembly - always in fear that the police will be looking for her because of the stolen coat. In this situation - without registration, without work, living in semi-illegality, Doris Putzke is more dependent than ever on rich patrons. She gets to know the glittering night world, the bars, variety theaters and dance halls that leave a powerful impression on the province. But she also sees the dark side, the stale sheen of the glittering metropolis. The glamor light, the superficialities, always the same amusements - Doris begins to long for the "great love". And she's homesick, of all places for the province. Doris begins to feel like a prostitute. Her disgust for the extremely wealthy Mr Onyx, for example, who would like to make her his lover, is greater than the lure of a carefree future that now seems within reach. When that Mr. Onyx, of course - like most of her other “companions” - married and a man with proven double standards, learns that he is not the only man in Doris' life who can stand her, he separates from her.
Doris begins to open her eyes for the first time on a completely different acquaintance. Mr. Brenner, an elderly man and at the same time her apartment neighbor, has been blind since a war injury. Doris will soon be his eyes. She describes the city to him as she sees it and captures its breathlessness for him. For a short time she soon becomes the lover of the well-to-do, wealthy Mr. Alexander and is overwhelmed by the luxury she had dreamed of for so long. She finally feels that she has arrived, although this man also has a wife at home. Doris lets her friends and mother share in the wealth financed by Alexander. When her sponsor is arrested one day, Doris returns to Tilly Scherer again. Another dream seems to have burst. Things get complicated when Tilly's husband, Albert, returns from Montage and Doris does a lot of courting. Doris runs away and ends up on the street. In the waiting room of a train station, she meets the unemployed machinist Karl, who lives in a garden colony and keeps himself afloat by selling vegetables and carving toys that he has grown himself. He offers Doris modest accommodation in his rural dacha, but her pride prevents her from accepting the offer.
Then Doris got to know the 37-year-old Ernst Moos, a signed, decent single with his own apartment. He is happy to finally have company again because he feels lonely. Moos doesn't press Doris either, he still loves his wife Hanne, who left him sitting some time ago. For the first time, Doris feels mentally well and unwillingly does the work of a housewife for the bachelor. When Doris begins to fall in love with the lanky commercial artist, she wants to pour him pure wine about her past and hands him her diary. He should find out all of her dirty past. Doris intercepts a letter from Hannes to her husband and withholds this letter because she fears that Ernst will forgive the faithless Hanne and return to her. For the first time Doris is the driving force who wants to turn her emotional closeness into a physical one. But Ernst is brittle; he still depends too much on the memories of Hanne. The differences in education between the two are also too contradictory - while Ernst is a cultivated, well-read gentleman of the world, Doris is only connected to simple diversion. Doris realizes that for the first time she cannot conquer a man and lets Ernst move in with his Hanne. Now Doris is homeless again. When she arrived at the bottom, she remembers Karl's offer and dives into his arboretum.
Production notes
The artificial silk girl was created in the second half of 1959 and premiered on February 16, 1960 in Berlin's Filmbühne Wien . The film structures come from the hands of Rolf Zehetbauer , Gabriel Pellon and Peter Röhrig .
The story, set in the literary original in Germany and Berlin at the end of the 1920s, was relocated to present-day Germany for the film (1959).
backgrounds
With Jons and Erdme (1959) and this production, which was filmed in the same year, producer Kurt Ulrich intended to move away from the fairway of shallow mass entertainment, which had previously characterized his product range. After watching The Nights of Cabiria with Giulietta Masina, he really wanted to engage the Italian star actress for these two and a planned third film ( The Threepenny Opera ). He then traveled to Rome and allegedly even beat the competition from Hollywood in the negotiations. However, after the two German Ulrich Masina collaborations flopped at the box office, there was no longer a third collaboration with the Fellini wife. The planned third film, Die Dreigroschenoper , did not go into production until 1962 and had Hildegard Knef in the role intended for the Masina.
Reviews
“After his failure with the first German Giulietta Masina film ' Jons und Erdme ', the Berlin producer Kurt Ulrich hired a veteran French film director, Julien Duvivier, for his second venture with the Italian actress. In the fable (borrowed from a novel by Irmgard Keun) Masina, as Doris Putzke dreaming of prosperity, has to awaken the lust for the flesh in a total of fourteen men; But this mass influx of German potency appears to be untrustworthy, even in view of the radish head of Masina, which is now permanently waved. Duvivier's episode film is reminiscent of Fellini's Masina film ' The Nights of Cabiria ' only in the subject, but in no way in the execution . "
“Back then - in the twenties - Irmgard Keun picked the right type with her vibrantly witty novel column: the half-silly girl who tries everyone and has no luck. Back then it was a kind of existence, a tingling intermediate subject with changing engagements. But today this subject is no longer filled. Today you are either good - what they call so good - or Nitribitt. The flair of the great Berlin years is missing for nuances and nuances, and even Julien Duvivier cannot bring that out again with the Masina; Even the professional maiden gathered dust in the Museum of Time. The German-French-Italian film is therefore an international misunderstanding, and even a very charming one if one turns a blind eye to the fact that so much water has been wasted in the stream of time. At least one shouldn't have pretended that the artificial silk, garnished with an atomic look, was still an article today. This mistake is unforgivable; one should have come to us historically. Then we would have found some things so charming as they are presented. This sad and funny girl, for example, the Masina, who never quite loses the courage to continue on her melancholy stroll through the countless men. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: "This plot is moved from the 1920s to a rather provincial Berlin of today, the title character of Giulietta Masina is, as always, a bit too grotesque, but lets the suffering person see through."
The lexicon of the international film reads: “Irmgard Keun's cheeky, critical novel about the basement child Doris Putzke striving for higher goals, the film moves from Berlin in the 20s to the 50s without taking the changed circumstances into account. Director Duvivier fails not least because of the inconsistencies in the script. Giulietta Masina in the role of the typist, who is looking for happiness by getting involved with new men, also remains unusually pale. "
Web links
- The Artificial Silk Girl in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The artificial silk girl at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Report in Der Spiegel from April 22, 1959
- ^ The artificial silk girl in Der Spiegel from March 2, 1960
- ^ The artificial silk girl in the Hamburger Abendblatt of March 26, 1960
- ↑ The artificial silk girl in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) 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 artificial silk girl. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
