The Lord God Grenadiers

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Movie
German title The golden glacier, gold fever
Original title The Lord God Grenadiers
Country of production Switzerland / Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1932
length 2685 m, 100 minutes
Rod
Director Anton Kutter
script Anton Kutter and August Kern
production Gefi-Filmgenossenschaft & Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka)
music Peter Kreuder
camera Otto Martini and Gustav Weiß
cut Anton Kutter and Gottlieb Madl
occupation

The Herrgottsgrenadiere (also: Goldfieber , Der goldene Gletscher and Ein Tal sucht Gold ) was the title of a Swiss-German feature film that Anton Kutter made in 1932 for a co-production by the Genossenschaft Filmdienst (GEFI) Bern and Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka) based on a script , which he wrote together with August Kern , shot in Switzerland and Munich. Thematically - even before Sutter's Gold by James Cruze and its various adaptations - it is based on the early Western films that report on the gold rush and its consequences. It is considered to be the first national Swiss sound film.

action

In the middle of the mountains around the Lötschental is a lonely village that is exposed to the forces of nature. The residents expect the construction of a road to open up the town and thus improve their poor economy. Suddenly the population is in a state of excitement because an international mining company has discovered a gold vein nearby and acquired mining rights. Road construction is now forgotten. Seized by the gold fever, all of their meager savings invest in share certificates and allow society to employ them as workers. [...] While the annual blessing procession with the Herrgottsgrenadier takes place down in the valley, a heavy thunderstorm is approaching. A bolt of lightning ignites the explosives, and a little later the mine is a huge heap of rubble.

background

The German title of the film is derived from a custom in Upper Valais , the annual parade of the so-called Herrgottsgrenadiers who parade in the villages on “Sägisunntag” (Blessing Sunday) after Corpus Christi with their red uniforms. They remind of the times when Lötschentaler served as mercenaries in foreign armies in Italy and France. Such a blessing procession can be seen in the film.

The outdoor shots that Otto Martini and Gustav Weiß took were made in Switzerland, in the Lötschental in Upper Valais. The interior scenes for which Willy Reiber created the film structures were shot in Munich. Gottlieb Madl and the director did the editing. The production line was August core . The film music was written and conducted by Peter Kreuder .

The film was submitted for censorship on November 15, 1932. The world premiere for German-speaking Switzerland took place on November 5, 1932. The film premiered in Germany on December 22, 1932. "Etna Film Co. AG", Lucerne, took over the distribution for Switzerland, and "Bayerische Filmgesellschaft mbH Munich" for Germany. In German-speaking Switzerland, the film was also called The Golden Glacier , in the francophone part of the country Les grenadiers du bon Dieu , and in Germany it was also called Goldfieber . In Austria it was released in cinemas as Ein Tal sucht Gold . In Spain, where it was released on February 26, 1935 in the “Metropol” cinema in Barcelona, ​​it was shown under the title La codicia del oro . On June 24, 1935, it was shown in Madrid in the “Figaro” cinema and on January 27, 1937 in the “Pathé Cinéma” in Seville. After the Second World War (1946), the film was brought back to the cinemas by Naturfilm Hubert Schonger KG as The Golden Glacier .

reception

With the transition to sound film, the Swiss film landscape only slowly took shape. The film Wie d'Warret Würkt (1933) was one of the first truly local feature films, shot in the Swiss German dialect. Other productions such as Die Herrgottsgrenadiere (1933) by August Kern and Jä-soo! (1935) by Leopold Lindtberg followed.

