The man who wanted to live twice
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The man who wanted to live twice |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1950 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Viktor Tourjansky |
| script |
Harald Braun Heinz Pauck |
| production | Harald Braun |
| music | Lothar Bruhne |
| camera | Konstantin Irmen-Tschet |
| cut | Claus from Boro |
| occupation | |
and Joseph Offenbach , Peter Lühr , Gunnar Möller , Wastl Witt , Helga Lehn , Dieter von der Recke | |
The Man Who Wanted to Live Twice is a German movie melodrama from 1950 by Viktor Tourjansky with Rudolf Forster , who can be seen here in his first post-war film, in the title role. The then 19-year-old medical student Marianne Koch made her film debut here; the novel for this story was provided by Fred Andreas .
action
The aging chief physician of a large clinic, Professor Hesse, actually has everything one could wish for: fame, recognition, a loving wife, from whom he has become more and more estranged, and two teenage children who are out of the woods . And yet he is deeply dissatisfied with his life, finds his existence devoid of meaning and asks himself the classic question “Is that supposed to have been all?” No, he thinks, that shouldn't be the case. He has a right to live a different, alternative, new life, which must have no points of contact with the old one. And so one day he staged a car accident in order to break out of his previous life and everyday clinical routine and start from scratch somewhere else. Only his secretary Maria Monnard knows. She is his lover who wants to accompany him into the new future. He is the man who wanted to live twice.
But what sounds tempting in theory is infinitely more difficult to implement in reality. The one attempt to disappear on a fishing cutter is doomed to failure, as is the belief that you will find a new goal in life abroad as Alm-Öhi high in the mountains. His old life repeatedly catches up with him, and this new life also proves to be unsatisfactory. One day, after a detour, Professor Hesse received the news that his son Kai was seriously ill. The physician immediately goes to his old place of work, but has to recognize on site that he has become superfluous and has been replaced by someone else. Disappointed all along the line, the professor disappears with bowed head and completely disaffected into the unknown. The viewer is not told which future Hesse will choose.
Production notes
The film was made in mid-1950 in the film studios of Munich-Geiselgasteig and in the Bavarian Alps (external shots). It was premiered on September 15, 1950 at the Hanover World Games. The Berlin premiere took place on December 1st of the same year.
Jacob Geis took over the production management. The film structures come from Franz Bi and Botho Höfer .
Reviews
Critic Dieter Fritko found hardly any kind words in the Frankfurter Rundschau . Here it was said that Forster, as a professor, stepped “lonely into that fog that makes the film a bit confused both atmospherically and mentally” and found that he embodied “the soigned Weltschmerz beyond the limits of the believable”. Conclusion: "Together with the non-filmic facial expressions of the Burgtheater School, impressions are created that sometimes remind of the mental state of a second."
In Der Spiegel one could read: “Heinz Pauck was eager to give the subject a push from the purely adventurous into something higher. […] It is not as easy for the camera as it would have had it if the case of Professor Hesse had been set in motion as an exciting, fast-moving adventure of escape and persecution in front of such internal conditions and processes. In order to demonstrate the ambitious spiritual depth she is striving for, she has to call upon the invisible voice of conscience and meanwhile treads on the spot. And relies on Rudolf Forster. Elegant melancholy and highly cultivated reserve, played softly, have always been his specialty. […] Victor Tourjansky […] couldn't do anything better than to concentrate the declamatory part of the film on Rudolf Forster's face for several meters. "
The film service ruled: "Exertedly nebulous and implausible melodrama, which is desperately heading towards an inevitable compromise between a happy ending and a tragic solution."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau, issue of October 21, 1950
- ↑ The man who wanted to live twice in Der Spiegel 38/1950
- ↑ The man who wanted to live twice. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 26, 2019 .