The Judge of Zalamea (1956)
The Judge of Zalamea is a German film adaptation of DEFA by Martin Hellberg from 1956. It is based on the play of the same name by Pedro Calderón de la Barca .
action
Spain in 1580: King Philip II sets off to defeated Portugal and his soldiers go with him. At the invitation of the rich farmer Pedro Crespo, some soldiers around Captain Don Alvaro settle in Zalamea. Don Alvaro is quartered with Pedro Crespo and soon learns from a loyal man that his host is hiding his beautiful daughter Isabell from the soldiers. Don Alvaro fakes a fight with the naive Rebolledo, as a result of which he penetrates Isabell's apartment. He desires the young woman from the very first sight. The arrival of the general not only stops the fight. The general recognizes the seriousness of the situation and quartered Don Alvaro. Instead, he takes the room for the night himself, as the soldiers are supposed to move on the next day.
The general, however, has to ride on during the night. In addition, Pedro Crespo's son Juan signed up as a soldier and followed the general. Don Alvaro takes the opportunity and kidnaps Isabell, who now has no protection other than her father. Pedro Crespo is knocked down by Don Alvaro's people, dragged into the forest and left tied to a tree. Don Alvaro also abandons Isabell in the woods after raping her. When Juan hears of the crime, he deserted and hurried back to the village. He sets Don Alvaro in the forest and stabs him in battle. Seriously injured, Don Alvaro is brought back to the village. Meanwhile, Isabell has found Pedro Crespo in the forest and freed him. A clerk appears at Pedro Crespo's and informs him that the villagers have elected him to be the village judge.
Pedro Crespo returns to the village as a judge. He begs Don Alvaro to take away from her the shame he has brought on Isabell and to marry her. Don Alvaro refuses, however, especially since he knows that only a court martial, not a peasant, has to judge him. Pedro Crespo has Don Alvaro arrested. The general has learned that his captain has been arrested by a village judge and is returning to Zalamea. He calls for the captain to be surrendered, but Pedro Crespo tells him that he will not hand over a judgment that he can pass as a judge. Isabell files charges against Don Alvaro, who is sentenced to death. Just as the general is about to have Zalamea bombarded to force Don Alvaro's surrender, the king appears. He has the case explained to him and finds that the death sentence against Don Alvaro is legal. He wants the enforcement to be carried out by his own courts, but Pedro Crespo shows him that Don Alvaro has already been executed in the meantime - right is right, no matter who is enforcing it. Here, too, the king finally agrees. He appoints the wise judge as judge for life and the general is also reconciled. With a final greeting to Pedro Crespo and his family, the soldiers move on to Portugal.
production
Director Martin Hellberg had staged Der Richter von Zalamea even before the film was shot at the Volksbühne in Berlin . He based the film adaptation on his theatrical work. Shot in 1955, the film premiered on April 20, 1956 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin and in the DEFA film theater Kastanienallee. At the time of its appearance, it was considered the "first DEFA classic film".
criticism
Contemporary critics praised Der Richter von Zalamea as a "positive step in our cinematographic art towards the cinematic redesign of a dramatic work":
“Martin Hellberg tackled a project with passion and love that was close to his heart as an artist and that he rightly considered necessary and good as a cultural politician. He realized this project with limited resources and in a very short (probably too short) time. The result is there. It is an attempt and should be rated as such. A successful attempt in terms of proof of its justification. Imperfect with regard to the aim that the attempt serves: to adequately film classic materials. "
Other critics wrote that Hellberg and cameraman Neumann "[rule] the camera in a masterly manner, as we know it from the best international films and unfortunately often miss in our films." At the 2nd film conference, the film was presented by State Secretary and 1st Deputy of the Minister for Culture of the GDR, Alexander Abusch criticized as "clerical-religious propaganda" and negatively emphasized the lack of partisan standpoint of the filmmakers.
The lexicon of international films said that Hellberg tried to "create a specific cinematic quality by frequent changes of scene" and called Der Richter von Zalamea "an honorable, if not completely successful experiment."
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 485-486 .
Web links
- The judge of Zalamea in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The judge of Zalamea in the dictionary of international films
- The judge from Zalamea at filmportal.de
- The judge of Zalamea at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 486 .
- ↑ a b c Klaus Wischnewski: Filmed Classics and a lack of prerequisites . In: Deutsche Filmkunst , No. 6, 1956, pp. 169ff.
- ↑ See Wolfgang Joho: Classic work, classic filmed . In: Sonntag , No. 18, 1956.
- ↑ See Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 133.
- ↑ The Judge of Zalamea. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 28, 2017 .