The beloved sisters

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Movie
Original title The beloved sisters
Country of production Germany ,
Austria
original language German
Publishing year 2014
length 139 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Dominik Graf
script Dominik Graf
production Uschi Reich
music Sven Rossenbach ,
Florian van Volxem
camera Michael Wiesweg
cut Claudia Wolscht
occupation

The Beloved Sisters is a German feature film by Dominik Graf . The love of Friedrich Schiller ( Florian Stetter ) for the sisters Charlotte ( Henriette Confurius ) and Caroline ( Hannah Herzsprung ) von Lengefeld is depicted.

action

Charlotte von Lengefeld is to be introduced into high society by her godmother Charlotte von Stein in Weimar . There she met Friedrich Schiller, who came to visit the family's home in Rudolstadt in the summer of 1788 . The mother Louise von Lengefeld got into financial difficulties after the death of her husband, which is why daughter Caroline entered into a marriage of convenience with Friedrich Fhr. Von Beulwitz . The two sisters spend a carefree time with Schiller. At the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen they had once sworn to share everything with one another, and that's how it should be with Schiller. Charlotte travels back to Weimar alone, while her sister is supposed to persuade her mother to agree to marry Schiller despite his lack of funds, which she does with some delay. Schiller separates from the married Charlotte von Kalb , also with the help of an intrigue from Charlotte . After he married Charlotte in 1790, she gives birth to a son. Sister-in-law Caroline is also present in Jena, where Schiller now has a professorship. But the planned “marriage for three” cannot take place because Caroline's husband initially does not consent to the divorce.

Despite the ban of the Duke of Württemberg , Schiller went to Tübingen in 1793 to witness the production of his magazine Die Horen at the publisher Cotta . There he meets Caroline again, who has an older man pay for her services. The three of them now live with Schiller's mother in Ludwigsburg . Caroline admits she is pregnant. In order not to endanger her divorce, she drives to Schaffhausen, accompanied by Wilhelm von Wolhaben, where Schiller has organized a foster father for the child. After the birth, Caroline does not answer Schiller's letters and finally announces that she will stay with Wolzo.

Years later, the supposedly terminally ill mother Louise travels to Weimar to reconcile the sisters, who have since fallen out. At the family reunion, the sisters exchanged blows, during which Schiller had a violent attack of illness. Wolzog argues that it is apparently the fate of the three von Lengefeld women to outlive their husbands.

Production and performance

Bavaria Filmverleih - und Produktions GmbH (Munich-Geiselgasteig) acted as a production company in co-production with other film production companies. The shooting extended from August 23 to November 7, 2012 and took place in Waldenburg , Weimar , Altenburg , Rudolstadt , Coswig , Dessau , Seeburg , Orlamünde and Havixbeck as well as in Tyrol .

The Beloved Sisters was first featured in the 2014 Berlinale competition . The festival version lasts 170 minutes. In addition, a version for a two-part television film with a length of 190 minutes was created. The cinema release was on July 31, 2014. On June 3, 2017, the film was broadcast by ARD on German television.

Awards

The film was selected from 17 German films as a candidate for the 2015 Oscar .

Michael Wiesweg was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize 2013 for his image design (“Best Camera”) in 2014.

At the ceremony of the German Film Prize 2015 was awarded Beloved Sisters five nominations, including director Dominik Graf and supporting actress Claudia Messner . The film won in the categories of Best Costume Design and Best Make-up Image .

Backdrops

  • Three scenes take place in the courtyard of Altenburg (a mounted messenger arrives; Schiller leaves in a carriage) and at the baroque outer gate with a wall (Hannah Herzsprung crosses the wall) and the castle church of Altenburg Castle .
  • At the first meeting of Schiller and Goethe in Rudolstadt - in the film directly on the Saale - u. a. the Rudolstadt Heidecksburg as a backdrop.
  • Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen as a backdrop during the trip by Caroline von Beulwitz, accompanied by Wilhelm von Wolhaben, to Schaffhausen.

Others

There is no historical evidence for the plot, as - as is told at the end of the film - Caroline destroyed all documents shortly before her death and only one message from Schiller that indicated an intimate relationship has survived.

A narrator, spoken by Dominik Graf himself, leads through the plot. The sisters' oath at the waterfall (Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen) is shown several times in flashbacks.

Several events serve as the historical background:

  • The Age of Enlightenment . This is illustrated in one scene by a conversation between the Lengefeld women in French, which the present Schiller, who comes from a “middle-class background” and is therefore supposedly less educated, is not supposed to understand. Schiller does not show anything and only reveals late that he understands and speaks French.
  • The spread of the printing press . For example, a scene takes place during the printing of Schiller's magazine Die Horen in Tübingen .
  • The French Revolution . Von Wolzüge returns from Paris horrified and shows pictures of the murders there in an illustrated book. This is followed by a series of portraits of the German nobles who appear in the film.
  • An early meeting between Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . The windows of the houses are full of observers as the two poets converse some distance away on the opposite bank of the river. This scene probably relates to the first recorded meeting between Goethe and Schiller in Rudolstadt (on the Saale ) on September 7, 1788 in Beulwitz's house .

criticism

"Dominik Graf's historical love drama 'The Beloved Sisters' is like its protagonists: excessive, intense, eloquent and inspired by beautiful ideals."

- Andreas Staben : Filmstarts.de

"It is precisely by mixing essay and fiction that Graf succeeds in a sovereign and entertaining game with history."

- Matthias Dell : Spiegel Online

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Beloved Sisters . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2015 (PDF; test number: 142 285-a V).
  2. ↑ Beloved Sisters. In: filmportal.de . Deutsches Filminstitut , accessed on October 16, 2016 .
  3. ↑ “Die beliebten Schwestern” is a German Oscar contribution , Zeit online, August 27, 2014, accessed on September 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ Awarding of the Bavarian Film Prize filmportal.de
  5. ^ The beloved sisters review on Filmstarts.de
  6. ↑ The Beloved Sisters , review on Spiegel Online