The mountain cat
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The mountain cat |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1921 |
| length | 82 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ernst Lubitsch |
| script |
Hanns Kräly Ernst Lubitsch |
| production |
Paul Davidson for projection group "Union" |
| music | Marco Dalpane , Ensemble Playground (Version 2000) |
| camera | Theodor Sparkuhl |
| occupation | |
| |
The Bergkatze is a German silent film - grotesque in four acts by Ernst Lubitsch from 1921.
action
Act 1
A winter with a thick blanket of snow: The commander of the Tossenstein Fortress is beaten twice: his men like to sleep and ignore the orders to get up too quickly, and his wife is dominant. When a letter arrives that the heartthrob Lieutenant Alexis is being transferred to the fortress, only his wife and daughter Lilli are enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, Alexis leaves the residence, where hundreds of women mourn their former lover and dozens of toddlers after their potential father. On the way from the residence to the fortress Tossenstein Alexis is attacked by the robbers daughter Rischka that up to him with their men underpants robbing.
Act 2
At the fortress, Alexis is reported missing by his coachman, but appears a short time later in his underpants. Despite his predicament, he copes with the situation with the usual elegance and the commandant's wife and daughter are delighted. The commandant announces that Alexis will in no case receive his daughter's hand and demonstratively leaves them both alone. Alexis is surprised at first, but then flirts with Lilli practically.
Meanwhile, Rischka finds his portrait photograph in the lieutenant's affairs. In love, she pins them to the tent wall and hangs the lieutenant's trousers over it. Her father Claudius, however, pouts that she let Alexis go, after all he could have used new underpants. Meanwhile, a punitive expedition sets off from the fortress to fight the robbers.
Act 3
The punitive expedition against the robbers turns into a disaster. While Alexis conducts the orchestra he is carrying and tries hard not to slip constantly on the ruling ice, his men are put to flight by the few robbers with slaps and snowballs. The commander, who wisely stayed in the fortress, believes he can see a victory for his troops from afar. After the defeated army has returned, he gives a lavish victory celebration with fireworks . Alexis is given to Lilli's wife as thanks for the victory and the lieutenant is not very enthusiastic.
Meanwhile, the robbers around Rischka approach the fortress and break in. Rischka clears Lilli's rooms, throws bedclothes and the beds out of the window and then enjoys dousing himself with perfume in one of Lilli's clothes. The rest of the gang follow her after a while and disguise themselves as soldiers. All of them take part in the celebration undetected and have fun with the drunken commandant. Only Alexis recognizes Rischka and the robbers and locks Rischka in Lilli's room in order to arrest her later. Lilli, in turn, shows her supposed rival the door and Rischka, relieved, escapes with her cronies.
Act 4
Rischka dreams of Alexis and is so excited that Claudius decides to marry his daughter. Since he promised it to one of his men years ago, he now has to keep his word. However, only shy Pepo dares to marry Rischka. After he has shown that he can be a man, Rischka marries him. On the day of the wedding, Rischka learns that Alexis had already married the day before and that the wedding celebration is taking place today. She sadly leaves her tent and throws Pepo into deep tears.
Alexis doesn't feel solemn either. He gets drunk before the party and finally meets Rischka in the snow. Both end up in his house, where Alexis just wants to freshen up quickly. However, it takes an incredibly long time because Alexis is very vain. Meanwhile, Lilli also appears at Alexis' and meets Rischka. She is about to give him up for the "mountain cat" when Rischka decides to forego Alexis for her. At the subsequent candlelight dinner with Alexis, Rischka shows her worst side, disheveled Alexis's well-smoothed hair, drinks champagne from the bottle and does not know how to behave while eating. When she has left, Alexis returns to Lilli, relieved.
Meanwhile, Rischka notices a small stream that has dug itself into the snow. She follows him to her tent and finds that he is fed by the torrents of tears that Pepo has been crying for her in the meantime. She takes him in her arms, kisses him and Pepo is happy again.
production
The costumes were created by Ernst Stern , the buildings are by Ernst Stern and Max Gronau . The shooting for Die Bergkatze began in January 1921. The shooting locations were the Ufa Union studios in Berlin-Tempelhof; the outdoor shots took place on the Kreuzeck in Garmisch .
On April 9, 1921, the censorship banned the mountain cat with a youth ban. The first performance took place on April 12, 1921 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin .
criticism
The “Film-Kurier” wrote about Die Bergkatze that “if this film has any value at all […], then [this] that it frees you from thoughts, not that it gives them: that it dissipates: not that it stimulates. ”Fritz Podehl remarked in“ Der Film ”that the description of the film as grotesque is hardly appropriate:
“He's neither particularly weird, particularly funny, nor particularly crowded. Even if a brisk pace was achieved in the last acts and the film was a success, almost everything should be due to Lubitsch, the director, whose ingenious arrangements and masterly handling of the large apparatus at his disposal offered enough surprises . "
The “Lichtbild-Bühne” meant that “there is so much real comedy, so much grotesque humor in a novel form in this film than in any other German product. But it is precisely this novelty that may have a bit of a cold effect on an unprecedented audience, although the success in the Ufa Palace seems to contradict this. "
The Lexicon of International Films noted that “this silent film […] was the first commercial failure of Ernst Lubitsch [], who attributed this to his disrespectful treatment of the military. In terms of film history, it is of great interest today, as the use of numerous black passe- partouts transforms the film into an imaginative experiment with forms. "
literature
- Fred Gehler: The mountain cat. In: Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 52 f.
Web links
- The Wildcat in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The mountain cat at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Willy Haas: The mountain cat. In: Film-Kurier. Vol. 3, No. 86, April 13, 1921, ZDB -ID 575776-9 .
- ↑ Fritz Podehl : The mountain cat. In: The film. Vol. 6, No. 16, April 16, 1921, ZDB -ID 575768-x .
- ^ Photo stage. Vol. 14, No. 16, April 16, 1921, ZDB -ID 536617-3 .
- ↑ The Mountain Cat in the Lexicon of International Films .