The Treasure (1923)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The treasure |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | GW Pabst |
| script |
Willy Hennings G. W. Pabst based on a novella by Rudolf Hans Bartsch |
| production | Carl Froelich for Froelich-Film GmbH, Berlin |
| music | Max German |
| camera | Otto Tober |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Schatz is a German silent film by GW Pabst from 1923. It is Pabst's first cinema production.
action
Somewhere in present-day Slovenia . Svetocar Badalic, his wife Anna and their daughter live in a bell foundry. There, as the master reports, the Turks who were angry in the Balkans once ravaged the area during their retreat in 1683 and buried a valuable treasure. The bell-caster's old journeyman Svetelenz smells the chance to hold the hand of the master's daughter once he has tracked down the treasure. Like his master and his wife, he throws himself into the search with the greatest doggedness. In the young goldsmith Arno, who arrives at the foundry a little later and with whom Beate promptly falls in love, the much older Svetelenz faces massive competition.
The treasure fever has now infected almost everyone, only Beate's thoughts are buzzing about someone else: about Arno. After actually finding the treasure together with Arno, the journeyman becomes madly jealous and pondered how he can get rid of this annoying competitor. Greed grows in him, but before serious arguments can arise, Arno grabs Beate and leaves the foundry with her. There the situation finally escalates to the point of fatal outcome: Out of anger, Svetelenz tears down the most important pillar of the house, which then falls on the remaining three people and buries them all with the recovered gold treasure.
Production notes
The film, shot at the end of 1922, was censored on February 21, 1923, was banned from young people and premiered in Dresden on February 26 . The Berlin premiere took place on April 23, 1923. The treasure only saw its post-war German performance 76 years later , when it was shown on ARTE on October 14, 1999 . In 2007 the film was released on DVD.
The buildings, which are strongly influenced by film expressionism, were designed and executed by the experienced team of architects Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig . Walter Schulze-Mittendorf created the sculptures .
Reviews
Lotte H. Eisner criticized a stylistic inconsistency and analyzed Pabst's debut film in detail:
“Here, Pabst still has the joy of German directors in expressionistic ornamentation: the bell-caster's wife, who comes in a hurry, carries an enormous tray close under her head, her upper body disappears; with her puffed out skirts she looks like one of those bulbous bells that her husband pours. And above the double beds a pillar rises like a tree trunk, its ribs spread out like branches - Pabst lets the camera linger for a long time in such shots. It seems surprising that an artist like Pabst should start out this way. You by no means feel your personal style here; any expressionist director who is looking for a beautiful visual effect could have made this film. What is even more noticeable, however, is that Pabst, who later mastered the montage so extremely subtly, strung together rather monotonously shot after shot. Moreover, every setting is too lengthy, too cumbersome. Each situation is covered in too much detail. Because Pabst tries to sound out the psychological reaction of his characters precisely; this is also completely at odds with the expressionist demands that condemn all psychology. This creates a particularly palpable contrast with the otherwise expressionistic style of the film. On the other hand, on the other hand, in the actors' naturalistic leadership, we can already feel the analytical working method that Pabst will later adopt. (...) Pabst makes use of all expressionistic formal elements in the treasure : the bell caster's house is low, bloated, structureless, a clay-like mass. The ceiling weighs down, the hall is eerily dull like a grave vault; here you can feel the example of the golem most strongly. "
The lexicon of international films wrote: “A melodrama by GW Pabst that has been underestimated for a long time and which, in its restored version, recorded with the original music, impresses with its ambitious artistic claim. One of the great German chamber feature films , at the same time one of the last works of Expressionism. "
In CineGraph it is written: “In the dull, medieval fable, which is realized in decoration (Röhrig / Herlth) and cast (Steinbrück / Krauß) in an expressionistic style, the motif of the amalgamation of sex, money and power can already be heard Pabst will take up again and again in his best films. "
The accompanying DVD says:
“There are of course the pictures of the little-known cameraman Otto Tober, who elaborate with light and shadow. Even more the equipment, here contributed by Robert Herlth ('Buddenbrook') and Walter Röhrig ('Faust'). The highlights of their work are the house, which looks like a naturally grown living being, and the labyrinth-like catacombs through which Svetelenz moves with his divining rod. Also impressive is Pabst's direction, which holds everything together and works skillfully with the duplication of motifs and characters. Almost every thing has its counterpart here. He sometimes underlines this in a somewhat bumpy way (a cut shows both treasure hunters in the tunnel when we have long been aware of the duality of the scenes), but mostly the system works brilliantly. Even the driving force of the film, namely the treasure hunt, happens twice - with the men aiming for the gold and the young woman. "
Hal Erickson writes:
"On the surface a straightforward tale of the search for a buried treasure, the film is a textbook example of German expressionism, with the passions of the protagonists conveyed as much through symbolism as action."
“On the face of it, it is a stringently told story of a buried treasure. The film is a prime example of German Expressionism, in which the passions of the protagonists are conveyed through both symbolism and action. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, p. 173 f.
- ↑ The Treasure in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on November 5, 2013.
- ^ Cine Graph, Delivery 3 Georg Wilhelm Pabst, D 1, March 1985
- ↑ The Treasure (Germany, 1923). In: molodezhnaja.ch. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
- ↑ The treasure. In: artistdirect.com. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
Web links
- The treasure in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The treasure at filmportal.de