The Nibelungs (2004)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Nibelungs - The Dragon's Curse |
| Original title | Ring of the Nibelungs |
| Country of production | USA , Germany , Italy , United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2004 |
| length | 177 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Uli Edel |
| script |
Diane Duane , Peter Morwood , Uli Edel |
| production |
Rola Bauer , Andreas Schmid , Carla Thoeren |
| music | Ilan Eshkeri |
| camera | Elemér Ragályi |
| cut | Roberto Silvi |
| occupation | |
| |
The Nibelungen is a TV film by Uli Edel from 2004 that interweaves motifs and characters from the Middle High German heroic epic Nibelungenlied , from the Siegfried-like Nordic saga about Sigurd and from Richard Wagner's opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen . The film was produced by Tandem Communications and premiered on November 29 and 30, 2004 on the television station Sat.1 . It was the audience rating for the most successful mini-television series of 2004.
action
First part
At the beginning of the story, little Siegfried wakes up and notices that his parents' castle in Xanten is being attacked by a large Saxon army . The fortress is on the verge of being overrun and Siegfried has to watch helplessly as his father, King Siegmund, is overwhelmed and killed by the brothers Thorkwin and Thorkil, the leaders of the enemy. His mother, Queen Sieglind, escapes with him and some bodyguards through a secret gate from the castle. They are noticed and attacked on the way to the river. All but Siegfried are killed, because his mother still manages to send him with the last of her strength on a floating tree trunk along the river to safety before she dies of her injuries herself. The next morning, the boy is found by the gunsmith Eyvind. He completely lost his memory overnight and can't remember anything. Eyvind decides to have the child and raise them as his son. He names him Eric and teaches him blacksmithing.
Twelve years later, Siegfried alias Eric has grown into a strong young man and runs the forge with his foster father. One day a ship with Northmen drives by the river in front of the forge and Eric sees a beautiful blonde warrior on board, who immediately arouses his interest. The following night, a meteor crashes to earth and lands near the forge. Eric is intrigued and goes to the crash site. Once there, he gets into a fight with a veiled opponent. He throws it to the ground and discovers that it is the beautiful woman from the ship. She reveals herself to him as Iceland's Queen Brunhild and reveals to him that he is the first man to have defeated her in battle so far. The two fall madly in love and spend a night together on the glowing crater rim of the crash site. The two of them part ways for other reasons for the time being, but they swear to one another that one day they will get back together and get married. In addition, everyone takes half of the broken meteor with them to forge a powerful weapon from it.
Soon afterwards Eric travels to Worms with his father Eyvind to bring the local King Gunther of Burgundy an ordered delivery of weapons. On the river bank they see nothing but devastation and learn that the terrible dragon Fafnir has awakened and is covering the land with death and suffering. At court, Eric also meets the handsome Kriemhild , the king's sister. At first sight she is carried away by Eric and falls in love with him, who, however, cannot return this love due to his affection for Brunhild. All previous attempts to kill the dragon have failed. In another fight against the dragon, King Gunther is injured. So Eric decides to give it a try himself. From the metal of the meteor he forged a masterful sword and baptized it with the name Balmung , after the sword of the last king of Xanten.
Eric goes to Fafnir's cave and faces the monster with his new sword. A dramatic fight ensues and although the dragon seems to be superior, Eric manages at a favorable moment to pierce the monster's heart at a weak point and kill it. After winning the fight, he costs the dragon's blood, whereupon his senses sharpen and he can understand the language of animals. Birds advise him to take a bath in the dragon's blood. In fact, Eric bathes in the dragon's blood and thereby gets a steel-hard, impenetrable skin. Only a spot on the shoulder blade remains vulnerable by mistake, as an oak leaf lay unnoticed on the skin when bathing. In the back of the cave, Eric finds mountains of gold; the ancient treasure of the Nibelungs , which the dragon guarded. The Nibelungen, nebulous spirits, appear and explain to Eric that they are the real owners of the treasure. They warn Eric of the curse of the treasure that brings death to every thief. But he doesn't want to listen to it and absolutely wants to get the treasure into his possession. In front of the cave, Eric is attacked by the dwarf Alberich , who wants the treasure for himself. However, he cannot kill Eric because of his invulnerable skin and is overwhelmed by him. In exchange for his life, he gives Eric a magical invisibility cap, with which the wearer can assume any shape.
