The final chapter (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The last chapter |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Liebeneiner |
| script | Georg Hurdalek based on the novel of the same name (“Siste kapitel”, 1923) by Knut Hamsun |
| production | Walter Koppel |
| music | Siegfried Franz |
| camera | Heinz Pehlke |
| cut | Carl Otto Bartning |
| occupation | |
| |
The last chapter is a German feature film from 1961 based on the novel of the same name (1923) by Knut Hamsun . Under the direction of Wolfgang Liebeneiner , Hansjörg Felmy , Karin Baal and her later husband Helmuth Lohner play the leading roles.
action
The action takes place in a Norwegian sanatorium called Torahus, located in a picturesque landscape. People have gathered here who suffer from a wide variety of diseases and have very different backgrounds. Many of them are very close to death in one way or another, are old and frail, or seriously ill, or just imagine both. Death is omnipresent in her world of thought, the end of life that is looming “the last chapter”. One of the sanatorium inmates is the all-negating cynic Mr. Magnus, who likes to philosophize about life and death and who is essentially malicious. He hopes to be able to heal his mental ailments, which have very worldly causes, in the sanatorium. His thoughts often revolve around suicide , but so far he has not dared to take this decisive step, allegedly because no moment has been the right one for it.
The other sanatorium patients include Julie d'Espard, a pretty and lively, but also somewhat strange, young woman. She is proud of her name and that, in keeping with the name, she can also speak French. Every now and then she goes for a walk with the lung-sick and somewhat frail Oliver Fleming, a man with silk stockings and elegant manners. It is said that he is a Finnish count. There are also Consul Ruben, a burly middle-aged woman, a lawyer, a timber merchant and various others. These protagonists meet every day, take care of their ailments and real problems, have more or less inconsequential conversations, harbor hopes for improvement or bore each other to death. Many of them have settled in with their illness, are no longer able to enjoy the fresh mountain air, or even have the will to want to improve their actual or only imagined illness. No question about it: urban neurotics and other people who actually lack nothing here care for their neuroses, depression, allergies, as well as modern lifestyle diseases such as obesity and high blood pressure.
Death is always present in this cabinet of the odd and eccentric; Seven people die in a very short time, but not just inmates. Consul Ruben only comes to the sanatorium to visit his wife and dies of a stroke. An ox that has broken loose takes a lady by the horns and throws her into an abyss. A man has a fatal accident, a doctor falls into a hole that the fishermen have drilled in the ice. Although he was rescued, he died a little later of pneumonia caught in the freezing cold. One night a severe storm breaks out and results in a fire that sets the main building on fire. Numerous guests become victims of the sea of flames. Ironically, the “passionate suicide” Magnus survived the disaster. Now that he is finally convinced of the futility of life, he wants to hang himself on a branch, but in the end he depends more on life than he would like, and he breaks off the attempt.
In the collection of desperate and failed characters, only one character stands out: it is the farmer Daniel Utby. He lives on his farm with a maid near the sanatorium. He is young and healthy, frugal and refreshingly normal in the face of the failed sanatorium existence. He is absorbed in his work, does not allow himself any quirks or extra sausages, loves life and not death. A love affair develops between him and the slightly exaggerated Julie. Daniel, who only sees the existence of Mr. Fleming as a hindrance to his happiness, takes out the supposed rival, who also turns out to be a cheat, with one shot from his hunting rifle. Daniel is sentenced to seven years in prison. Meanwhile, Julie moves into his farmhouse, gives birth to a child, looks after the fields and, by the way, waits for her lover to return.
Production notes
Originally Gustav Ucicky , who recently had some experience with literary, “Nordic” subjects ( The Girl from the Moorhof , The Legacy of Björndal ), was supposed to direct the film. When Ucicky was in preparation for the shooting in Hamburg, the seat of the European film producer Walter Koppels , he died suddenly at the end of April 1961. Liebeneiner was then offered to direct. He shot in Norway in August and September 1961 and in the studio in Hamburg. The last chapter premiered on October 19, 1961 in Stuttgart .
Werner Ludwig was in charge of production. The couple Mathias Matthies and Ellen Schmidt created the film structures, Anneliese Ludwig designed the costumes. Wolfgang Treu was a simple cameraman under the direction of Heinz Pehlke .
Lohner and Baal met while filming and got married the following year.
Reviews
“ Georg Hurdalek appears as a screenwriter in the opening credits . You don't believe it. The novel by Knut Hamsun was made into a film quite early on. The script lets discipline be discipline and tells the novel in cinema length. No wonder that the film is rushed and tangled ... and seems to have been shot with time lapse. The strange hectic pace makes you shake your head all the more as 'The Last Chapter' apparently wants to count itself to the - certainly not nervous - genre of the Heimatfilm. - Against the backdrop of the Norwegian mountains (photographed in beautiful, unobtrusive colors) director Wolfgang Liebeneiner presents an impressive series of actors who mime the joys and sorrows of the sanatorium customers. Among the celebrities, Felmy is always Felmy; One of the supporting roles is to look out for Ina Halley. "
"We do without penetrating Heimatfilm cuddly."
In the lexicon of the international film it says: “The pessimistic portrayal of Hamsun is inevitably coarsened. It remains an oppressive Heimat film with landscape shots from the Norwegian mountains. "
"In 1961, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, together with Karin Baal, Hansjörg Felmy and Helmut Lohner, directed the film, characterized by a gloomy atmosphere but beautiful images, about sick people who seek healing in a Norwegian sanatorium."
"Superficial film adaptation of events from Hamsun's novel of the same name in the style of the cultivated German Heimatfilm, based on a few unclear main characters and tangible plot effects."
Individual evidence
- ↑ The last chapter. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 13, 2015 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 639/1961.
Web links
- The last chapter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The last chapter at filmportal.de