The mandarin
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The mandarin |
| Country of production | Austria-Hungary |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | 61 (today's version) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fritz Freisler |
| script |
Paul Franck Fritz Freisler |
| production |
Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky for Sascha-Film , Vienna |
| occupation | |
| |
The Mandarin is an Austro-Hungarian silent film drama from 1918 by Fritz Freisler .
action
Near Vienna . In the Steinhof insane asylum , the head of the institution tells the writer Kristinus about a strange case that once happened here: The very rich bon vivant Baron von Stroom had fallen in love with the actress von Gaalen. But the lovely beauty regularly rejected him, and so the successful beau fell bit by bit insane. One day the baron met a peddler who was selling him a Chinese clay figure with the title of a Chinese Mandarin . Suddenly the clay figure, like a golem , came to life and offered the nobleman to bring him all the women he wished for. No woman will ever be able to reject him again, so the tempting promise. Von Stroom accepts this diabolical pact by which he reveals his soul.
From now on the mandarin becomes the second shadow strooms; sometimes the Asian serves his European master as a chauffeur, sometimes as a boy and sometimes as a bodyguard. The Chinese eccentric keeps his promise: all women's hearts fall to Baron Stroom. It starts with the actress Gaalen, followed by the wife of the Railway King Webster and the Princess of Amarkand. But one day the aristocrat rejects the help of his talisman with a touch of reawakened hubris regarding his own erotic charisma. In no time all magic is gone, no woman can be conquered by Stroom anymore. Even the cheapest whores in the shabby diners turn him away. Soon the desperate only sees the ugly grimace of his former lucky charm, which begins to drive him mad. Scarcely had he arrived in Steinhof when the nobleman thought he recognized the mandarin in the director of the institution. This ends his story, which will provide Kristinus with material for an exciting, psychologically thought-out novel.
Production notes
The film, one of the last Austro-Hungarian productions, was made shortly before the fall of the Habsburg Empire in 1918. In its current version, it is 1115 meters long, spread over four acts, and was premiered on November 22, 1918. Original versions had a length of 2017 resp. 2079 meters, which are divided into six acts in the German version. There had The Mandarin in May 1919 its premiere at the Berlin premiere theater Alexanderplatz. Karl Hartl, who was just 19 years old, assisted director Freisler.
The film, believed to be lost after 1945, is considered to be a forerunner of expressionist cinema in Germany, such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari . It was only rediscovered late in the USA and restored from 2002 to 2004 as part of a joint project between the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna) and the George Eastman House (Rochester).
criticism
“In an astonishingly exciting storyline, we are told the story of the suffering of a poor lunatic who has become a victim of madness from unhappy love. In the performance, castle actor Harry Walden and Karl Goetz, a member of the German People's Theater, shake hands. Harry Walden ... gives us artistic pleasure through the powerful portrayal of his role ... Walden plays the shattering bon vivant, whom his passion throws the insane asylum into the arms. Karl Goetz, on the other hand, plays a Mephistopheles from the Middle Kingdom in the role of the mandarin. Sen's impressive facial expression, supported by an extremely bizarre mask, makes our hearts shudder. (...) A separate praise also deserves the careful directing of Fritz Freißler, who especially in the hustle and bustle in the insane asylum shows images from reality and thus only increases the extremely lasting success of the film. "
classification
“While the First World War is experiencing its cruel endgame, Austrian films tell of a different kind of male madness. The bad dreams of these hero men are not set in motion by the roar of cannons, but by rejection in the field of sexual honor. They are weak bon vivants, silk underwear wearers, debt makers - better men in bad times. Melancholy, “excited nerves” and symbolistic decorations call up the spirit of the times from another direction. And the Mandarin, a psychological drama of light and trick effects, knows how to conjure up this spirit. The locations of the film are Viennese parks and alleys, salons, private rooms and the insane asylum at Steinhof - for example in a blood-red long shot with the Otto Wagner Church enthroned on the horizon. The realism of the representation (in an astonishing picture at the beginning, which shows the various inmates of the institution tightly packed together) gradually gives way to a strong impression of early expressionism - a world of shadows, of externally controlled behavior, of loss of identity. Shortly before the Doctores Caligari and Mabuse in the Weimar cinema from 1920 fogged their victims with hypnotic abilities and allowed them to become subject to authority, the insane Freiherr von Stroom had a similar experience with the Mandarin. The talisman becomes a nemesis and encounters its victim anew in every figure of authority - in the chief policeman who took him away, or in the form of the head doctor von Steinhof. The subtitles scream: Man-da-ri-no! "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Mandarin on filmmuseum.at ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
