The Little Mermaid (1976)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The little mermaid |
| Original title | Malá mořská víla |
| Country of production | ČSSR |
| original language | Czech |
| Publishing year | 1976 |
| length | 84 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK from 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Karel Kachyňa |
| script |
Ota Hofman Karel Kachyňa |
| production | Film studios Barrandov with Studio Mosfilm |
| music | Zdeněk Liška |
| camera | Jaroslav Kučera |
| cut | Miroslav Hájek |
| occupation | |
| |
The Little Mermaid (also: The Little Mermaid ) is a Czech fairy tale film . Together with the fairy tale films Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella , The Fearless and How to Wake Up the Sleeping Beauty , this film based on Andersen's fairy tale The Little Mermaid is one of the outstanding classics of this genre. The film was shown in the cinemas of the ČSSR for the first time in November 1976, in the GDR on July 7, 1978 and in Japan on April 25, 1981 and in the Federal Republic of Germany was the first showing under the title The Little Mermaid on August 7, 1977 in the ARD. A German dubbed video has been on the market since November 1st, 1984. Internationally, the film is also known under the Danish title Den lille Havfrue , under the Polish title Mała Syrenka , under the Spanish title La Sirenita , the French title La Petite Sirène , the Italian title La Piccola ninfa di Mare , the Russian title Русалочка under the English title The Little Mermaid . This Czech version of The Little Mermaid is not to be confused with the Russian film The Sad Mermaid , which was also shot in 1976 and is sometimes called The Little Mermaid .
Locations
Filming locations were Kladruby in the Czech Republic, another location on a coast and Prague . In addition, the Prachau rock was shot in the barren landscape . The prince's castle is Veltrusy Castle .
actor
Miroslava Šafránková plays the little mermaid here and appears to have been reproduced in the shape and face of the famous mermaid sculpture by Edvard Eriksen . In fairy tale films, Miroslava Šafránková is known as Arabella in The Return of the Fairytale Bride . Her sister Libuše Šafránková plays the human world princess in The Mermaid, who finds the unconscious prince on the beach. Libuše Šafránková is the fairy tale princess in Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella , in The Salt Prince , in The Third Prince , in The Prince and the Evening Star , in the Race in the Castle and in How Should You Be Dr. Drown Mráček? or The end of the Aquarians in Bohemia .
action
Marine world
The globe washes around the circling water - guided by the strict eye of the sea king. The mermaids live at the deepest point of the lake, where only wild cliffs protrude from the water. At the bottom of the sea the two youngest daughters of the sea king play with shiny pearls like marbles. The older of the two has her birthday today, the younger is the little mermaid. The younger one loses the cocky pearl game and has to sing. Their father joins them. The voice of the little mermaid is adorable. She sings:
At midnight / ringing from afar / bells for wedding. / The bride comes / Snow-white as her dress from meerschaum. / Because the king will / Marry today / The king is approaching with pride / She sighs with sorrow. / Yes, that will be for her Love full of sadness.
Flowers in the castle / The festival is splendid / And like a river / Flows sweet wine / Which is brought from a great distance / But in vain / Waiting for the bride / Everyone immediately on deck / Farewell my darling / Yes, that will be for her Love full of sadness.
Stormy the sea / The mast breaks / So the ship drifts / Helplessly there / No one can save himself - too late. / Down on the beach / The bride waits / Weeps her eyes out / He never comes again / Yes, that was it for her love full of sadness.
ship
During the song, the sea king looked into the magical all-seeing stone of his ring, he let his power play and a ship crashed on the cliff - the sinking cargo glides gently down. It's the present for the birthday mermaid. The two sisters play with the treasures with great joy: picture rolls of Japanese prints, fabrics - a blood-red rose is given to the little mermaid. She puts it in her blue hair.
The party
The birthday party begins. It is also the day when the older sister is allowed to go to the surface for the first time. And she will marry the Crown Prince of the Sargasso Sea. The extended family and married sisters are expected from all the kingdoms of the seas. The little mermaid is consumed by reports from the earth. All the sisters and the old grandmother are interviewed. The Queen of the North Sea raves about the northern lights, the one from the yellow sea moans about the fire and war of the people. The grandmother tells of flying, singing fish and flowers and sheep and a shepherd prince. Suddenly the little mermaid asks her mother, who can live to be 300 years old. But the question of the queen of all seas is ignored. The festival is graceful and beautiful. The little mermaid looks longingly after her older sister as she swims to the surface.
The frog prince
The little mermaid is less enthusiastic about the prince who is both haughty and cringing and who is destined to be her husband one day. It is the prince of the sea of the setting sun. She compares his appearance to a frog. But it arouses her curiosity about a grotto. She secretly runs there and finds no window to the upper world, but a bizarre meerschaum sculpture of her beautiful mother. Her father surprises her, but he doesn't punish her, even if he compares the mermaid's curiosity to her mother's curiosity.