A contemporary film poster bears the following text: “It can be assumed that many silent and sound films have been made in a country with such a privileged landscape as Switzerland. What is less well known, however, is that there has not yet been a sound film that contained a purely Swiss storyline and was made by a Swiss production company with exclusively Swiss capital. "

“Finding gold in the Valais - this is the subject of the first Swiss sound film. With the gold discovery, discord in the Lötschtal also finds its way. A naive plot is woven into a cultural film about old customs in the Lötschental. Woodcut-like amateur play that achieves a strangely strong effect through its simple realism. "

“The film, whose plot is leisurely and modest, is a little overwhelmed by the landscape, as if it had been granted first place in the work. Indeed, the natural scenery deserves all honors for the imposing majesty with which the sight of it overwhelms the mood of the audience. The photography is wonderful and, with its exquisite art, reflects the magnificence of the panorama, the types of landscape, and in some scenes, very cautiously, religious customs. Equally admirable is the sonority of the setting and the acting, especially that of Gustav Diessl. "

literature

  • Lötschental custom archive: Herrgottsgrenadiere. at loetschentalermuseum.ch
  • Jürg Frischknecht, Thomas Kramer, Werner Schweizer: Film landscape: Engadin, Bergell, Puschlav, Münstertal. Verlag Bündner Monatsblatt, 2003, p. 81.
  • Gold fever. In: Illustrated film stage. (Germany), No. 324, Munich 1946, p. 4.
  • Gerlinde Haid, Hans Haid (Ed.): Customs in the Alps: rites, traditions, living culture. Verlag Rosenheimer, 1994, ISBN 3-475-52800-2 , pp. 17-18, 259.
  • Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films: Film lexicon of the full-length German and German-language sound films after their German premieres. Volume 3: German sound films: Year 1932. Klaus-Archiv, 1990, ISBN 3-927352-02-0 .
  • Helmut Korte: The feature film and the end of the Weimar Republic: an attempt at the history of reception. Verlag Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, ISBN 3-525-20714-X , pp. 464, 496-497.
  • Thomas Kramer, Martin Prucha: Film over time: 100 years of cinema in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 2nd edition. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, 1994, ISBN 3-8000-3516-2 , pp. 180, 283.
  • La codicia del oro. At: Montaña de Ficción. 3rd July 2012.
  • Guido Magnaguagno, Albert Lutz: Thirties Switzerland, a decade in contradiction. Exhibition, Kunsthaus Zurich, October 30, 1981 to January 10, 1982. Catalog. Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich 1981, p. 17, 407 f.
  • Thomas Meyer: Moments for the ear. Music in old Swiss films. Facets of a little noticed art. (= New Year's Gazette of the Zurich General Music Society. Volume 183). Kommissionsverlag Hug, Zurich 1999, pp. 18, 29.
  • Herbert Spaich: From Atlantis to Urania: film theater in Baden-Württemberg; a cinema trip. Verlag Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg / Filmförderung, 2003, ISBN 3-88350-061-5 , p. 37.
  • Rudolf Schwarzenbach: The position of dialect in German-speaking Switzerland: Studies on the usage of the language of the present (= contributions to Swiss-German dialect research. Volume 17). Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 1969, pp. 371, 378.
  • Swiss Film Center (ed.): Past and present of Swiss film (1896 to 1987): a critical evaluation. Verlag Schweizerisches Filmzentrum, 1987, pp. 43–44.
  • Werner Wider, Felix Aeppli: The Swiss Film 1929–1964. Volume 1: Presentation. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1981, ISBN 3-85791-034-8 , pp. 60, 81, 90.

Web links

Illustrations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Loetschen.de
  2. ↑ cf. Poster of the Lucerne cinema “Flora”, where it says: No backdrops, no ice buildings, no false pretenses, but: Real, expensive homeland! - It is the most beautiful and sublime that we can show you.
  3. ^ Klaus: German sound films. 3, 1990, p. 86.
  4. ↑ cf. Georg Weindl: The Lord God grenadiers of the Lötschental. In: FAZ . March 3, 2004.
  5. ↑ cf. IMDb / release info
  6. ↑ IMDb / literature
  7. ^ The early years of Swiss films. Cinema in the courtyard
  8. ↑ cf. Poster of the Lucerne cinema “Flora”, text by Loetschen.de
  9. ↑ worldcat.org
  10. ^ Review from: ABC Sevilla, 28/01/1937: Pathé: «La codicia del oro»