The magic violin (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The magic violin |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Herbert Maisch |
| script |
Gerhard T. Buchholz Erich Ebermayer Based on the novel Die Zaubergeige by Kurt Kluge |
| production | Adolf Elling for Berlin-Film GmbH |
| music | Alois Melichar |
| camera | Oskar Schnirch |
| cut | Milo Harbich |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Zaubergeige is a German feature film by Herbert Maisch from 1944 and the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Kurt Kluge .
action
Friedberg near Homburg in Hesse , around 1850. Andreas Halm curses once again over the bad sound of his third-class violin, with which he accompanies his student and secret friend Agnes playing the piano. In three days it is impossible for him to convince the famous violin virtuoso Georg Hellmesberger, who will play the solo violin at a concert in Homburg, of his skills. Andreas wants a real violin like the one on display in the Museum of Music History in Homburg. He wants to show his friend Agnes the violins in the museum when a new instrument from the possession of the Landgrave of Hesse is being put behind glass: a real Stradivarius . Andreas is captivated by the instrument, which Agnes does not miss either. At the same time as he daydreams, during which he indulges in the violin, he has to earn money, so play the piano for the guests in the "Grotto" in Homburg in the evenings and also regularly be present as second violin in the Friedberg Quartet. At some point there will be a scandal.
Andreas overslept and is late for a concert by his quartet. The first guests have already left, which annoys Archive Councilor Mittenzwey so much that he insults Andreas as a drunkard and Casanova in front of the entire quartet, which in turn angered those who are actually only trying to earn a living that he gets his only violin smashed on the head of the Archives Council. The escape to Agnes follows. She knows about the incident. She gives him her savings - a total of 100 thalers - so that he can buy a new violin. But even the cheapest instruments are more expensive and so Andreas tries his luck at the gaming table and loses everything. Frustrated, he returns to Homburg to meet Agnes, offends her and Hasel, who, like him, works in the "Grotto", with his behavior and finds himself in front of the museum in the evening, from which violin tones can be heard. The virtuoso Hellmesberger is already in town and has been able to persuade the museum director Becker to play briefly on the Stradivarius. When Andreas sneaks into the museum, the big fireworks are taking place outside, so that the company around Hellmesberger rushes outside and leaves the violin unsecured. Andreas takes it.
The next day his teacher and quartet colleague Professor Lichtermark visits him and gives him one of his violins so that Andreas can play at all. He, however, takes the Stradivarius to the pottery festival, where he makes the visitors dance. However, Agnes realizes that it must be a special violin and follows him to a mill, where the almost insane Andreas confesses to the theft. She urges him to play the stolen violin for Hellmesberger the next day and then to return the violin to the museum. The next day she goes to Professor Lichtermark and confesses that she stole the violin. Andreas goes to Hellmesberger to play for him and only finds the desperate court conductor Curtius there, who is looking for a new solo violinist because Hellmesberger himself is ill. Andreas plays to him and is hired. Curtius takes note of the confession of violin theft with thieving joy. Finally, the narrow-minded museum people will be wiped out, who always just put valuable instruments behind glass and don't want to let them play. Nevertheless, he sends a message to Becker in which he reassuringly points out the whereabouts of the violin. Becker has now again received a visit from Lichtermark and Agnes, who prevent the museum director from calling in the police.
The concert takes place and is a great success. The Landgrave of Hesse as the owner of the violin is also present. He had long ago determined that the violin would be lent for life to whoever proved himself most worthy of it. At the end of the concert it is clear that no one can be more worthy than Andreas. In addition to a slap in the face from his friend Lichtermark for all the chaos of the past few days, he receives the violin and the prospect of a wedding with his girlfriend Agnes.
Dealing with the novel
Kurt Kluge's novel Die Zaubergeige appeared shortly before the author's death in 1940 and became a bestseller of its time with an initial print run of 400,000 copies. The novel is located in the fictional small town of Kranichstedt near Leipzig and takes place in the unspecified present.
