The sinner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The sinner
The Sinner Logo 001.svg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1951
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Willi Forst
script Willi Forst
Georg Marischka
Gerhard Menzel
production Rolf Meyer
Helmuth Volmer
music Theo Mackeben
camera Václav Vich
cut Max burner
occupation

The Sinner is a German film from 1951 . It was also the breakthrough for actress Hildegard Knef because of the subsequent scandal . The film premiered on January 18, 1951.

action

The plot revolves around the cohabitation of the prostitute Marina with her boyfriend, the painter Alexander.

Marina's mother cheats on her stepfather during World War II , who is arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned for a while. Marina is seduced by her stepbrother, who is then apparently killed by her stepfather. Marina falls in love with the failed painter Alexander, who is sick with a brain tumor that makes him blind. Both travel to Italy, where they temporarily lead happy lives. In order to finance an operation, Marina tries to go back to her old business. But she does not succeed in this. However, she meets the surgeon who promised Alexander a curative operation and is now ready to perform it for free. The operation restores Alexander's eyesight and the couple have a good time in Vienna. When Alexander's eyesight deteriorates and blindness is inevitable, Alexander decides to part ways. Marina hands the suicidal Alexander, with his knowledge, a glass with an overdose of sleeping pills (veronal), which he takes. Then Marina also takes her own life.

background

Originally Willi Forst wanted to present a modern, sinful Maria Magdalena in Marina , but refrained from the advice of the church film speakers Anton Koch (Catholic) and Werner Hess (Protestant) on the religious aspect and fundamentally reworked the script. In November 1950 he presented the new version to Koch and a Protestant pastor. Neither of them were keen on it either, but they weren't fundamentally against the film.

Was filmed The sinner then the film studio Bendestorf , the exterior shots originated in Rome , Naples and painters' village Positano .

A few days before the film premiere scheduled for January 18, 1951, Herzog-Filmverleih submitted the strip to the FSK and unexpectedly received news of the unanimous refusal to release it on January 15, three days before the premiere. The six examiners, including a woman, found it unacceptable that Marina “chooses prostitution as a natural way out of her human and economic plight”. Furthermore, suicide and killing on request are “presented as a matter of course and the only correct way out” and can thus “appear as an ideal and encourage imitation”. The committee also criticized the fact that it was not made clear enough that Marina kept a promise and that there was thus killing on demand.

The representatives of the production and distribution company immediately pushed through a crisis meeting on January 16. Willi Forst said that his film was a work of art and that he saw the committee's decision as a personal insult. He demanded a complete revision of the decision, otherwise he would go to the press. When the FSC officials denied his request, he left the meeting. Producer Rolf Meyer threatened to ignore the FSK judgment and expose the FSK.

The SPIO then set an emergency meeting of the main committee for the morning of January 18, which was headed by SPIO President Ludwig Fasler. The representative of the Hamburg cultural authority in particular criticized the church representatives for their concerns. After one and a half hours of discussion about the possible harmful effects of the film, the approval of the film was decided with 9: 4 votes. It was only recommended that the film company make changes to two of Marina's statements.

Because of the alleged glorification of prostitution , euthanasia , euthanasia and suicide, the church refused to participate in the FSK . The day after the decisive main committee meeting that led to the approval of the film, the Protestant film commissioner Werner Hess resigned on the grounds that he could no longer belong to a committee that approved such demoralizing films. The Catholic Church then withdrew its representative from the FSK. Just a few days later, however, the federal states, the film industry and the churches agreed on further cooperation in the FSK.

The film caused a scandal and was a topic in newspapers and magazines for months. In the first week after the premiere, there were isolated demonstrations, including in Osnabrück . At the beginning of February, the Catholic Film Service called on all Catholics to boycott the sinner . The film did not reach the cinema listings in most cities until February and March. When it appeared, local dignitaries repeated the call for a boycott.

The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings , condemned the film in a pastoral letter , which was read out at the end of February when the film was released in the Archdiocese of Cologne, and in a sermon in Cologne Cathedral on March 17th called for "a powerful phalanx" and possibly that "Self-help". Pastor Carl Klinkhammer, known as the Ruhr chaplain, and young people took action against the film with violent protests . Stink bombs were thrown into cinemas and the police acted. Therefore, Klinkhammer, another priest and five other defendants were brought to justice. Politicians distributed leaflets with texts such as “Die Sünderin - A punch in the face of every decent German woman! Fornication and suicide! Are these supposed to be the ideals of a people? "

The temporary bans on performance and the public condemnation from the pulpit helped the scandalous film to a great audience success. Discussions were organized in larger cities and action committees against film were formed. According to the Catholic Film Service, the largest demonstrations with over 1000 participants took place in Düsseldorf , Cologne , Oberhausen , Ulm and Regensburg . In Regensburg there was a three-day violent dispute between film opponents, film supporters and the police, with stink bombs on one side and water cannons on the other.

