The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of Wilhelm Tell
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of Wilhelm Tell |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | about 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Friedrich Fehér |
| script | Hermann Lemke (prologue) based on the drama of the same name by Friedrich Schiller |
| production | German Mutoskop, Berlin |
| camera | Werner Brandes |
| occupation | |
| |
The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of Wilhelm Tell is a German silent film from 1913 by Friedrich Fehér , who also played Bailiff Gessler.
action
The film contains the central ingredients of Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell drama : the brutal tax collector in the name of the emperor and the suppression of the confederates by the governors, the torture of Heinrich von Melchthal and the persecution of his son Arnold, the murder of Werner Stauffacher's wife Gertraud , the personal feud between Gessler and Tell with the legendary apple shot as the staging highlight. Finally the confederates rise up against the imperial foreign rulers, and an uprising breaks out, in which Gessler is killed by the arrow from Tell's crossbow . The love stories from Schiller's drama of the same name are not included in this film version.
Production notes
Wilhelm Tell was created in the spring of 1913 on original locations in Switzerland (Central Switzerland, Lake Lucerne, Altdorf, Küssnacht, Flüelen, Schächental). The studio recordings were made in the Mutoskop studios in Berlin-Lankwitz . The five-act act with a playing time of around one and a half hours (which was very unusual for that time) was released for young people and premiered on September 17, 1913 in the Friedrichstrasse UT. The Austrian premiere took place on March 24, 1914 in Vienna, the Swiss only on March 8, 1916 in Basel.
Around 300 Swiss extras were called in for the shooting. The Swiss authorities did not always show themselves to be cooperative during filming. The city of Lucerne, for example, forbade taking the Rütli oath on the same meadow, as it was said that the “dignity of the site” did not want to be damaged.
Changes to the literary original
In contrast to the Schiller play, the characters Attinghausen and the lovers Rudenz and Bertha von Bruneck are missing. This may be due to the fact that this film should also and especially be used as an educational film in schools and that one did not want to morally “confuse” the adolescent pupils with the erotic parts of the play.
criticism
In Hervé Dumont's The History of Swiss Films it says: “This Wilhelm Tell , which the German Mutuscop produced with the support of Swiss private capital through organs of tourism as well as the Uri and Lucerne transport system, is not a company that sprang from the intention of patriotic glorification. (…) Like Kabale und Liebe and Die Räuber , two other Schiller-inspired strips that Reinhardt's student Friedrich Feher produced for Mutuscop in the spring of 1913, this Wilhelm Tell is primarily intended for schools and must therefore meet the requirements of the Sufficient teaching staff. "
Web links
- The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of William Tell in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of Wilhelm Tell at filmportal.de