“The filmmakers have relocated the setting of the 'Magic Violin' from Kranichstedt to Friedberg, from Leipzig to Homburg, from Saxon-Thuringian to Hessian - in a late Biedermeier era of serenity . But the peculiarity of Kurt Kluge is also striven for: The tender Eulenspiegeleien of the “Kortüm” poet, the contemplative humor, the human warmth, the lingering and wise contemplation of the world, the purring imagination. All of these characteristics flourish in a world that still has the Spitzwegian fun and small-town idyll protected by a patriarchal affability. "
The coveted violin, a Stradivarius from 1692, is on display in the Musical Instrument Museum in Leipzig. After the scandal with the board of directors of the Mittenzwey Quartet Club, when Andreas' violin broke, the violinist went to Leipzig, where he fell asleep in the museum and woke up at night. He picks up the violin in a trance and decides the next morning to play it for three days. He wants to escape punishment for theft after three days by suicide. And so he fiddled at a pottery festival in Kranichstedt, in the forest in front of animals and flowers and even at a wedding in a neighboring village. The third day has come and Andreas is going back to Leipzig. Before handing over the instrument, however, he wants to confide in a musician in the hope of getting understanding for his actions. He turned to the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus , who mistook him for the solo violinist, who was supposed to audition for him in the evening as a substitute for a concert by the orchestra. So Andreas postpones the return of the instrument, whose whereabouts are now also known to the museum director and who in turn is appeased by Andreas' fellow musician Lichtermark. The concert with Andreas as solo violinist was a complete success and the return of the Stradivarius went without any problems. And since even Andreas and Agnes will get married in the end, everything will come to a happy end.
The filming dispenses with the aspect of suicide. While the novel portrays Andreas' desire to own the violin as an inner drive from which he cannot escape, the film adaptation highlights the violin theft as a guarantee of success: Andreas can only achieve musical realization with a good violin on the other hand, to step out of his modest income situation by becoming a member of an important orchestra.
A scene not included in the novel was particularly emphasized by contemporary critics, in which Paul Henckels, as Court Kapellmeister Curtius, learned about the robbery of the violin through Andreas and was enthusiastic about both the theft and the small townspeople's musical talent.
“This scene throws Paul Henckels down with an already Dionysian comedy and wonderful humanity. You have never seen such an explosive comedic passion in him. There was applause in the scene.
Here the film gains a creative imagination of its own that would have inspired Kurt Kluge. "
background
The shooting took place from April to August 1943. Locations were the former Imperial Park Babelsberg (u. A. Before Flatowturm ) and the exterior grounds of Ufa -Ateliers Neubabelsberg , today's Studio Babelsberg . A love scene was filmed at the Paretz windmill. The concert finale, in which the Jupiter Symphony by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be heard, was filmed in the Schönbrunn Palace Theater in Vienna. The premiere of the film took place on May 9, 1944 in Berlin's Tauentzien Palace.
criticism
Contemporary critics gave the film a differentiated assessment. She noted a somewhat sluggish beginning and criticized the artistically not entirely satisfactory happy ending, which deviates from the book, but emphasized the "human miniatures in abundance", which would shine above all through oddity and amiability, while others would Reviews in the film saw the soul as the main aspect, to which the plot itself is subordinate.
The Lexicon of International Films rated Die Zaubergeige as “an artist's novel produced in the middle of the Second World War , far from reality”.
Leading actor Will Quadflieg assessed the film Die Zaubergeige and its character of Andreas Halm retrospectively as follows:
“It was a really nice role and it became a huge success. In order to understand it, one must take into account the time. It was war. The people were threatened with hardship and death. Whoever showed them a simple, heartfelt story under these circumstances was their friend. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Richard Biedrzynski: In memoriam Kurt Kluge. For the world premiere of the Berlin film “The Magic Violin” . May 6, 1944.
- ↑ Kurt Kluge: The magic violin . Bertelsmann Lesering 1952, p. 10.
- ↑ Alexander Vogel, Marcel Piethe: "Film City Potsdam: Locations and Stories" . Bäßler Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 83.
- ^ Film portal: "Die Zaubergeige" filmportal.de from February 19, 2009, accessed March 15, 2019
- ↑ Biedrzynski.
- ↑ Ludwig Brunhuber: Homage to art. "The Magic Violin" premiered in the Tauentzien Palace . May 7, 1944.
- ↑ Biedrzynski.
- ↑ Hilde R. Lest: The way of the violinist Andreas. Will Quadflieg read what he always felt himself . In: Berliner Morgenpost , May 1, 1944. Brunhuber saw in the film primarily the "artist in his earthly self-consciousness and in his heavenly desires".
- ↑ Klaus Brühne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 9. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 4396.
- ↑ Will Quadflieg: We always play. Memories . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 113.
Web links
- The magic violin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The magic violin at filmportal.de