The Italian journey of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Movie
Original title The Italian journey of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1982
length 22 minutes
Rod
Director Werner Kohlert
script Werner Kohlert
production DEFA studio for documentaries
music Michael Halatsch
camera Werner Kohlert
cut Angela Wendt
occupation

The Italian Journey by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a documentary film by the DEFA studio for documentary films by Werner Kohlert from 1982 based on Goethe's work Italian Journey .

action

In September 1786, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe traveled to Italy without his friends and acquaintances knowing about it. Yes, sometimes he didn't even want to admit that to himself. After Weimar he only wrote that he would be back soon, not knowing that it would take two years. The trip is an escape from the responsibilities and the constant monotony that his government duties in Weimar, but also the unresolved relationship with Charlotte von Stein entailed. He is burned out and can no longer concentrate on writing his books; his poetic productivity has dried up. At that time, around 80 German artists lived among the 150,000 inhabitants of Rome . They all meet in Via Condotti, in the Antico Caffè Greco , near the Spanish Steps . Not far from here, in Via del Corso  18, Goethe lives as a painter Müller from Leipzig . The painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein is almost always present at the meetings, and he keeps drawing sketches of them. He also indicates that he would like to paint a portrait of Goethe and when it is finished, Goethe only complains that it was simply too big for the Nordic apartments.

After a long time, his already pathological mood dissolves. Now it is time to retrieve the manuscripts of his unfinished works that were left behind for decades. The Egmont is coming to an end, the Iphigenia on Tauris is already advanced and Urfaust and Torquato Tasso are being worked on and he is drawing an endless amount again. He is so happy at this time that he is of the opinion that he was really born for poetry and that everyone should be happy with him. Goethe is drawn to the monastery of Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo , where Tasso is buried, in order to nourish and strengthen his spirit with these images, as he writes. He comes to the conclusion that the history of the whole world is linked to the Roman Forum . Then his path also leads him to the destroyed tombs of the Via Appia . He visits Naples and takes Tischbein to Pompeii and climbs Vesuvius there .

In October 1813 the Wars of Liberation reached Weimar, which prompted Goethe to flee into his own past, thinking back to Italy. Thirty years after these experiences, he compiles a book from diaries, letters, reports, with the help of his friends and his own memories, which is published under the title From my life .

Production and publication

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's Italian Journey was filmed by the document group under the working titles Goethe in Italy and Goethe's Italian Journey on ORWO-Color and had its first performance on March 19, 1982. It was first broadcast on the first program of GDR television on August 26, 1984.

The dramaturgy was in the hands of Annerose Richter. The prologue and epilogue were based on texts by Walter Benjamin .

criticism

Horst Knietzsch wrote in Neues Deutschland about the director Werner Kohlert:

“When he was on site in Italy for a few days to deal with Schinkel , he also commendably went on the trail of Goethe and his Italian trip. Some stations and places that are connected with the name of the poet, thoughts of Goethe are reflected with impressionistic pictorial quality. And if we forget the streets of Italian cities clogged with cars for a few seconds, then we can also enjoy the evidence of a great culture in Rome or Pompeii. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland, March 31, 1982, p. 4