The Geierwally (1940)

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Movie
Original title The Geierwally
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1940
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Hans Steinhoff
script Jacob Geis
Alexander Lix
production Gerhard Staab
for Tobi's film art
music Nico Dostal
camera Richard fear
cut Ella Ensink
occupation

Geierwally is a German film adaptation by Hans Steinhoff from 1940. It is based on motifs from the novel of the same name by Wilhelmine von Hillern . Heidemarie Hatheyer plays the title role . Sepp Rist , Eduard Köck and Winnie Markus can be seen in leading roles .

action

Wally Fender loves the hunter Josef, but he doesn't know anything about it. When she heard one day that a vulture had built its nest on the steep slope and that the young had already hatched, but none of the men dared to dig the nest, she roped down and took the young. When the mother bird attacks Wally, Josef shoots the bird and thus saves Wally's life. However, he despises her for her unfeminine behavior and mockingly calls her Geierwally, while the villagers call him Bearjosef himself after killing a bear.

Wally takes the young bird in and raises it. On the orders of her father - the mother died years ago - Wally is supposed to marry the farmer Vinzenz, but refuses to do so because she only wants to marry the destitute Josef. The father then banishes them to the mountain hut on a high alpine pasture. Wally moves with her Geier and the crazy Klettenmeier to the Hochalm, where she lives for several months in cold and need. During that time, her father fell ill and Vincent came to the farm of the Fender farmer and subjugated the servants. Vincent sends for Wally. When she appears, he is about to chastise an old maid who refused to obey his orders. Wally knocks Vincent down with a club. Her father now wants to arrest and lock her up for attempted manslaughter, but in her distress Wally sets parts of the farm on fire and is able to escape. She collapses in front of the hut of the rose farmers who take her in. When the farmers Nicodemus and Leander woo them after a few weeks and arguments start, Wally goes back to the Hochalm. Over time, she becomes so desperate about her fate that she wants to kill herself, but Klettenmeier can convince her of the beauty of the world.

Meanwhile, Josef has learned that he has an illegitimate child in a neighboring village in Afra. Afra's mother died, so Josef took the young woman with him to his village. Afra should never call him father because he wants to hide the fact that Afra is an illegitimate child. After an accident, the two of them stop at Wally's hut on the way to the village. Wally reacts disgruntled when she sees Afra and sobered when she learns that people in the village think of her as a murderer and arsonist. She wants to know if Josef knows why she did all this, but he has no idea. She refuses to tell him. On his advice that it belongs among people, Wally reacts dismissively. She confesses to him that she is only looking for someone who loves her, but Josef does not understand her and leaves Wally after a heated argument with Afra. As soon as they both left, Wally bursts into tears.

A little later she learns that her father is dying and returns to the village. The fender farmer dies and Wally becomes the new large farmer. She is cold-hearted towards servants. When there is supposed to be a dance in the village, she dresses up for Josef, who, according to rumors in the village, is said to have a mistress in Afra. She meets him on the way to the village and he gives her flowers. Wally is happy, but Afra appears, who wanted to go to the dance with Josef. Wally reacts jealously and insults Afra while dancing in front of everyone as illegitimate people who should be chased out of the village. Josef is outraged. He hears that Wally only wants to marry someone who can kiss her against her will. He encourages her to dance and wrestles a kiss from her in front of everyone present. When she wants to dance happily with him afterwards, he lets her stand because he just wanted the kiss. Filled with thoughts of revenge, Wally promises marriage to him who kills Joseph for her. Vincent promises to kill Joseph on the same day. He's got a guilty conscience now. Afra goes to Wally, who has made her way to the Hochalm again, disappointed by the people, and reveals to her that she is Josef's daughter. Josef also climbs after Wally and she rushes to meet Josef in order to thwart Vinzenz's attempted murder. At the last second, Vinzenz can be prevented from shooting Josef. Josef and Wally fall into each other's arms.

production

The Geierwally was filmed from September 6, 1939 in Hafelekar near Innsbruck, at Berghof Sölden and Längenfeld in Tyrol. The censors issued a youth ban on August 2, 1940. The film had its premiere on August 13, 1940 in the Rathaus-Lichtspiele in Munich. The first performance in Berlin took place on September 17, 1940 in the Gloria-Palast.

Berghof (Sölden) , location of the film, original location

The film was very expensive for the time, it cost more than 1.7 million marks. The sum was approved because it was intended to honor the patriarchal customs of the mountain farmers. Authenticity was particularly important; everything should be consistent. As a result, the costs rose rapidly. The scene in which Wally is fighting the vulture alone, which takes about two minutes in the film, is based on 200 cuts. The vulture was borrowed from the Berlebeck Eagle Observatory in the Teutoburg Forest . The film was not only a great success in Germany, but also abroad. For Heidemarie Hatheyer the role meant her breakthrough, she became a star overnight, so to speak. The high production costs turned out to be well invested, the film made a profit of 1.9 million marks within 17 months.

Further films

Wilhelmine von Hillern's novel, written in 1875, was so successful at the time that a play was written after him. The film also took the material back in 1921 and made a silent film with Henny Porten in the title role. In 1956 an Agfacolor film was made with Barbara Rütting as Geierwally. Other films exist from 1967 and 1988 . Christine Neubauer played Wally in a 2005 film .

criticism

For the film service , Die Geierwally was a “heavy-blooded peasant drama. The film from 1940 shows traces of the ' blood and soil ' ideology, but thanks to Heidemarie Hatheyer's character portrayal and the captivating landscape photography, it has Richard Angst's artistic format. "

On the occasion of the television screening of a remake of the Hiller’s material, Der Spiegel wrote: “The offended pride of a woman, a hard-hearted father, wicked cunning of a maid, a half-tamed bird of prey as a symbol of freedom and coercion - the Nazi film took the novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern, Published in 1875, not to be missed. In 1940, the actress Heidemarie Hatheyer created the impressive portrait of a non-conformist woman despite the prevailing ideology. "

For Cinema , the film was “ideologically sensitive, artistically valuable”.

Karlheinz Wendtland wrote in his remarks on this film that Georges Sadoul "in his well-known anti-audience attitude described the film as exemplary of the mediocrity of German films under Hitler", "although it was also a great success in France". Wendtland went on to say that Herbert Holba had characterized Heidemarie Hatheyer as follows: “Her austere, active male charisma and challenging eroticism made her an exception in German film.” Wendtland added to this assessment: Another image of women, that certain Layer of today's German film journalists who write `` vom Heimchen am Herd '' or believe that back then there were only films `` which only provided women with a renunciation of self-realization '' (`` after Hembus '').

Awards

The Geierwally received the ratings "artistically valuable" and "popularly valuable" from the National Socialist film inspection agency in August 1940 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1939 and 1940, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, first edition 1987, second edition 1989, Film 48/1940, pp. 152, 153, ISBN 3-926945-03-6
  2. ↑ The Geierwally. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ TV preview: Die Geierwally . In: Der Spiegel , No. 1, 2005, p. 64.
  4. ↑ See cinema.de