Back in Worms, Eric is celebrated by the people as a dragon slayer and savior. Kriemhild's feelings for Eric keep growing. King Gunther agrees to keep the Nibelung treasure for Eric. However, this also leads to envy and greed of the neighbors of the kingdom and soon war breaks out with the Saxons over the gold.
A great battle between the two armies is imminent, but Eric as owner of the treasure challenges the two leaders of the enemy, Thorkwin and Thorkilt, to a three-way battle. During the fight, Eric's memory returns and he recognizes in the opponents the murderers of his birth parents. He defeats both and now reveals himself to them as who he really is: Siegfried, the new King of Xanten. Although he wanted to spare the twin kings beforehand, when they attack him again from behind, he kills them both and the entire Saxon army lays down its weapons.
Gunther is enthusiastic about Siegfried and forges a plan to unite his royal family with Siegfried's house through a marriage. To do this, he instructs his confidante Hagen von Tronje to put the plan into practice. Hagen turns to the dwarf Alberich, who is actually his hated biological father, and lets him brew a magic potion. Hagen tells Kriemhild about the plan and confides in her the magic potion. She has a guilty conscience, but ultimately accepts because of her love for Siegfried. The forget potion leads Siegfried to forget all feelings for other women and immediately falls in love with Kriemhild.
Second part
Gunther and Hagen's plan works when Kriemhild Siegfried pours a few drops into the wine. He immediately forgets all previous feelings for his beloved Brunhild and falls in love with Kriemhild. Then Gunther announces that he is in love with Brunhild, Queen of Iceland, and wants to make her his wife. To do this, however, he first has to defeat them in a duel, which no man has done before. So he asks Siegfried for help, who is the only one who can cope with the strong queen and instead of Gunther, with the help of his magic cloak in the form of the king, is supposed to fight Brunhild against Brunhild. After some hesitation, he finally agrees and travels to Iceland with Gunther and his entourage.
Once there, Brunhild is overjoyed to finally see Siegfried again, but is completely irritated by his suddenly dismissive attitude. Gunther explains to Brunhild that he wants to take her as his wife and accept her challenge. Before the fight, Siegfried takes Gunther's shape with his magic hat and takes his place against Brunhild. During the fight on an icy river, Brunhild's life is in danger and Siegfried rescues at the last second. Thereupon, despite reluctance, she declares herself ready to become Gunther's wife. Back in Worms, she confronts Siegfried with her former oath and asks him why he no longer wants her. But because of the magic potion, he can't remember anything and again rejects Brunhild, which hurts her deeply. Therefore she is forced to marry Gunther and begins to develop deep hostility towards Kriemhild, who in turn marries her lover Siegfried. Siegfried meanwhile gives Kriemhild the entire treasure of the Nibelungs as a wedding present as proof of his love.
However, Gunther's marriage to Brunhild is very different from what he imagines: During the first night together, she does not let him into bed with her, but overpowers and ties him up. She explains to him that her supernatural strength comes from her magic belt and that he will have to remove her belt if he wants to make her compliant as a wife. The completely desperate Gunther is therefore forced to ask Siegfried again for help. Reluctantly, he helps out his brother-in-law again and returns to Gunther's form with his magic hat in order to snatch Brunhild's belt. The plan succeeds, but this time the fraud is noticed and uncovered by Gunther's brother Giselher and Siegfried's wife Kriemhild. This turns into a tragedy when the following day Kriemhild clashes with Brunhild and reveals this secret to the queen and the whole public. Brunhild is furious and seeks revenge on Siegfried. Even the helpless Gunther somehow wants to get rid of this shameful fact to restore his reputation and so forges the plan with Hagen and Brunhild to have Siegfried murdered.
This betrayal is to be put into practice the next day on a great hunt before Siegfried and Kriemhild leave for Xanten. At the same time, Kriemhild and Brunhild meet for a conversation in Castle Kriemhild, in which Brunhild explains that she was Siegfried's former lover. Only then does Kriemhild realize what an injustice she has done; in tears she confesses the whole intrigue to Brunhild. The horrified Brunhild realizes what a lie she has fallen for and that she can no longer prevent the murder of her lover in time. Meanwhile Siegfried leaves the camp after the hunt to wash his bloody hands in a small stream in the forest. He is unobtrusively pursued by Hagen, who attacks him from an ambush with a spear and deliberately pierces his only vulnerable part of the body. The old memories of Brunhild return to the dying Siegfried before he succumbs to his injury.
