The Elixirs of the Devil (1973)

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Movie
Original title The elixirs of the devil
Country of production GDR , Czechoslovakia
original language German
Publishing year 1973
length 107 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ralf Kirsten
script Ralf Kirsten
Brigitte Kirsten
production DEFA , KAG “Berlin”
Film Studio Barrandov , Prague
music André Asriel
camera Claus Neumann
cut Bärbel Bauersfeld
occupation

The Elixirs of the Devil is a German-Czechoslovakian film by Ralf Kirsten from 1973 . It is based on motifs from ETA Hoffmann's novel The Elixirs of the Devil . The Czechoslovak title of the film is Elixíry ďábla .

action

The devout Capuchin monk Francis saves the young Aurelie from a raging river. They both spend the night together. The next day, Francis is chased away by Aurelie's brother, Hermogen von Waldstätten. Against the will of the abbess, for whom Francis still has his whole life ahead of him, he enters the monastery. He believes everyone is the same there. As a monk, Francis now calls himself Menardus. After a short time, Francis was considered an important member of the monastery. He takes care of the relics , including a bottle with the devil's elixirs. The monastery is paid a visit by Viktorin, who blasphemes the relics and drinks the elixirs while Francis stands by. The seedy Cyrillus watches the scene. A little later, at his instigation, Francis is tied to a cross by the monks for blasphemy on the relics and whipped.

The bishop visits the monastery and wants to win Francis over. He suspects that Francis would be a strong weapon for the Catholic faith because he is attractive and convincing in his speech. Prior Leonard does not want to let him go voluntarily. Francis, on the other hand, is disappointed with the profane life in the monastery. When the baroness sends Euphemie for him as her new confessor, Francis sets out. The baroness once had an affair with Viktorin. She was courted by Hermogen von Waldstätten, but in the end she married his father, the Baron. Viktorin visited her again disguised as a monk. Since she has to show her confessor to the jealous Hermogen, she sends for a real monk. Francis, in turn, is taken along part of the way by his acquaintance, the juggler Belcampo, who always hides his face behind a mask.

A little later, Francis arrives at the baron's house and Hermogen thinks he knows him. Euphemie assigns him a chamber through whose mirror she can observe him. A little later, by means of a trick, Francis can also see Euphemie's bedchamber as if through a pane. When he wants to smash the window as if out of his mind, he falls into Euphemie's bedroom and she seduces him. In the baron's house, Francis sees Aurelie again and both recognize their existing love for one another. They spend a lot of time together until Aurelie tells Francis that she is expecting a child from him. Francis now wants to renounce the monastery and buy himself free from his vows. Meanwhile, the baroness is accused by Hermogen of her wastefulness. She tells him that Aurelie is pregnant by Francis and Hermogen attacks Francis. In a duel, Euphemie stabs Hermogen to death and claims that Francis killed him. The later poisoning of her husband is also attached to euphemia for Francis, who has since fled. He goes into hiding in worldly clothes at Belcampo.

They are moving to a city where Francis sees Viktorin again. When the Waldstättens' wagons drive past them, Francis confesses to Viktorin that he loves Aurelie. Viktorin offers to introduce him to the court, although Aurelie is now considered crazy. Francis now pretends to be Pole and wins enough money gambling to buy himself free from his vows. At a masked ball, at which Euphemie and Aurelie are also present, Francis appears in the form of death. Despite being warned by Belcampo that he will be the victim of intrigue, Francis stays and reveals himself at midnight. He is arrested and charged with double homicide and desecration of Aurelia. Aurelie regularly inquires of the abbess about the condition of Francis, who, as predicted by Belcampo, was the victim of a private intrigue by the prince. He wanted to wipe out the monks with a condemnation of Francis. In the meantime he has changed his mind and wants to release Francis in order to be able to claim that he was kidnapped by the monks for fear of their activities being exposed. The prince wants to have him taken across the border. After this news, the abbess suspects that this does not mean freedom, but freedom of birds for Francis, and collapses. The monks in turn want to prevent this. The bishop gives Prior Leonard a poison that he is supposed to give Francis. He doesn't want to die because he hasn't really lived yet. Nevertheless, he drinks the poisoned wine and collapses, apparently dead, after a last conversation with Aurelie, who tells him that the prince is planning to release him. Aurelie flees to Belcampo, where she gives birth to her child, a son. She suspects that Francis is dead and goes to the monastery.

Francis did not die, just fainted. He wakes up in the bishop's palace. He tells him that his parents are dead, that Aurelie has gone to the monastery and that their child has died. Francis is now a child of the Church and he, the Bishop, gave him life for the second time. At the next service, Francis stands at the side of the bishop. The woman who, adorned, is to take the vow to enter the monastery is none other than Aurelie. Francis rushes to her and both confess their love. They want to flee, but are stopped. When Francis asks the crowd to just let him live in peace and denounces the church's wrongdoings, he is stabbed to death by Cyrillus. Belcampo, in turn, shoots Cyrillus, while Prince Victorin's henchman, who is also present, steals secretly from the church. The abbess weeps for the dead Francis and Aurelie asks Belcampo to leave her with Francis. That was her life, but Belcampo reveals to her that Francis was his son. A little later, Belcampo, Aurelie and their little son drive away in a juggler car.

production

The Elixirs of the Devil was filmed in Dresden , Görlitz , the Riesengebirge and Magdeburg Cathedral from 1972 onwards . The film structures were made by Dieter Adam , Klaus Selignow and Jiří Rulík , the costumes were created by Ingeborg Kistner and Nita Romanecova .

The film premiered on March 9, 1973 in the Leipzig Capitol . It was shown in GDR cinemas on April 13, 1973 and was shown on television for the first time on December 18, 1974 on DFF 2 . The German television premiere took place on June 27, 1978 on NDR .

Also in 1973, DEFA filmed a second work of German romanticism with From the life of a good-for-nothing . In 1976, directed by Manfred Purzer, a West German film adaptation of The Devil's Elixirs with Dieter Laser in the role of Menardus.

criticism

The contemporary critics called The Elixirs of the Devil "strangely inconsistent ...", but nevertheless entertaining and creatively deserving.

In retrospect, other critics found that director Ralf Kirsten “could not resolve the contradiction between dramaturgical rationalization and irrational fantasy as the basis of the material”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See overview on goerlitz.de (PDF; 27 kB) ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.goerlitz.de
  2. ^ Friedrich Salow: Very loosely based on Hoffmann . In: Filmspiegel , No. 9, 1979, p. 8.
  3. ^ Klaus Wischnewski: Dreamers and Ordinary People 1966 to 1979 . In: Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 232.