The Congress Dances (1931)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Congress is dancing |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Erik Charell |
| script | Norbert Falk , Robert Liebmann |
| production | Universum Film AG ( Erich Pommer ) |
| music | Werner Richard Heymann |
| camera | Carl Hoffmann |
| cut | Viktor Gertler |
| occupation | |
| |
The Congress Dances is a German UFA film from 1931 .
action
The film is set in Vienna in 1815 during the Congress of Vienna . At this time, Vienna is the most important metropolis in Europe, where the rulers of the world meet. The young Christel Weinzinger is a glove maker . She advertises her business by throwing a bouquet of flowers with her business card on every monarch's carriage that goes by. She accidentally hits the Russian Tsar Alexander on the head. The bouquet is initially mistaken for a bomb and Christel is accused of an attempted assassination. Because of lese majeste it is finally sentenced to "25 strokes of the cane on the bare butt", but just released at the behest of the Tsar in time again. The Tsar falls in love with Christel and the two spend the evening in the vineyard. A romance develops that Prince Metternich wants to use in his favor, since it is important to him that the Tsar stays away from the meetings of the Congress. Ironically, Pepi, Metternich's secretary, who himself is in love with Christel, is now supposed to support “the tsar's women stories”. Christel tells her friends about her experience, but they only believe her when she is picked up in a splendid carriage to her new villa. The tsar himself, who does not allow Metternich to wrap himself up, shines with his absence. Instead, Uralsky, his official doppelganger and placeholder for boring social obligations, causes some confusion for both Metternich and Christel as the plot progresses. The romance comes to an end when Napoléon Bonaparte fled the island of Elba and marched on Paris . Alexander, like all other rulers, is leaving as soon as possible. Christel remains unhappy and finds consolation from Pepi.
background
After Die Drei von der Gasstelle or Der Blaue Engel was Der Kongress tanzt another great music film by the German sound film , which Ufa and its producer Erich Pommer played a key role in . Compared to its predecessors, this so-called sound film operetta was much more extensive. Director Erik Charell , already in Berlin and London through his successful revues and operettas such as B. Known in the Weiße Rössl , this style has now also been implemented on the canvas. The film is characterized by high pace and big ball scenes for the time. The greatest musical success of the film was Christel's song , better known under the name There's Only One Time (music: Werner Richard Heymann , text: Robert Gilbert ). Also popular is the Heurigen song sung by Paul Hörbiger that must be a piece of heaven, Vienna and the wine ... (text also by Robert Gilbert), in which Heymann uses the melody of the waltz Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb und Lust by Josef Strauss . Heymann also draws on his waltz spherical sounds at key points. This sound film operetta turns implicitly and explicitly against the despotic methods of Metternich, the subservience of the Viennese, the cruelty of the judiciary, as well as against the brutality of tsarism and the eerie esotericism of the (anachronistically quoted) Russian avant-garde: a Russian ballet dances according to Borodin's Prince Igor. Napoleon's return from Elba, on the other hand, is celebrated almost in the style of Abel Gance 's Napoleon film, with the Marseillaise playing . The remakes of the post-war era could no longer build on this humorous and critical progressiveness.
Production notes
The shooting took place in the UFA studios in Neubabelsberg , today's Studio Babelsberg . Since the synchronization of films was not yet common in the early 1930s , Der Kongreß tanzt was filmed in an English and a French version parallel to the German language version. While Lilian Harvey played in all three versions (which earned her a contract with the US studio 20th Century Fox ), the role of Tsar Alexander in the English and French versions was taken over by Henri Garat .
The film premiered on September 29, 1931 in Vienna and was shown in German cinemas on October 20, 1931.
It was banned by the film inspection agency in the German Reich on October 1, 1937 , because it had violated “National Socialist sentiments” and Jews were involved in the production. Both the actor Otto Wallburg, who was very popular at the time, and the screenwriter Robert Liebmann were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp .
The Congress dances is considered the most expensive UFA film in the Weimar Republic. The Berlin premiere alone cost the UFA 300,000 Reichsmarks. It is still one of the most important German films of all time.
Others
Within the representation of a crowd scene - Lilian Harvey drives in a carriage along the backdrop of a Viennese street and sings the hit Das ist only once - there is a director's error, because for a few seconds a cable carrier can be seen rolling up the camera cable behind the carriage. When director Charell noticed the mistake in the editing room, he decided to keep the filmed scene, as a new recording would have been too time-consuming due to the large number of extras and musicians involved. He trusted that viewers would only pay attention to the leading lady.
