The beggar of Savern
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The beggar of Savern |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | approx. 57 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Franz Hofer |
| script | Franz Hofer |
| production | Isidor Fett , Karl Wiesel |
| camera | Ernst Krohn |
| occupation | |
| |
The Beggar von Savern is a German silent film melodrama from 1918 by Franz Hofer with Werner Krauss in the title role.
action
Henri Latour is a bon vivant like he is in the book. He throws the money out with full hands and gives himself over to beautiful things without paying attention to those who meet him on the roadside and who are far worse off than him. This is how he behaves towards a beggar whom he meets at the Cathedral of Savern. His starved, empty look hits him to the core, but he doesn’t like to give anything to this ragged figure.
One day Henri buys a picture from a painter friend out of a champagne mood. The colossal work is delivered to Latour ... and he is deeply affected. There he sees the ragged figure he is familiar with, and the painting bears the name “The Beggar of Savern”. He puts the picture on the wall of his smoking room. One evening when he returns home from a funny company, it seems to him as if the beggar is moving in the picture. Since Henri had already drunk quite a bit, he did not attach too much importance to it and soon fell into a deep sleep.
In a dream the beggar appears to him and tells the man who has been blessed with fortune and wealth about his difficult fate: once he was a young sculptor who had made his girlfriend, who was also his model, pregnant. But he abandoned her to marry another, richer girl. From then on he gave himself up to gamble and lost enormous sums of money. Thereupon his wife separated from him, and the sculptor slipped socially into the abyss. He didn't enjoy sculpting any more, he didn't get any commissions, and in the end he even tried himself as a model. Hunger and his self-inflicted misery drove him to the cathedral, where the fallen man learned to pray again for the first time since childhood.
There he collapsed. An emaciated young girl who was also praying to God saw him and helped him up again. This girl wore a ring on her finger. It was the ring he had given his pregnant lover when he left. So this girl was his daughter! She was very weak, almost starving. He brought her to his meager room to foster her. The girl had a fever, so he put her to bed. Then the man did something he had never done before: he went begging. When he returned the girl had died of exhaustion.
When Henri Latour wakes up from this nightmare, his friends are already waiting for him, who want to pick him up for an evening feast. But the bon vivant has become thoughtful and politely rejects their request. He intends to turn his life upside down. Henri now wants to pursue a serious job, to do something "valuable". He begins to write a book; it will be titled "The Beggar of Savern".
Production notes
The Beggar von Savern passed film censorship in April 1918 and was probably premiered a little later. The four-stroke initially had a length of 1170 meters, but was later shortened to 1052 meters.
The Austrian Lotte Erol was the stepmother of Lien Deyers .
criticism
“The life of the Beggar von Savern is shocking, and the plot that advances relentlessly, hand in hand with the avenging nemesis, lifts the tragedy of the life of the man who sinks from step to step into the deepest misery. A Franz Hofer film as if made for Werner Kraus, the important artist who once again proves how much he can cope with every situation in life. The decoration is original and chosen. The photography excellent. "