The Weavers (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The weavers |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1927 |
| length | Original: 93 minutes, ZDF broadcast: 130 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Friedrich Zelnik |
| script |
Fanny Carlsen Willy Haas |
| production | Friedrich Zelnik |
| music | Willy Schmidt-Gentner |
| camera |
Frederik Fuglsang Friedrich Weinmann |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Weber is a German silent film from 1927 based on the play of the same name by Gerhart Hauptmann . Under the direction of Friedrich Zelnik , Paul Wegener played as Weber-Herr and Theodor Loos and Wilhelm Dieterle as his two antagonists .
action
Germany in the 19th century. The weavers working for the factory owner in the thirties have to toil hard under inhumane circumstances. The emaciated and sometimes ailing workers hand over their weaves day after day in a dark room. There your product is first weighed, then checked and finally accepted. Often money is deducted from their meager wages for flimsy reasons. The weavers are at the mercy of their employer. His extended arm, the travel agent Pfeifer, once a weaver himself, tries to lower wages through constant complaints.
One day there is a serious argument that finally escalates the already tense situation. The young Weber baker is not ready to be pushed around and cheated and messes with Pfeifer and even with thirties. Weber Bäcker receives his wages, but is no longer employed as a suspected troublemaker and possible troublemaker. When the other weavers are supposed to work at half wages with immediate effect, an uprising breaks out among the exploited. The former soldier Moritz Jäger incited the weavers not to allow themselves to be joked by Thirties and his willing henchman Pfeifer. With the rebellious' thirty-one song 'on their lips, the weavers' troop travels through the entire village to the splendid 1930s mansion.
His family just manages to flee from the angry demonstrators. The rebellious weavers storm the building and devastate it, then everyone moves on to the next village. There is a mechanical weaving mill there, where the workers' wages are also halved. This factory is also stormed by the angry workers. The owners bring in the military to keep things in order. But the weavers have long gone so far that there is no turning back. The struggle for fair wages for hard work prevails, the firing soldiers have to give way under a hail of stones and withdraw.
Production notes
The Weber is considered to be the most ambitious production by the entertainment film director Zelnik. The film was shot from February 17 to April 6, 1927. The film premiered on May 14, 1927 in the Capitol am Zoo in Berlin. After the war, Die Weber was shown for the first time on May 22, 1973 as part of a ZDF broadcast.
The film structures were designed by Andrej Andrejew , the style and mask designs were created by George Grosz .
Reviews
Siegfried Kracauer came to the following conclusion in the Frankfurter Zeitung : “In the film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's" Weber ", the great Russian films:" Potemkin "and" Mutter "served as models. The stage work (modified for film use) already offered the opportunity to adopt certain motifs. The early capitalist manufacturer plagues the weavers. […] More important than the thematic relationship with Russian films is that of technical training. How the sequence of images must be carried out, how selected details can convey the total appearance, how to work with contrasts and how to symbolize different social environments - all of this has been learned from the Russians. On display are: stunted limbs, old women and men whose features take hold, a stupid figure of a turnip, a wood-carved pietist face, a roast dog, the little crates, a picket fence. A poor boy dreams into the treetops of the Chaussee and rides the manufacturer's child's rocking horse. Weavers stride, the masses stir. That has been learned admirably. [...] A good film, certainly. Yet it does not achieve its pattern, and the very little it lacks is crucial. Behind the gatherings of the poor Silesian hunger artists you can feel the work of the trained director who effectively creates the groups. The art of space control, which is suitable for the Russians, is undeveloped (when they let the military march, the place roars, while in the German film the soldiers only march). After all, the individual scenes are not carefully weighed against each other. There are reprises made without a proper increase - the repeated ringing of the storm bells, the rebels pouring out of the huts - and, as in the case of the looting, the small painting is done much too extensively. These formal uncertainties are the characteristic of a weakness that lies deeper. Exuberantly enough, the film has been given the honorary title of "German Potemkin". It is not, because it no longer affects us directly. "
Oskar Kalbus ' Vom becoming German film art wrote a new assessment eight years later from the tendentious point of view of the Nazi cultural scene: “It became Zelnik's best film because it suddenly proved to be such a great master in treating the masses that its gripping images everywhere unleashed political demonstrations. [...] The agitator in particular was cheered and celebrated in Berlin cinemas, symptomatic of the political tension of 1927. "
Reclam's film guide judged Zelnik's version of the film: “The film adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's play is probably Zelnik's most important directorial achievement. Apparently he learned from the Russian revolutionary films, which is particularly evident in the crowd scenes and in parts also in the agitational impetus of his staging. […] The film certainly owes a considerable part of its impact to the painter George Grosz. He drew the subtitles and aimed at additional effects through their design - for example when the fear of the authorized signatory Pfeiffer is illustrated by shaky writing in which his replicas are reproduced. The influence of Grosz can also be felt in the buildings, especially in the stylized huts of the weavers. "
The Lexicon of International Films writes: “True to the original Gerhart Hauptmann film adaptation belonging to the realistic silent film era with a prominent theater cast. Parallels to Russian revolutionary films in scene arrangement, camera work and editing techniques are unmistakable. "
literature
- Eberhard Berger The weavers. In: Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. 2nd edition, p. 148 ff. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frankfurter Zeitung, No. 396, May 30, 1927
- ^ Oskar Kalbus: On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Berlin 1935. p. 73
- ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 135. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexikon des Internationale Films , Volume 9, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987, p. 4206.
Web links
- The weavers in the Internet Movie Database (English)