Gunther, Hagen and their entourage return to the city with the dead Siegfried and depict his death with false statements. But Kriemhild sees through Gunther's game and reveals him as the real murderer. When she then declares, devastated, that she will forego the entire treasure of the Nibelungs, both Gunther and Hagen are greedy for the gold and the two get into a fatal argument in which Hagen murders his king and then the treasure rips. But then he is put by the vengeful Brunhild as the man behind all the intrigues that ultimately led to Siegfried's death. In the following fight, Hagen has no chance against the regained Brunhild and is mercilessly beheaded by her. In the end, only Kriemhild and her brother Giselher are left, who are now sinking Siegfried in the old pagan way on a burning ship together with the treasure in the Rhine . But first you can see Brunhild, who executes herself on the ship with Siegfried's sword to go to her death with her lover. Thus the curse of the Nibelungs has been fulfilled and the treasure is now back in the possession of its rightful, immortal owner at the bottom of the river.
background
The film was shot from November 17, 2003 to February 2004 in South Africa.
criticism
The Nibelungen achieved high ratings when it was first broadcast. In the reviews of the daily newspapers it was criticized that the film does not adhere to the original announced in the title in many details, for example with regard to Siegfried or Hagen's origins. Instead, the film makes a lot of compromises in order to adapt the material to a television adaptation. Several elements of other or similar sagas, above all the Völsunga saga with its main hero Sigurd , were largely integrated in the revision as The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner - for example the depiction of the figure of Hagen or Siegfried's engagement to Brunhilde. Again, some actions are fictitious. The acting performance, especially Fürmann , was mostly positively highlighted, as was the technical implementation.
“[...] It didn't turn out to be a national epic, but it's definitely exciting! [...] "
“Shouldn't one also consider the reception of the Nibelungenlied as a German trauma in a current entertainment film, especially in a television film that is being advertised as 'TV event of the year'? Do you have to, should you, can you score with it? In Uli Edel's two evenings full glossy production 'Die Nibelungen' […] the answer is, as in other films before: Oh no. But here naivety is used as a template and everything that could be difficult is left out of the Nibelungen material and the adventures of Jung-Siegfried, as they also came to us through the Lieder Edda, the Wälsungen saga and of course the Ring by Wagner's grace. Then the rest of the now self-forgotten motifs and key stimuli - dragon, treasure, dwarf, sword, ring and so on - thrown into the air like confetti and used in the same way as the colored particles fall down. Conflicts, internal logic and who kills whom: all completely unimportant. "
“[...] Filmmaker Uli Edel tinkered an easily digestible fantasy two-part movie from the fascinating material with Benno Fürmann in the role of the warrior Siegfried. [...] "
Awards
- 2005 - DIVA Award - The German TV Movie Award
- 2005 - Golden Camera nomination for Benno Fürmann as Best Actor ( also Little Sister and Wolfsburg )
literature
- The Nibelungenlied . Complete edition (Middle High German and New High German). Edited and translated by Ursula Schulze . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag (dtv), Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-13693-8 .
- Harald Gschwandtner: “Siegfried! We've only been married for one day! ”Trends towards modernization and the reduction of complexity in Uli Edel's Die Nibelungen. The Curse of the Dragon (2004) . In: Christian Rohr (Ed.): Everything heroic, cruel and dirty? Medieval reception in popular culture . LIT, Vienna a. a. 2011, p. 197-209 .
Web links
- The Nibelungen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Nibelungs . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2004 (PDF; test number: 100 114 V / DVD).
- ↑ In the film, contrary to the legend, it is actually an oak leaf
- ↑ Uli Edel's film "The Ring" / "Die Nibelungen-Sage" (AT) with Benno Fürmann, Kristanna Loken, Alicia Witt, Julian Sands, Max von Sydow, Sam West, Mavie Hörbiger, Götz Otto, Ralf Möller and many others. In: Presseportal . Sat.1, December 17, 2003, accessed on July 18, 2020 .
- ↑ www.presseportal.de
- ↑ John von Düffel: The Lord of the Ring . Daily mirror online. November 28, 2004. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
- ↑ Heike Hupertz: Don't cry when Siegfried comes . Frankfurter Allgemeine. November 29, 2004. Archived from the original on May 30, 2015. Retrieved on March 13, 2019.
- ↑ Cornelia Wystrichowski: Siegfried in the nebulae of Avalon . Wiesbaden courier. November 26, 2004. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved on March 13, 2019.