The film prima donna

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Movie
Original title The film prima donna
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1913
length Fragment: 17 minutes
Rod
Director Urban Gad
script Urban Gad
production Paul Davidson
for PAGU
camera Axel Graatkjær
Karl Freund
occupation

Die Filmprimadonna , subtitled Mimisches Schauspiel , is a German silent film by Urban Gad from 1913. It is one of the director's fragmentary films.

action

Partially preserved 1st act

In a film studio there is a lot of activity in preparation for the next film. However, the director of the film company suddenly receives a letter from his leading actress, Ruth Breton, in which she refuses him participation in the film, which would not correspond to her level. The film company hastily sent her numerous new manuscripts. Ruth reads and discards them. Suddenly the writer and actor Walter Heim announced himself to her. He has a manuscript with him, which Ruth approves.

The film is shot even if Walter, contrary to his wishes, is not initially cast as a partner by Ruth Breton. Ruth, on the other hand, checks all aspects of the film during the shooting, so she shows film strips that have already been developed and finally complains that the blonde leading actor and she, the dark-haired woman, would not fit in the film. She campaigns for Walter to be engaged as her film partner and asserts herself. Ruth and Walter also get closer in private. This is followed by an outside shot during which a still picture is taken.

Lost parts

2nd act

The exhausting film work makes Ruth sick. A doctor examines her and diagnoses serious heart disease. Ruth meets the charming Herr von Zornhorst and they both become friends. Ruth goes to his companies and Walter reacts jealously. He visits a company of Zornhorsts and creates a scene for them. He asks Ruth to choose between himself and von Zornhorst and Ruth decides against him. However, von Zornhorst fell for the game and amassed huge gambling debts. In addition, he is exposed at the card table as a card table and now rushes to Ruth, who is supposed to save him from ruin. Ruth is offered a tour by an impresario in which she is supposed to appear as a pantomime. Ruth initially declines because of her poor health, but in the end agrees when Herr von Zornhorst begs her to do so.

3rd act

The tour begins and the seriously ill Ruth plays on a large opera stage for her lover von Zornhorst. He continues to lose the money at the gaming table and has also started another affair with his former lover, Baroness Lili. When Ruth comes back to the hotel from a gig, she hears from Zornhorst and his lover. She rushed to break her contract and went back home. There, however, she collapses and is hospitalized.

4th act

Walter Heim has meanwhile written a new piece in which he addresses his relationship with Ruth. James Grantley rejects the play because only Ruth herself could play the leading role. A cleaning lady tells Walter that Ruth is in the hospital, and Walter seeks out his former love at the bedside. Ruth agrees to want to play the leading role in Walter's play, as she suspects that it will be her last. In fact, Ruth dies on stage after playing Pierrot's death in the final scene.

production

The film prima donna was shot in the Union studio in Berlin-Tempelhof. The buildings come from Fritz Seyffert .

The film was banned by the censors on November 25, 1913 and had its premiere on December 5, 1913 in Berlin. After The Suffragette and S1, it was the third film in the Asta Nilsen / Urban Gad series in 1913/1914. In February 1914, the film ran under the title La rein du cinéma in France.

Two surviving fragments of the 1,429 meter long film are known: a 255 meter long copy with scenes from the first act is in the possession of the George Eastman House, although individual scenes (including Ruth Breton looking through the manuscripts) are badly damaged. The Nederlands Filmmuseum owns a fragment of the first act that is only 89 meters long . The shorter copy contains a scene that is missing in the American copy, two more scenes are longer than in the American copy. On the basis of both fragments, a 278-meter, i.e. almost 17-minute-long copy was made, which was premiered at the Berlinale in 2007 together with Hamlet and abysses . In the original, the first act was 300 meters long. In 2011 the fragment of the film was released on DVD together with the restored version of Hamlet as part of the Edition Filmmuseum series . The film's production script has also been preserved at the Danish Film Institute. There are also film stills and a film poster by Julius Klinger .

For Heide Schlüpmann, the 1913 film documented "the freedom and influence, the unlimited possibilities that the actress had in film production." Central elements, including the choice of manuscript, the sequence of the shooting, but also the importance of still photography during the shooting , are shown in semi-documentary form in the film. The film contained, for example, scenes from the shooting of The Girl Without a Fatherland and The General's Children , which were recorded with a staggered camera parallel to the actual shooting. The scenes for The General's Children have been preserved and are therefore the only film recordings that have survived from the silent film, which is considered lost. " The film prima donna gains its special charm especially from the intermediate area between testimony-like photography and dazzling film staging ."

criticism

The Union-Theater-Zeitung wrote that the film takes the viewer “into the middle of the milieu that was previously alien to the general public and that is nevertheless of extraordinary interest”. Asta Nielsen "has again created an incomparable achievement with the execution of the main role and is supported in her grandiose art to the best of the poet-director Urban Gad."

literature

  • The film prima donna . In: Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus: Classics of the German silent film 1910–1930 . Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10212-X , pp. 34-39.
  • The film prima donna . In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films . (Edition Asta Nielsen, Volume 2). 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-83-4 , pp. 139–145.
  • The film prima donna . In: Renate Seydel (Ed.): Asta Nielsen. Your life in photo documents, self-testimonies and contemporary reflections . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1981, pp. 94-95.
  • Winfried Pauleit: The film prima donna in the mirror of still photography . In: Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . (Edition Asta Nielsen, Volume 1). 2nd Edition. Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-83-4 , pp. 133-139.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . (Edition Asta Nielsen, Volume 1). 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2010, p. 426.
  2. ↑ Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . (Edition Asta Nielsen, Volume 1). 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria Publishing House, Vienna 2010, p. 18.
  3. ↑ Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . (Edition Asta Nielsen, Volume 1). 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria Publishing House, Vienna 2010, p. 134.
  4. ↑ Film review in: Union-Theater-Zeitung , December 12, 1913.