Three stones
Time has passed - the festival of the youngest is imminent. The grandmother talks about the earth, the sun, about the people, about the trees and also about the dangerous kiss of a person. The great royal marine family comes together. The little mermaid wears a necklace with three precious stones: the red one was a gift from her mother, the black one she found inside a sea volcano, the white one in a sea witch's home. There are only two red stones in the world: the queen kept one and gave the other to her youngest - the stone can be used to appease storms. Everyone wants to hear the beautiful voice of the little mermaid again and she starts to sing:
- " White is the first stone, / blinds the senses /
- Red is the second / he closes his lips /
- Black is the third then / He petrifies hearts /
- And whoever is so petrified / He never feels pain again. "
The prince
While the mermaid sings, a young prince's ship sails above. It's his birthday too. When he hears the voice, he longingly sets course for the dangerous cliffs. He wants to see the singer. From the depths of the sea, the crowd of the royal sea family rushes to the surface of the water to accompany the little mermaid - there the prince's birthday is celebrated on the ship with magnificent fireworks. The little mermaid is amazed to see the beauty of the lights and the beauty of the prince. The ship begins to capsize. The mermaid sneaks away and swims to save the prince. She swims with the unconscious for a long time and takes him to a beach. But it has to go back into the sea, otherwise it will dissolve in sea foam. Only when a crowd of earth maids cheerfully rides ashore and finds the prince does the beautiful wake up. A lovely dark-haired woman has kissed him. He feels saved by her. Sorrowful, the little mermaid swims back into the sea.
Queen of all seas
The sea king receives his favorite daughter severely. She asks about the Earth Prince and he reports that he is now being brought to his country, but always has to think of the dark-haired beauty. For the little mermaid, the king has the idea that in six months she should marry her chosen mermaid of the setting sun. Then the sea king wants to make the little mermaid queen of all seas. But the mermaid remains sad. When the day of the festival came, she fled and ran to the sea witch to get her human form. The evil one wants to help her to harm the mermaid, but she doesn't want the red stone as a reward - she already got it from the little mermaid's mother. The witch wants the perfect voice of the mermaid. The mermaid becomes a mute but beautiful human child. With the song from the stones, which filled the prince with longing, she loses her voice. But if the prince loves another, her heart will break and she will dissolve in sea foam.
Bride choice
In the prince's land, haunted by the wilderness of the sea, there is a bridal show. The state finances are shattered by the troubled nature. The princesses from many rich countries dance in the garden. The prince walks lonely on the beach. The beautiful mermaid in human form is thrown out of the sea. The prince doesn't believe he can believe his eyes. But he turns completely to the beautiful. The princesses are leaving. The fishing nets fill up again at the inner pleading of the little mermaid. The storms are silent. In shells they find pearls that secure and save the prince's finances, ships also come in again. But the sea sometimes turns blood red (after she wants to clean her bloody feet in the sea). The prince is enchanted by the sea princess. He tells her about the mermaid legends that surround her and that he considers beautiful fairy tales. But he also confesses his love for the dark-haired girl to the girl, but he doesn't know about her whereabouts. It seems as if he is leaning more and more towards the mute sea beauties.
The princess of the southern empire
The counselors induce the prince to visit the bride in the rich, distant southern kingdom. At first he doesn't want to and even takes his mermaid with him on the trip. But when he stands in front of the Princess of the Southern Empire, the two recognize each other. It is the beautiful dark-haired woman and overjoyed they admit that they have found their way back. The mermaid stands dazed. On the ship, the wedding couple sails back to the prince's realm. Everything is in a magical sleep. The little mermaid has a knife from the realm of water, with which she should kill the prince before sunrise - then she can become a mermaid again. At a loss, she stands with the dagger in front of the sleeping lovers. The voice of the sea father urges us to hurry and insists that the ship must crash on the cliffs in any case. The mermaid leans over the prince - but only to kiss him. The knife slides into the sea. The royal sea family sees this in horror from afar. The mermaid rushes into the water with a scream and dissolves in sea foam. Sea flowers unfold out of the water and protect the ship. The prince and his bride wake up from the scream. He asks about the mermaid. The two of them see the blooming sea in amazement. The sea king stands perplexed and the sea rushes - the singing of the sea girl rises above it, liberated.
material
myth
The voice is the origin of the sea girl beauty. The seductive voice is what gives sirens and mermaids the gift of sea magic over all metamorphoses of their shape. By giving up her voice, the little mermaid denies her identity - and thus also the self-respect that the gift of being loved requires. The plot of the film is essentially based on the mermaid tale by Hans Christian Andersen . However, the story of the mother of the mermaid and the family tragedy of “curiosity” that is psychologically inherited by the mermaid is not carried out by Andersen, but is hinted at in this film adaptation. In addition, the little mermaid is helpful, like the fabulous Danube woman who warns fishermen of a spring tide. The little mermaid of the film is like Andersen's mermaid and also like Fouqués Undine and to a certain extent like Melusine the fragile type of the water girl. This differs from the powerful and sometimes destructive type, as it is carried out in the Swedish fairy tale First Born, First Married and is also important in Vorlíček's fairy tale film The Sea Queen - i.e. the fatal type that is used in the film adaptation of The Little Mermaid in the figure of the mother mermaid and is carried out in the sea witch. Andersen's fairy tale ends with the transformation of the little mermaid from the sea foam into a benevolent air spirit. In the film she transforms into blooming water lilies , which are also called nymphaeas. These protect the ship from the cliffs and - like Andersen - are charitable. This water lily picture is inspired by Mathilde's dream in Novalis ' Heinrich von Ofterdingen : In this dream, the girl, who will soon be torn from life, meets under water and later transforms into the blue flower of longing . Of course, the image of the sea water lilies in the film is also a final reminiscence of Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka . This Slavic sea mermaid has many similarities to Andersen's little mermaid, but she does not come from the sea, but from a lake overgrown with water lilies. And in this water lily pond the sad Rusalka pulls her fickle lover into the wet grave. However, he is willing, repentant and fully aware of the consequences of the mermaid kiss.
