The black lot
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The black lot |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | approx. 52 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Gottowt |
| script | Adolf Paul |
| production | Deutsche Bioscop GmbH, Berlin |
| camera | Karl Hasselmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The Black Lot is a German silent film from 1913 by and with John Gottowt .
action
The action, kept entirely in the tradition of the Commedia dell'arte , takes place in a lovely Mediterranean landscape. Members of a typical Italian drama troupe perform there. The focus of the initially cheerful, later tragic event is a triangular relationship, consisting of the classic Commedia triad Pierrot, Colombina and Arlecchino. They all appear in costumes. The cheerful mood is suddenly clouded when jealousy arises between two men fighting for the favor of the beautiful.
The game is reflected in reality, because the scenery is a film in the film: the colorful actors appearing are cinema artists in masquerades. Now the boundaries begin to blur - the appearance becomes reality, the happy and cheerful game suddenly becomes deadly seriousness, because the role-play of the protagonists is transferred to reality. The jealousy leads to an act of violence against the Arlecchino, whom Colombina loves.
classification
A century later, the assessment of this film said: "The film sees itself as an experiment without subtitles and contains, certainly another indication of the demanding conception, the film-in-film motif."
The film curator Karola Gramann writes: "We see a film in the film, and this is how PIERROTS LETZTES ADVENTURE gains documentary quality: It shows the film equipment from the decade, cameras, tripods, etc. and cameramen as well as the director at work."
Production notes and background
The black ticket was made in the early summer of 1913, a few weeks after director John Gottowt finished his role in The Student of Prague . It was Gottowt's only foray into film directing. The five-act film with a length of 1415 meters passed the censorship on August 21, 1913 and was premiered on October 20, 1913 in Berlin's Union-Palast Kurfürstendamm.
The film was shot in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg , the exterior shots were taken on Lake Lugano and Lake Como as well as in Vienna .
Stage star Alexander Moissi , who rarely appeared in front of the camera, played here with his future wife Johanna Terwin .
The film is particularly important because it was one of the first movies to get along without any inter-titles. Its subtitle was consequently A Untitled Commedia dell'arte .
Robert A. Dietrich designed the film structures, the costume designs were created by Max Reinhardt's set designer Ernst Stern .
The film was shown in Austria-Hungary under the title Pierrot's Last Adventure .
Individual evidence
- ↑ some sources name Emil Albes as co-director. Gerhard Lamprecht: Deutsche Stummfilm 1913–1914, p. 50, on the other hand only describes him as Gottowt's assistant director
- ↑ Thomas Brandlmeier in CineGraph: Early German Comedy Film 1895–1917
- ↑ The black lot on stummfilm.at ( memento of the original from November 4, 2013 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.
