The boy in blue
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The boy in blue |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1919 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau |
| script | Edda Ottershausen |
| production | Ernst Hofmann |
| camera |
Karl Freund , Carl Hoffmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The Boy in Blue (alternative title: Der Todessmaragd ) is (presumably) the first film by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau . The 1919 film may never have been shown publicly and is considered lost .
action
Thomas von Weerth, the last descendant of an old, impoverished aristocratic family, lives with an old servant in a romantic, ruined castle that is surrounded by deep moats.
A portrait of one of his ancestors hangs in the castle, showing a boy in blue. Thomas, whose features resemble those of the ancestor shown, believes in being the reincarnation of the boy in blue. Again and again he stands looking in front of the picture, which also shows a famous emerald that the ancestor wears on his chest. After all, he looks everywhere in the castle for the stone, which, because it always brought harm to its wearer, was hidden somewhere by another ancestor.
One evening Thomas falls asleep in front of the picture and dreams of the boy stepping out of the picture and leading him to the hiding place. When he wakes up and looks in the indicated hiding place, he actually finds the emerald there. The old servant asks him in vain to throw away the stone that is supposed to bring bad luck, but Thomas ignores the warnings and keeps the gemstone with him.
One day a group of traveling actors comes to the castle. Thomas falls in love with a beautiful gypsy, but she and the captain of the troops get him under their control and take everything he still has; eventually the whole castle burns down. This also destroys the picture and steals the boy's emerald.
After a long illness, Thomas finally found recovery and happiness through the selfless love of a beautiful actress.
style
This early work by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau already offers a foretaste of the gloomy and eerie scenery that will ultimately be perfectly staged in Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror . Murnau was inspired by the famous painting The Blue Boy by the English painter Thomas Gainsborough , which at that time was still in a private collection in England. This image was later taken up as a subject in other films.
In contrast to Fritz Lang , for example , who consciously took up the developing city as a theme with his films such as Metropolis , Murnau preferred rural, rural themes. In contrast to the later home films , Murnau shows life from a dark, melancholy side; the influence of Edgar Allan Poe , ETA Hoffmann and Oscar Wilde is striking. The rural but fateful life as a theme is later taken up again by Murnau in the films The Burning Field and The Expulsion , among others .
Murnau made a similar film two years later with Vogelöd Castle .
background
The film was filmed in the Saturn Film AG studios at Grosse Frankfurter Strasse 106 in Berlin , as well as in the Vischering moated castle near Lüdinghausen . The buildings are by Willi A. Herrmann .
The film had a length of files at 1,580 meters, about 77 minutes. The Reichsfilmzensur only issued a youth ban on April 7, 1921 (No. 1793).
It is not known why the film was presumably not distributed further.
reception
There is no received public review of the film; the above story comes from the book "Murnau" by Lotte Eisner . Murnau himself stated that he did not know whether the film was shown in a public cinema.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Boy in Blue / The Death Emerald on the pages of the Deutsche Kinemathek
- ↑ Location entry on IMDB
- ↑ Film length calculator , frame rate : 18
