The lost angel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The lost angel |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1966/1971 |
| length | 60 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ralf Kirsten |
| script |
Manfred Freitag Joachim Nestler Ralf Kirsten |
| production | DEFA |
| music | Andre Asriel |
| camera | Claus Neumann |
| cut |
Evelyn Carow Ursula Zweig |
| occupation | |
| |
The lost angel with the subtitle A day in the life of Ernst Barlach is a DEFA German feature film directed by Ralf Kirsten in 1966 based on the novella The Bad Year by Franz Fühmann .
action
The film begins with overlay of text and images of Ernst Barlach's memorial sculptures for the victims of the First World War in Magdeburg , Kiel and Hamburg , which were eliminated by the National Socialists. In the background you can see an aerial view of the city of Güstrow . The camera flies around the Güstrow cathedral, in which there was also a Barlach sculpture, which was stolen on the night of August 24, 1937. Here begins the story of one day in the life of this artist.
Ernst Barlach had a restless sleep that night and was finally woken up by the ringing of the phone. When he descends the stairs, his partner Marga Böhmer had already picked up the receiver and received the message that Der Schwebende , as the angel is correctly called, has been transported from the cathedral. For a long time, Barlach and his partner have cut themselves off from the outside world because he feared attacks by the Nazis. He could still leave Germany, but what should they both live on? He is not a communist and does not want to become one. Nevertheless, like a coachman, he gave shelter to comrades beaten up by the Nazis in his studio and immortalized them in his art. He also admires the left-wing political standpoints of his artist colleagues Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Nagel , without having the courage to defend them. Ernst Barlach is classified by the National Socialist rulers as an un-German, Bolshevik and degenerate artist. Some of his works were confiscated and he was asked to "voluntarily" leave the Academy of the Arts. He, who in 1914 was still enthusiastic about the war and saw an agreement with Germany, has since changed his mind, which can also be seen in his work. Now he feels like a stranger in his own country, is broken and has given up. I am no longer needed, he looks through his studio with this look. He asks himself: "Do my characters know more than I do?"
This film repeatedly deals with Barlach's thoughts. He realizes that he always liked to be alone and yet not lonely. During a walk he meets a wood collector to whom he once set a memorial with a sculpture. But even with her no relaxed dialogue develops. His urge for calm gets stronger and stronger and he comes to the conclusion that only death brings true calm. His urge to take his own life increases.
When Barlach wants to take a taxi to the cathedral so that he can look at it without his angel, the driver sees some of his fellow citizens who had apparently only been waiting for the artist there and prevents him from getting out. He drives to a side entrance and here Barlach can enter the building. A wedding is currently taking place in the church, none of the participants pays attention to the empty hooks on which the angel was hanging the day before. Even the pastor, who apparently belongs to the new Christian church, takes no notice of the art theft and looks at Barlach like a foreign body. Symbolically, the wedding party goes seamlessly into a funeral party.
In the credits it can be read that the angel did not reappear, but that a copy is again floating in Güstrow Cathedral.
production
The film fell victim to the 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee in 1966 and was only released in a mutilated version in GDR cinemas in 1971. The reasons for the discontinuation of production were the “slurred philosophical conception”, the “indifferent humanistic statement” and the lack of “consideration for the public's impact”. The film and its makers were implicitly assumed to reflect the artist's relationship to contemporary society using the example of the fascist dictatorship. On the occasion of a Barlach exhibition in Moscow and on the mediation of Konrad Wolf , Kirsten was allowed to edit the film. Around 400 meters of the original film were lost.
On December 18, 1970, The Lost Angel was premiered in the Moscow embassy of the GDR in the Soviet Union . The premiere in the GDR took place on April 22, 1971 with a festive performance in the Berlin Colosseum cinema , on the occasion of the reopening of the film theater after extensive renovation work. The first broadcast on the 2nd program of the GDR television took place on April 27, 1975.
criticism
“This is a very interesting work in terms of film art. The film does not deal with extensive biographical reconstructions, nor does it posthumously provide the (often questionable, but customary film) psychological evidence of the origin of the master’s creations. A biography study is presented. which wants to reveal the personality of Ernst Barlach through an essentially authentically verifiable monologue in interaction with his art and his environment. The film presents itself in impressive harmony, strongly emphasizes the emotional, hardly has anything superfluous, is best characterized as a tightly drawn novel. "
Helmut Ulrich wrote in the Neue Zeit that Ralf Kirsten and his cameraman had found a stylized, symbolic visual language. The bitter, beautiful north German landscape meets the bitter, beautiful art of Barlach and the film has depth.
The lexicon of international film called the film a remarkable snapshot of an artist's biography in terms of play, expressive camera and direction, condensed into a parable reflection on the relationship between art and power.
literature
- The lost angel In: F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 662-663.
- The lost angel In: Ingrid Poss / Peter Warneke (eds.): Trace of films Christoph Links Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-401-3 , pp. 227-229.
Web links
- The lost angel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The lost angel at filmportal.de
- The lost angel at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ F.-B. Habel: Cut up films. Censorship in the film . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig 2003, ISBN 3-37801069-X , p. 102
- ↑ Master's thesis from 2007 on film
- ^ Günter Sobe in the Berliner Zeitung of May 7, 1971; P. 6
- ↑ Neue Zeit of April 30, 1971; P. 4
- ↑ The lost angel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .