The trapped
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The trapped |
| Original title | I sequestrati |
| Country of production |
Italy France |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 114 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Vittorio De Sica |
| script |
Cesare Zavattini Abby Mann based on the play The Trapped in Altona (1959) by Jean-Paul Sartre |
| production | Carlo Ponti |
| music |
Dmitri Shostakovich Franco Ferrara Nino Rota |
| camera |
Roberto Gerardi Sante Achilli |
| cut |
Manuel del Campo Adriana Novelli |
| occupation | |
| |
The included is a film drama produced by Carlo Ponti and set in Hamburg-Altona from 1962 based on a play by Jean-Paul Sartre . Directed by Vittorio De Sica , Ponti's wife Sophia Loren , Maximilian Schell , Fredric March and Robert Wagner play the leading roles.
action
Hamburg-Altona around 1959. The industrialist family von Gerlach resides in a grand villa. Patriarch is the shipyard owner Albrecht von Gerlach, his two children are the son Werner and the daughter Leni. There is also a second son named Franz von Gerlach, but he has been considered dead since the end of the Second World War . What nobody outside of the four walls knows: Franz, who is said to be very confused in his head and is on an imaginary process in the 30th Prepared in the 19th century, has been kept hidden by the family in the attic of the house for 13 years, and there is a good reason for that: because Franz, who is still wearing the old Wehrmacht officer's uniform in his hiding place, is considered a war criminal in the Soviet Union because of the shootings and torture he committed . Albrecht and Leni von Gerlach want to protect him from persecution by the judicial authorities. Years and years have passed, and it was suggested to the trapped Franz that he had missed nothing of the world out there, because Germany would still be in ruins. After years of complete seclusion, Franz met Johanna, the wife of his younger brother Werner. He works as a lawyer and is supposed to take over the management of the company at the request of the sick old father, but hesitates because of the close company connections to the collapsed Nazi regime.
Johanna is an attractive and committed theater actress who prefers to appear in left-wing Brecht plays and so far did not know anything about Werner's "missing" brother. The two become friends in the course of the following encounters. Johanna opens Franz's eyes and tells him that post-war Germany is divided and the western half has become a prosperous country. Franz's sister-in-law is shocked that her father-in-law and her sister-in-law Leni have constantly lied to her and also to Franz, and Franz's burning desire is to break out of his locked-in existence and finally to get to know the outside world that is hidden from him. One evening Franz dared to break out and walked through the city. Hamburg glitters and shines, and Franz can't get out of the traffic jam, but is also deeply bitter about the years of lies he has been exposed to. He immediately falls into the hands of the police and is arrested. After his disappearance, Johanna is able to track him down again and has Franz released from police custody. At the family's own shipyard, there is a final argument between father and son, in which Albrecht and Franz fall from the scaffolding into the depths.
Production notes
The filming of The Trapped was originally supposed to start in January 1962. At this time, in addition to Sophia Loren, the stars Alec Guinness and Kirk Douglas were on the cast list, but they obviously dropped out a little later. The shooting (outdoor shots) took place in the spring of 1962 in Hamburg (including in Mönckebergstrasse , in front of the Springer high-rise building and in the Schulauer Fährhaus ) as well as in the nearby Tremsbüttel Castle in Schleswig-Holstein . The shipyard scenes were originally supposed to be created at the traditional Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss , but no approval was received from the company. "Mr. Georg Blohm didn't like the ideology of the Sartre piece," said production assistant Jerzy Macc. Instead, the film was shot at the Howaldt shipyard. The production costs are said to have amounted to around 6.4 million DM. According to de Sica, the role of Leni was originally to be played by Anouk Aimée . Ezio Frigerio designed the buildings, Pier Luigi Pizzi the costumes. The premiere took place on October 30, 1962 in Italy.
The FSK examiners were just under the impression of media protests against the almost simultaneously released Italian film The Four Days of Naples . The representative of the distribution company asked the committee of his own accord to cut some text and remove a scene with Franz Josef Strauss so that he, as the distribution company, would have "a more solid position" towards the production company. The FSK examiners objected to several scenes after the screening, in particular the criticism of Flick and Krupp by the son of the industrialist and his statement: "Every time I see a Mercedes-Benz, I smell the smell of the gas stove." The majority of the working committee found this was "nothing more than propaganda in Eastern zonal jargon", and thus ignored the objection of an auditor that such a requirement could give rise to the reputation "that the FSK is vulnerable to the Nazis."
The German premiere was on September 6, 1963 in Mannheim. Shortly afterwards, the requirements for self-regulation for clearance became public through targeted indiscretion. This triggered violent protests against the “censorship” of the FSK in numerous press articles. An indirect consequence of these protests was that the insecure examiners of the FSK released the previously banned film The Four Days of Naples . In Austria, Die closeden started on November 8, 1963.
Sophia Loren received the German Bambi Media Prize in 1963 for her work , and in the same year Vittorio De Sica was awarded the David di Donatello Prize for best director.
criticism
“'The filth of the past' - says De Sica - 'still exists. West Germany is still permeated by National Socialism '. In a brilliant plea built around Sartre's drama, De Sica casts a deeply merciless but desperately lively and severe look (...). Other times, the film likes the theatrical plot, but the words seem strange and are not in focus as in the drama. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: "The atmosphere is of rare density."
“Unfortunately, [the screenwriter] Mr. Mann failed to relate this melodramatic arc or to infuse it with any sentiment of astute or sympathetic nature. So the only thing we get in this grim film is the great acting skills of Mr. Schell vis-à-vis a strangely abstract Miss Loren and father's industrial magnate, haunted by Fredric March. I'm afraid ' The Trapped ' must be condemned to be a disappointing film and that with all the shivering feeling for industrial Germany that Mr De Sica allowed to flow into this film. "
“Filming of a play by Sartre: The inner decline of a large industrial family against the background of the unresolved German past. Despite some impossible constructions (and changes made by the FSK and the rental company) the dialectically profound, but humanly cold drama can at least make one thoughtful. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Spiegel report from January 17, 1962
- ^ Background report about the shooting in Der Spiegel from May 23, 1962
- ↑ Jürgen Kniep: “No youth release!” Film censorship in West Germany 1949–1990 , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2010, pp. 166–168
- ↑ Those included in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ The trapped in the lexicon of international film
Web links
- The trapped in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- extensive film review in the New York Times