The story of the silent mill
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The story of the silent mill |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1914 |
| length | 66 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Oswald |
| script | Richard Oswald |
| production | Paul Davidson for PAGU, Berlin |
| occupation | |
| |
The story of the silent mill is a German silent film drama from 1914 by Richard Oswald based on a literary model by Hermann Sudermann .
action
The plot is based on a classic ménage à trois. The young Gertrud is married to the miller's son Martin. Martin has a brother named Johannes who is almost nine years his junior. Gertrud soon realizes that there is an intimate, almost exuberant emotional relationship between the two men that goes beyond the purely fraternal. And there is a dark family secret: there was once a third brother named Fritz. He was two years younger than Martin and died as a result of a brawl with him: The vigorous, irrepressible Martin, who, like Fritz, was prone to quick anger, hit him very unhappily in the back of the head with a stone. Over the years, the rather tenderly-tempered Johannes accepted the gnarled-closed Martin in the double function of a parental guardian.
One day Martin met and married the miller's daughter Gertrud. When Johannes returns home from his military service abroad, the latter welcomes him with joy. Their existence breaks up this constellation of men in the old, quiet mill: the courtyard is tidy, the garden nicely laid out. Gertrud quickly took on the role of a sister she never had for her brother-in-law, who was almost the same age. As she approaches her brother-in-law Johannes in almost childlike coquetry, a situation of subliminal, mutual and yet forbidden desires gradually arises. Her husband Martin kindles the smoldering fire between brother and sister-in-law by increasingly assuming a fatherly role towards her and encouraging the two to do a lot together. At a village festival, the mood begins to crackle. But before the quasi-incestuous act between the older brother and the sister-in-law in distant America can be performed, both brothers die in quick succession. Gertrude remains socially and socially isolated.
Production notes
The four-act film, shot in the Union studio in Berlin-Tempelhof , was censored on December 10, 1914 and was shown for the first time five days later at the Berlin premiere film theater on Kurfürstendamm.
It was Oswald's second film director. The film structures come from Hermann Warm .
Although Robert Valberg played the older of the two brothers, he was actually five years younger than Alfred Abel , who played the younger, cheerful Johannes. For Valberg, The Story of the Silent Mill was one of a total of three feature films that he made with Richard Oswald in 1914.
The film is based on the Sudermann work Geschwister , published in 1907 . This volume includes the two stories The Story of the Silent Mill and The Desire .
criticism
"Abel's acting performance as brother Johann should be particularly emphasized in this picture."