Reviews
“Charell as a director completely unleashed the camera. She doesn't stand still for a second, the game scenes are almost neglected. The wine tavern with the famous singer Paul Hörbiger is already a revue, a real show, a paraphrase of all things filmmaking. Everything moves, everything turns. Wonderful cross-fades, wonderfully splendid furnishings, musically the rhythm of sound and image fits. When the Heurigentanz turns into the opera ballet, when the empty congress chairs rock to the beat - dazzling effects [Werner Richard] Heymanns. Sometimes one has to think of [Ernst] Lubitsch . Harvey climaxes in a solo scene when she moves into the Hietzing villa that was given to her. How she is led through the whole of Vienna with the hit of the evening, "It only happens once, it won't come back" [sic], how she dances alone through the rooms, that's wonderful. "
"A once famous musical comedy, today only of historical attraction for fans of the revue film."
Remake
With Der Kongreß tanzt , a new Austrian film was made in 1955 under the direction of Franz Antel . The main roles were played by Johanna Matz (Christel), Rudolf Prack (Alexander), Karl Schönböck (Metternich) and Gunther Philipp (Pepi). The same music was used for this film as in the original.
literature
- Chris Wahl: Language version films from Babelsberg. The international strategy of Ufa 1929–1939 edition text + kritik, Munich 2009, 458 pages + DVD, ISBN 978-3-88377-948-5
- Joachim Reichow: The Congress is dancing . In Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. Henschel Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1993, pp. 270 f., ISBN 3-89487-009-5
- Joe Hembus , Christa Bandmann : Classics of the German sound film. 1930-1960 . Goldmann Magnum / Citadel film books. Goldmann, Munich 1980, 262 pages, ISBN 3-442-10207-3
- Horst Claus and Anne Jäckel: Ufa, France and versions. The example “Congress is dancing” . In: Sibylle Sturm u. a .: Hello? Berlin? Ici Paris! German-French film relations 1918–1939 . CineGraph book. edition text + kritik, Munich 1996, 196 pages, ISBN 3-88377-538-X
- François Genton: The congress dances, a "Viennese idyll?" (S. Kracauer), in: Herta Luise Ott / Eric Leroy du Cardonnoy (ed.), "Perceptions du Congrès de Vienne: répercussions d'un événement européen (XIXe- XXIe siècle) “, Austriaca 79, December 2014, pp. 221–239.
- Gordon A. Craig: German History 1866-1945 - From the North German Confederation to the End of the Third Reich , CH Beck, 1st edition, 1980/1981, p. 433 f., ISBN 978-3-406-07815-6
- Heike Goldbach: A firework of charm - Willy Fritsch. The Ufa actor. About a great film career in changeable times . tredition, Hamburg 2017, pp. 124–132. ISBN 978-3-7439-1290-8
See also
Web links
- The Congress Dances in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The congress is dancing at filmportal.de
- The congress dances at murnau-stiftung.de
- Photos and literature
Individual evidence
- ^ François Genton: The congress dances, a "Viennese idyll?" (S. Kracauer), in: Herta Luise Ott / Eric Leroy du Cardonnoy (ed.), "Perceptions du Congrès de Vienne: répercussions d'un événement européen (XIXe -XXIe siècle) ", Austriaca 79, December 2014, pp. 230-239.
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: Anniversary: Studio Babelsberg - 100 Years of Great Cinema Hamburger Abendblatt from February 17, 2012, accessed on September 13, 2016
- ↑ Chris Wahl: Language version films from Babelsberg. Ufa’s international strategy 1929–1939 in www.hhprinzler.de: Film Book of the Month October 2009 www.hhprinzler.de, accessed on September 13, 2016
- ↑ Censorship decision ( Memento of September 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 57 kB)
- ^ Jan-Pieter Barbian : National Socialist Film Policy . In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 7 (2014): Literatur, Film, Theater und Kunst , p. 340
- ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8 , p. 332 and p. 579.
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: Anniversary: Studio Babelsberg - 100 Years of Great Cinema Hamburger Abendblatt from February 17, 2012, accessed on September 13, 2016
- ↑ The most important German films - Chronological overview. German Film Institute, accessed on April 14, 2019 .
- ↑ Heike Goldbach: A firework of charm. Willy Fritsch. The Ufa actor. About a great film career in changeable times. tredition, Hamburg 2017, p. 128.
- ^ Pem : Charell, Vienna and the Congress dance. World premiere of the first Charell film at Scala in Vienna. In: Neue Berliner Zeitung - Das 12 Uhr Blatt , No. 229, September 30, 1931.
- ↑ The Congress is dancing. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 29, 2017 .