The Somme. The grave of the millions

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Movie
German title The Somme. The grave of the millions.
Original title The Somme
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1930
length 2154 meters, at 18 fps 102 min., At 24 fps 79 minutes
Rod
Director Heinz Paul
script Heinz Paul
production Cando film Heinz Paul & Joseph Candolini
music Neil Brand (2016)
camera Sidney Blythe ,
Georg Bruckbauer ,
Viktor Gluck ,
Frederick Young
occupation

The Somme (also: The Grave of Millions ) is the title of a silent documentary drama that Heinz Paul realized in 1930 for Cando-Film Berlin based on his own script. Paul supplemented game scenes with German actors with documentary recordings from archive material of German, French and English origin.

action

“Twelve years after the end of the First World War , Heinz Paul traces the Battle of the Somme in 1916 with English, German and French original recordings, the battle with the most losses in the war with over a million dead. The archive images are supplemented by game scenes of a German mother who loses her three sons, and by re-enacted front scenes. "(Filmportal.de)

“The Battle of the Somme, in which Allied troops bombed the German front line, resulted in months of trench warfare. In a documentary style, the film shows scenes from the most devastating battle of the First World War. The story is told from the perspective of a mother who loses her three sons in battle. "(ARD program)

background

For the film, footage from the 1927 British film The Somme was used.

The photography was done by Sidney Blythe, Georg Bruckbauer , Viktor Gluck , and Frederick Young. Harry Dettmann was the production manager. The film started under the working title The Grave of Millions and was submitted to the Reich Film Censorship for review on April 14, 1930. He was allowed to pass under number B 25 625 (Grave of the Millions, Das). The premiere took place on April 29, 1930 in Berlin. The film, which was distributed by Cando-Film-Verleih, also ran in Sweden, where it was called Slaget vid Somme and had its premiere on January 26, 1931.

The Somme. The Grave of Millions is 2154 meters long and is preserved in the Federal Film Archive under the number B 69368-6 (archive signature: 10533). Presented at the sound film speed of 24 (television: 25) frames, the playing time of the recordings, originally cranked at 18–20 frames per second, is reduced from over 100 to 79 minutes. Apart from that, the movements in the images that are reproduced too quickly also appear unnatural, which is a source of irritation among the audience, especially in serious scenes.

Re-performances:

The Berlin Zeughauskino Unter den Linden 2 showed The Somme. The grave of the millions in his film series “First World War in Film”, which ran from November 1 to December 1, 2008, on November 14, 2008 with an introduction by the film historian Philipp Stiasny. Peter Gotthardt accompanied the piano.

The culture channel Arte showed The Somme. The Grave of the Millions on German television on March 1st, 2016 at 1 a.m. with piano accompaniment by the silent film composer and pianist Neil Brand.

reception

  • The use of authentic archive material is emphasized:

"This film from 1930 supplements original recordings from the archives with feature film elements that attempt to depict the personal tragedies of those involved."

“The archives are open!” It said in contemporary advertising: “Today, after almost twelve years of the end of the world war, it is finally possible to show the public authentic film recordings of the real events on the Somme.”

  • Reference is made several times to the method of re-enactment , which is only fully developed today among documentarists :

"In the combination of documentary recordings with re-enacted scenes and elements of a game,» The Somme «is an early example of the practice of reenactment , the re- enactment of historical events, without which history television can no longer do today."

"The Somme. The Grave of the Millions", 1930, was one of the critical voices of the early sound film era. Director Heinz Paul combines German, French and English original recordings of the most costly battle of the war, recreates events at the front and added scenes about a family - a stylistic device that hardly any documentation can do without today. "

"In its combination of these elements, the film [...] is an early example of" reenactment "". (filmportal.de)

  • However, this method was already controversially discussed at the time the film was made:

Fritz Olimsky in the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung on May 4, 1930 criticized the mixture of documentary and fictional elements: "Anyone who has been outside must necessarily notice this mixture of real and false in numerous places".

Marco Spiess at molodezhnaja attests to the director's pleasantly neutral and sober handling of the documentary images, even trusts him to have the “vision of a future without such loss-making battles”, but criticizes “the never-ending series of repetitions” in the image material, the “any visual "Missing variety" and tire the viewer. Director Paul has the pictures, but no story, despite the scenes in the game, he is unable to establish a bond with people, and is unable to bring a dramaturgy to the pictures. That is why he does not succeed in emotionally involving his audience in what he sees. The attempt to “depict the personal tragedies of those involved” failed.

Illustrations

literature

  • Jérôme Bimbenet: Film et histoire . Armand Colin Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-2-200-24240-4 , Chapter 6.
  • Herbert Birett: Sources on film history 1920–1931 . Title list of German silent films. (kinematographie.de)
  • German Historical Museum: The First World War on film . A film series in cooperation with the Deutsche Kinemathek 2008. (Zeughauskino)
  • Katharina Dockhorn, Alexander Heinrich: When the pictures taught horror. The film showed the horrors of the First World War early on - and was just as quickly exploited for propaganda purposes. In: The Parliament. No. 01-03, 2014. (das-parlament.de)
  • Bernadette Kester: Film Front Weimar: Representations of the First World War in German Films of the Weimar Period (1919–1933) (= Amsterdam University Press - Film Culture in Transition Series ). Amsterdam University Press, 2003, ISBN 90-5356-598-1 , p. 106.
  • Gerhard Lamprecht: German silent films: 1927-1931 (= Gerhard Lamprecht: German silent films. Volume 9). approx. 1967, DNB 457340444 , p. 716.
  • Fabian Tietke: Film series “First World War in Film” in the Zeughauskino Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin, from November 1st to December 1st, 2008, on line at hsozkult.de
  • Waltraud Wende, Lars Koch: War and memory: an exceptional state in the field of tension between cultural constructions of meaning. Verlag Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3142-3 , p. 125.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ so programm.ard.de
  2. ↑ Direction: Geoffrey de Cruchy Barkas, cf. en.wiki
  3. ↑ cf. Federal Archives ( Memento from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), archival signature: BArch, FILMSG 1/15810
  4. ↑ cf. Birett, sources
  5. ↑ according to IMDb on April 24, 1930.
  6. ↑ cf. IMDb / release info
  7. ↑ cf. bundesarchiv.de
  8. ↑ cf. Film length calculator
  9. ↑ cf. Fabian Tietke at hsozkult.de
  10. ↑ cf. arte.tv ( Memento from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ cf. thalia-potsdam.de ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.thalia-potsdam.de
  12. ↑ cit. to: Zeughauskino : The First World War in Film.
  13. ↑ cit. to: Zeughauskino : The First World War in Film.
  14. ↑ cf. K. Dockhorn, A. Heinrich in: The Parliament. No. 01-03, 2014.
  15. ↑ Marco Spiess , molodezhnaja February 15, 2016.