On March 5, 1951, the Rheinische Post asked about the situation in Cologne: “Do the police have to protect a junk film?” Since all attempts to ban a performance had been in vain, only a “powerful demonstration of the will of the healthy population” could help . In a Duisburg cinema, as the Rheinische Post reported on March 21, 1951, opponents of the film used white mice against the sinner to provoke panic.

The film disappeared from the cinemas as early as the summer of 1951. The Protestant film guild and the Catholic film league received great popularity as a result of the scandal. In October 1951, the Catholic German bishops explicitly called on all Catholics in a pastoral word to join the film league because many of them had not yet gained the necessary security and independence with regard to film. Within a year, over one and a half million Catholics followed this call and, as members of the film league, committed themselves to only going to films recommended by the film service with the ratings “1” or “2”.

The lexicon of international film based on the film reviews of the Catholic Film Service summarized: “Willi Forst's first post-war film became the greatest scandal in German film; [...] The [...] protests from church and political circles made 'The Sinner' a box office success. "

Contrary to popular opinion, it was not Hildegard Knef's nude scene against which the protest was directed, but the thematization of wild marriage, prostitution, rape, euthanasia and suicide. Jürgen Kniep wrote: “The assumption that the churches were drawn to the field against the actress's breasts, which could be seen for a few seconds, is an integral part of today's myth of a sinner , but it has no basis.” It was not until the late 1960s that this became apparent Connected. On June 26, 1969, Bild reported that because of Hildegard Knef, who could only be seen naked for a second, the church pulpits weathered the decay of morality.

criticism

Overall, the film got pretty bad reviews. From the end of January 1951, leading representatives of the film clubs also denied the work the artistic value claimed by Willi Forst:

  • “[The film] is artistically insignificant and its effect is ruinous, yes it is almost a textbook example of that attitude in which profitability is hidden behind mock seriousness.” - Theo Fürstenau: “ Der Reigen ” and “Die Sünderin” , in: Westfälische Nachrichten ( Ahaus ), February 3, 1951, according to Jürgen Kniep: No youth release! , Pp. 62-63.
  • “The biography of a prostitute - staged as an effective 'fate of the time' and endowed with that commercial feeling that allows no real tragedy. In such mendacious preparation, such a substance must appear offensive even if the director had renounced the lascivious painting of some scenes. To be rejected because of the accepting portrayal of prostitution and killing on demand as well as the romantic glorification of suicide. (Later cuts were unable to cancel out the negative overall impression.) “ - 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 419.
  • “Colportage-like post-war drama; the double suicide and a nude scene by Knef made the film a big scandalous box-office hit. ”(Rating: 2 stars = average) - Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon“ Films on TV ” (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 790.

censorship

In January 1954, Federal Family Minister Franz-Josef Wuermeling called for “people's censorship” at an event organized by the German Family Federation and triggered outraged reactions.

On December 21, 1954, the Federal Administrative Court ruled in the third and last instance on the basis of the lawsuits of the Herzog-Filmverleih against a locally pronounced performance ban that The Sinner as a feature film is considered a work of art and thus, by Art. 5 Para. 3 GG , also the freedom of Films is protected by the Basic Law . It is true that basic rights such as the freedom of art could be restricted by violating another basic right. “Moral, religious and ideological views of individual sections of the population […]” , the Basic Law “did not place […] under the special protection of the basic state order” , so that this does not apply here and the performance ban therefore had no legal basis.

literature

  • Kirsten Burghardt: work, scandal, example. Breaking taboos through fictional models. Willi Forst's “The Sinner” (Federal Republic of Germany, 1951). (Diskurs Film / Library Volume 11.) Diskurs-Film-Verlag Schaudig und Ledig, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-926372-61-3 (also dissertation at the University of Munich , 1994/1995)
  • Jürgen Kniep: “No youth approval!”. Film censorship in West Germany 1949–1990 . In: Modern times . Volume 21, Wallstein, Göttingen 2010 ISBN 978-3-8353-0638-7 .
  • Sybille Steinbacher : How sex came to Germany. The struggle for morality and decency in the early Federal Republic. Siedler, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-88680-977-6 (also habilitation thesis at the University of Vienna , 2010/2011)
  • Stefan Volk: Scandal films. Cinematic excitement yesterday and today. Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89472-562-4 .
  • Michael Humberg: From the adult ban to the youth release. The film ratings of the FSK as a yardstick for the change in cultural values. Telos Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-933060-42-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 222
  2. ↑ Jürgen Kniep: No youth approval! , Pp. 54-55.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Kniep: No youth approval! , P. 55.
  4. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher, p. 110 ff.
  5. ↑ When “The Sinner” was banned , Mittelbayerische Zeitung
  6. ↑ Jürgen Kniep: No youth approval! , Pp. 60-61.
  7. ↑ The Sinner on filmdienst.de
  8. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher, p. 106.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Kniep: No youth approval! , P. 63.
  10. ↑ Sybille Steinbacher, p. 121.
  11. ↑ BVerwG, judgment of December 21, 1954, Az. IC 14/53, BVerwGE 1, 303 - "Sinner" case .
  12. ↑ see e.g. B. Der Spiegel: Total scandal .

Web links