The Genoa Conspiracy
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Genoa Conspiracy |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1921 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Leni |
| script |
Georg Emperor Paul Leni |
| production |
Hanns Lippmann for Gloria-Film, Berlin |
| music | Hans Landsberger |
| camera |
Carl Hoffmann Karl Hasselmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The Genoa Conspiracy , often preceded by the name Fiesco , is a German silent film drama by Paul Leni with a large star cast.
action
Genoa at the time of the late Renaissance , in the year 1547. Fiesco, the Count of Lavagna, plans the overthrow of the old Doge of Genoa, Andrea Doria, who ruled and ruled like an all-powerful single ruler. No palace intrigue is too sophisticated for him and every means is acceptable. Even the Doge's seductive niece, Countess Julia Imperiali, is given a role in his villain play. Fiesco's most loyal ally is Verrino, who wants to implement the idea of a republic through the planned coup and end the tyrannical omnipotence. Finally there is a general uproar, an excited crowd, the citizens of Genoa, storms up the white shimmering steps to the magnificent gate of the Doge's Palace. A scream is heard and the mob can no longer be stopped and storms with revolutionary roars against the fortress, which is only defended by a loyal Swiss guard. The doge has gone into hiding, instead his nephew appears, the hated Gianettino Doria, both heir and crown prince. A wall of protest from the winding alleys of the crowds streaming in from everywhere swells towards him.
The ruler is accused of having broken the constitution and is feared that the old man will soon be followed by the nephew who is feared as an unscrupulous and even worse tyrant and entitled to doge dignity. Gianettino descends the stairs under the protection of the bayonets of his bodyguards. A venerable figure, Verrino, who is venerated by the people, breaks free from the crowd and courageously confronts the Doge candidate. Thousands of hands stretch up to the blue sky of Genoa and morally strengthen the back of the Republican challenger. What Verrino does not suspect, however, is that Fiesco has long been playing his own game. He does not plan in the least to return rule to the people and to end tyranny. Rather, he intends to replace one tyrant for the other, namely himself, and to become the new sole ruler over Genoa. When Verrino learns of Fiesco's sinister machinations, he plunges the traitor of his and the people's ideals into the sea and into his death. The old, deposed doge gets his office back, cheered by the quickly forgetting people.
Production notes
The Genoa conspiracy came into being in the autumn of 1920. The six-act play with a length of 2505 meters passed the film censorship on February 23, 1921 and was banned from youth. The premiere of the film, which was awarded by the UFA , took place on February 25, 1921 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
Director Leni also designed the film structures that were executed by Karl Görge . Ernő Metzner created the costumes.
Reviews
“A bold, great-looking picture […] It is one of the many great ones that the Gloria film ' The Conspiracy of Genoa ' will unroll. In our days of eagerly awaited renewal, this piece of renaissance is carried by the roar, struggle and suffering of the present and returns again, throwing away everything that has been through the centuries, renewing itself under different conditions and in similar forms. Schiller showed this film the dramatic action. […] This is how director Paul Leni saw the renaissance politics in Genoa that culminated in the conspiracy of the clever demagogue Fiesco von Lavagna. In festive palaces tragic intrigues are spun, the beautiful Countess Imveriali plays love and becomes, foolish and infatuated, herself the most important stone in the bold game of the ambitious Lavagna. And another woman suffers, she knows nothing about the dark paths of politics, and a chaste girl becomes a symbol of the violated Genoa. Individual fate expands into world events. This city is our world, the struggles are our struggle - but nothing is tendency, nothing is partisan. When the sun, shining eternally over all good and bad days, rises over the fantastically wide port of Genoa, then there is no end of jubilation: only longing for peace, the will to understand one another, without hate, without quarrel, without civil war. The reflection of a colorful, noisy time lives here in captivating images. And the melody of the past flows into the music of the present - and makes us sit up and take notice. "
“A film that could only be created by a painter, a visual artist. An answer to the controversial question of the 'film adaptation of literature'. (...) When Schiller's Fiesko material attracted him to a film, Paul Leni chose a different path: the path that his origins as a painter and his feeling as a visual artist inevitably pointed out: the right, only path to art film. He has created a new 'Fiesco', a Fiesco that is a sequence of images - nothing but a sequence of images, and whose language is the rhythm of lines, lights and shadows, soft and hard tones. That is the language of film, which touches hearts and senses with the power of the work of art. So the task of the actor here is different from what is commonly done in 'literary films'. It is not through a thousand devised, fine, little arts of gesture and facial expression that they have what finally only the word can convey, to make plausible to the viewer in an allusive way. Here they are part of a whole picture into which Leni painted them. You could say: IA Fresco acting. The merit of the actors is therefore not less, but greater. Your empathy made the eloquent stylistic unity possible, which makes this film a closed work of art. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: “The material, photos (wonderful lighting effects), game and scenery (great crowd scenes) were excellent. (A hit of the first rank.) "
Web links
- The conspiracy to Genoa in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Genoa conspiracy at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ some sources mention Lydia Potechina. It is currently not possible to verify whether Potoczkaja, sometimes also written Potokaja, is a typo. For reasons of age, however, Potechina does not seem very likely for this daughter role.
- ↑ The Conspiracy to Genoa - Ajar in Film-Kurier No. 236, shooting report from October 20, 1920
- ^ The conspiracy to Genoa - Hans Wollenberg In: Lichtbild-Bühne No. 9 of February 26, 1921
- ↑ The Fiesco conspiracy to Genoa ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Paimann's film lists
