The last veil
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The last veil |
| Original title | The Seventh Veil |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Compton Bennett |
| script |
Sydney Box , Muriel Box |
| production | Sydney Box |
| music | Benjamin Frankel |
| camera | Reginald Wyer |
| cut | Gordon Hales |
| occupation | |
| |
The last veil (original title: The Seventh Veil ) is a British melodrama by Compton Bennett from 1945. The main roles are played by Ann Todd and James Mason . The film won the 1946 Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay . The release was in Great Britain on October 18, 1945, in the USA on February 15, 1946. In the same year the film was also shown in Germany. The Last Veil was released on DVD in the UK in 2012 .
action
Francesca Cunningham is a patient under the supervision of Dr. Larsen. He uses hypnosis to get her to tell her life story in order to find out why the former pianist wanted to commit suicide. In numerous flashbacks, the “veils” that cover their memories are gradually lifted.
Only her second cousin and guardian Nicholas, a crippled musician, had always cared about Francesca. Nicholas, however, is jealous of Francesca's musical talent and is also misogynistic about his relationship with his mother. Nonetheless, he is a brilliant music teacher who makes Francesca outdo herself, but also a person who tries to avoid any emotional entanglements.
At the Royal College of Music , Peter, an American studying in London, became interested in Francesca. Although she initially rejects him, Francesca and Peter become a couple and become engaged. However, she is not yet of legal age and Nicholas refuses to allow her to marry. He insists that they go to Paris in the morning; she finishes her training and starts her career in Europe.
Years go by. Nicholas and Francesca are returning to the UK as she has been invited to perform at the Royal Albert Hall . She learns that Peter has meanwhile married someone else. When the artist Maxwell Leyden is asked by Nicholas to paint a portrait of Francesca, they fall in love. Nicholas gets angry and hits her hands with his stick while she plays. She escapes him and is involved in a car accident with Maxwell, which burns her hands so she will never be able to play again.
After therapy - and now cured according to Dr. Larsen - Francesca realizes that Nicholas is her true love, not Peter (now divorced) or Maxwell.
Film music
The film music was written by Benjamin Frankel , who used piano pieces by Chopin , Mozart and Beethoven as well as parts of the Piano Concerto by Grieg and the 2nd Piano Concerto by Rachmaninov . The pieces were played by Eileen Joyce . Joyce had made a short film especially for Ann Todd to practice playing with, and trained her arm movements.
reception
Produced on a budget of just £ 92,000, the film was the UK box office’s biggest hit of the year at £ 2 million.
The film was also included in the program of the Cannes International Film Festival in 1946 and won an Oscar in 1947 for Best Original Screenplay (for Sydney and Muriel Box ).
In 2004 the British Film Institute drew up a list of the 100 greatest UK box office hits, in which the film landed at number 10 with 17.9 million viewers.
In 1951 Ann Todd , Herbert Lom and Leo Genn also played in a stage adaptation in London.
literature
- Jerry Vermilye: The Great British Films . Citadel Press, 1978, ISBN 0-8065-0661-X , pp. 88-90 .
Web links
- The Seventh Veil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The last veil at the BFI
- The last veil at BFI Screenonline
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Davis, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait , p. 120.
- ↑ Michael Brooke: Seventh Veil, The (1945) . In: BFI Screenonline .
- ^ A b Sarah Street, Transatlantic Crossings: British Feature Films in the USA , Continuum, 2002, p. 114.
- ^ Festival de Cannes: Blood and Fire . In: festival-cannes.com . Retrieved January 2, 2009.
- ↑ Gone with the Wind tops film list . In: BBC News Online , November 28, 2004. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
- ↑ Nick James: Everything you knew about cinema is probably wrong; BFI releases definitive list of the top 100 most-seen films . In: Reel Classics . Retrieved October 2, 2013.