The shot from the pulpit (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The shot from the pulpit |
| Original title | The shot from the pulpit |
| Country of production | Switzerland |
| original language | Swiss German |
| Publishing year | 1942 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leopold Lindtberg |
| script |
Richard Schweizer Leopold Lindtberg based on the novella of the same name (1877) by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer |
| production | Lazar Wechsler for Praesens-Film, Zurich |
| music | Robert Blum |
| camera | Emil Berna |
| cut |
Käthe Mey Hermann Haller |
| occupation | |
and Walburga Gmür , Schaggi Streuli , Enzo Ertini , Jakob Guggi , Hans Kaes | |
The shot from the pulpit , in Germany slightly changed to The shot from the pulpit , is a Swiss film amusement game from 1942 by Leopold Lindtberg .
action
The story takes place in Mythikon, a small village on Lake Zurich in the 17th century. The local pastor, Werdmüller, is highly controversial because of his passion for weapons. The hunt was sometimes more important to him than his church duties. For example, he forgets a baptism while he prefers to shoot partridges with Captain Kilchsperger. His love for everything military even goes so far that Werdmüller promises the officer his daughter Rahel over a glass of wine, should he show interest in her. He doesn't care that Rahel already has an admirer in the somewhat shy and awkward Vicar Pfannenstiel; the young man who lives in the Werdmüller house is much too soft for the man of God anyway. The community observed Werdmüller's behavior with increasing discomfort and one day informed his superior in Zurich. Dean Steinfels then visits Mythikon unannounced to get his own impression. The dean is upset about the prevailing conditions there and gives Werdmüller a clear warning. One more shot, said the dean, and Werdmüller would be fired. But he only has one thought left: to find out who blackened him with the church authorities in Zurich. His first suspicions fall on the poor pan handle, whom he immediately evicted from his home. He is so meek that he does not try to contradict Werdmüller, let alone ask for Rahel's hand. The young woman is also sad because she reciprocates Pfannenstiel's feelings.
Pfannenstiel goes to General Werdmüller, the cousin of his former landlord, in the hope of finding a place in the military as a field chaplain. But on the one hand he laughs at the tenderly-strung linnet, but on the other hand gives him the desired position. A little later the general also gets a visit from his niece Rahel, who asks him for help. Her father wanted to marry her off to the unloved Kilchsperger with all his might. The pastor wants to carry out the wedding on Sunday. General Werdmüller decides to play a prank on his cousin and at the same time to help his godchild Rahel. The high officer attends a sermon by his cousin and gives him a Venetian pistol as a parting present. When Pastor Werdmüller turns away for a moment, the general exchanges his uninvited gift for a loaded pistol, which his cousin carelessly pockets. Pastor Werdmüller gives his sermon and his thoughts are completely different again: namely with his new weapon. While he is preaching from the pulpit, he is simultaneously fiddling with the weapon hidden in his clothing. It comes as it has to: "God with a great sound" preaches the man of God, and a shot is fired. Powder smoke escapes from the robe. Pastor Werdmüller has now lost his job, but receives his lock and weapons from the cousin general as a gift, since the officer Werdmüller has to go into an imminent war and, based on a prediction made by a gypsy woman, will probably not return home from this war. Cousin Pastor has to promise to give his Rahel to her lover, Vicar Pfannenstiel, as a wife.
Production notes
The shooting of The Shot from the Pulpit began on August 20, 1942 and ended in October of the same year. The interior shots were made in the Rosenhof film studio in Zurich, the exterior shots were made in Stein am Rhein , Hallwil Castle , Seengen and on the shores of Lake Zurich. The world premiere took place on December 30, 1942 at the Urban Cinema in Zurich. The film never ran in Germany.
The production management was in the hands of Emil Hegetschweiler , who also assisted director Lindtberg. The film structures were designed by Robert Furrer . Eduard Achilles Gessler , chief curator of the Zürcher Landesmuseum since 1910, was appointed as a historical adviser .
"The Shot from the Pulpit" cost around 165,000 Swiss francs and was a commercial failure. In the decisive turning point in the course of the World War in 1942, the audience was tired of seeing unfashionable films that looked as if they had fallen out of time. From then on, the consequence was the absence of paying moviegoers: while twelve Swiss full-length feature films were produced for the federal cinemas in 1942, this number was reduced to four in the following year in 1943, as the production of domestic productions was hardly worthwhile, especially since that German Reich imposed a blockade on Swiss films for foreign countries.
Reviews
On the one hand, the Swiss film critics attested the film's quality in terms of directing, but criticized the materially pure escapism. Again, it was criticized as early as the turn of the year 1942/43, the producing Praesens had seized a literary material from the past instead of finally turning to the pressing questions of the time. Here are a few examples:
"At the premiere in Urban, the audience had their pleasure in wigs, plumed hats and Terzerol and the cultivated game and the closed historical atmosphere made the absence of a contemporary problem easy to get over."
“Fear of reality (...) You make a single, serious, uncompromising attempt to deal with a problem of the present on film, you get to grips with any economic, social or cultural question with the camera, without making it cumbersome, entertaining, historical or cheap patriotic to decay! This film will be the first Swiss film that the audience will not receive with benevolence, but with lively, passionate interest. "
“First and foremost an actor film. The comedic element moves the slightly sterile, aesthetic flow of images into the background, so that above all the cleverly portrayed cabal and irony come into play. "
“Schweizer's script is skilful, respects the somewhat sarcastic tone of the original with undeniable stylistic sensitivity, but, as predictably, reduces the novella to its purely comedic elements, to this pleasing facade that just needs to be broken through. (...) Visually, the film is the logical result of a tendency towards aesthetic calligraphy, which the " love letters " introduced and which manifests itself here via the Dutch masters. "
In the lexicon of international films it says: "At first glance, it is a sterile film, but one that is coherent in its atmosphere and presents its intricacies with a slight irony."
Individual evidence
- ↑ The History of Swiss Film, p. 360
- ↑ The shot from the pulpit. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 19, 2015 .
Web links
- The shot from the pulpit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The shot from the pulpit at filmportal.de