The flame

Movie
Original title	The flame
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1922
length	Fragment = 43 minutes
Rod
Director	Ernst Lubitsch
script	Hanns Kraly
production	Ernst Lubitsch-Film GmbH
camera	Theodor Sparkuhl , ; Alfred Hansen
occupation
	Pola Negri : Yvette; Hilde Wörner : Louise; Alfred Abel : musician Gaston; Hermann Thimig : composer Adolphe; Jenny Marba : his mother; Frida Richard : Madame Vasal; Jakob Tiedtke : Borell; Max Albert : journalist; Ferdinand von Alten : man of the world;

Die Flamme is a German silent film in five acts by Ernst Lubitsch from 1922. It was the last film that Lubitsch made in Germany. Today the drama is only preserved as a fragment.

content

Paris in the 19th century: The cocotte Yvette meets the young composer Adolphe. Through his relationship with Yvette, he finally manages to break away from his strict mother; she in turn dreams of a bourgeois life by his side. Yvette and Adolphe get married, but Adolphe has no idea what Yvette does for a living. Only the shady Gaston, whom Yvette had previously rejected, reveals to him that his wife is a prostitute.

Adolphe stands by Yvette, but Gaston and Adolphes mother continue to intrigue against her. Ultimately, Adolphe does not manage to overcome his inhibitions and actually get involved in his new life at the side of Yvette. In the end, he returns to his mother. Yvette kills herself by jumping out the window.

production

The flame was created after a play by Hans Müller. The buildings and decorations come from Kurt Richter and Ernst Stern , the costumes were created by Ali Hubert .

The film had its world premiere at the end of January 1923 in Vienna . The German premiere took place on September 11, 1923 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin . At the time, Lubitsch was already living and working in Hollywood . In America, The Flame was shown in 1924 with a new, positive ending that robbed the film of any dramatic value.

The original length of the film was 2555 meters. Today only fragments of the film exist in the Munich Film Museum .

criticism

Lubitsch described Die Flamme as a "small, intimate chamber play". Kurt Pinthus described Die Flamme as a composition of different genre scenes, "but in the milieu, in mood, exposure so tenderly, lovingly and tastefully, filled with the most graceful movement [...] only moody image and humanity that has become visible".

Web links

The flame in the Internet Movie Database (English)
The flame at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

↑ Did not give the sligtest idea of the dramatic value and impact of the original version. Quoted from Scott Eyman : Ernst Lubitsch. Laughter in Paradise. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6558-1 , p. 85.
^ As an antidote against the great big historical canvasses I felt the necessitiy of making ... small, intimate Kammerspiel . Quoted from Scott Eyman: Ernst Lubitsch. Laughter in Paradise. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6558-1 , p. 85.
↑ The Daily Book . Vol. 4, issue 38, September 22, 1923.

[1] Did not give the sligtest idea of the dramatic value and impact of the original version. Quoted from Scott Eyman : Ernst Lubitsch. Laughter in Paradise. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6558-1 , p. 85.

[2] As an antidote against the great big historical canvasses I felt the necessitiy of making ... small, intimate Kammerspiel . Quoted from Scott Eyman: Ernst Lubitsch. Laughter in Paradise. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6558-1 , p. 85.

[3] The Daily Book . Vol. 4, issue 38, September 22, 1923.