photos
Concerning the lighting of the mermaid film - just like Andersen describes the sea in the fairy tale - the marine world of the mermaids is bathed in cornflower blue light. The film dispenses with the depiction of the fish body of mermaids and thus stands in the tradition of the Greek water nymphs, who were also thought of without fish tails. The film image, according to which the sea creatures and mermaids differ from humans, is inspired by Alfons Mucha's personification of the moon in his image The Moon . Among the images of sea girls and mermaids, Edward Burne-Jones's mermaid images have had some influence on the atmosphere of the film. The images of nature of the apple trees in bloom and the flowing robes, reminiscent of studies in robes, also evoke the images of this Pre-Raphaelite .
Marine music
In a movie about mermaids, music is key. Zdeněk Liška composed the film music for The Little Mermaid in the horizon of the great tradition of musical water compositions . However, Liška's sound remains independent and dispenses with literal quotations. Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka became particularly important . So here is z. As in Ho - ho - ho -Gesang of the Dryads to hear the interval sequence of the Midnight Song of the Little Mermaid. The rolling rhythms of ocean waves can be found in Claude Debussy's La Mer as well as in the fairy tale music that accompanies the roaring of the oceans. The elegance of the mermaid's song is reminiscent of the voice floating over the water in Ernest Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer (Op. 19) - especially in the song of the water flower. The vocal singing of Debussy's Sirènes is also present in the enigmatic, monotonous mermaid song of the three stones. In addition, Liška has taken up the water-illustrative aspects of Smetana's Moldau in the tone sequences of his sea music . Compared to the multi-layered music of the mermaids, the music of the human world is kept in very simple dance styles.
synchronization
The more well-known German dubbing , which can occasionally be seen on television and available on DVD, was created in the Bavaria Atelier in Munich. At the same time, a separate version for cinema use was produced in the ateliers of DEFA Studios for Synchronization , Leipzig , which was later also released on DVD.
Reviews
- "Deep down, at the bottom of the sea, a mighty king lives with his entourage and rules over all seas. One of his daughters is not only charming, but also has a beautiful voice that beguiles everyone. On her birthday she meets a human prince who, attracted by her voice, sails to doom. She saves him and falls in love. In her, curiosity about the world outside the water grows. The desire to escape from the sea and from now on to live as a person, at the side of the beloved prince. For him she accepts all the hardships to become a person. But her love remains unrequited, the little mermaid dies of a broken heart. An atmospheric fairy tale film based on Hans Christian Andersen. . " - writes the database-film-the-fan-net
- "The little mermaid lives at the bottom of the sea. One day she saves the life of a prince and falls in love with him. First, however, many sacrifices are required of her. She even has to risk her life. Atmospheric fairy tale adaptation, which in contrast to the Disney version retained the sad tone of the story. (TV title also: "The Little Mermaid") " - Lexicon of international films
literature
- Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Mermaid in Collected Fairy Tales; ed. and partly retransmitted by Floriana Storrer-Madelung; with an afterword by Martin Bodmer; Vol. 1, manesse-Verlag, Zurich 2002; ISBN 978-3-7175-1014-7
Web links
- The Little Mermaid at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Photos of The Little Mermaid on ČSFD.cz
- The Little Mermaid : 21 film photos on fdb.cz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. The Little Mermaid on pp. 299–303 in 77 Fairy Tale Films - A Guide for Young and Old (ed.) Eberhard Berger, Joachim Giera u. a. Henschel Verlag GmbH; Berlin 1990; ISBN 3-362-00447-4
- ↑ See also the section on this classic fairy tale film by Fabienne Liptay, where the author deals with Andersen's art fairy tale model of thinking redemption and death in love as one and how this is formulated in the film The Little Mermaid / Malá mořská víla in film images of melancholy: Fabienne Liptay: Wonder Worlds - Fairy Tales in Film ; Michael Itschert, Gardez! Verlag; Remscheid, 2004; ISBN 3-89796-041-9 , pp. 292-294
- ↑ This information is provided by Fabienne Liptay (née Will) in Die kleine Seejungfrau, p. 108 in Filmgenres - Fantasy- und Märchenfilm (Ed.) Andreas Friedrich, Philipp Reclam Verlag. jun. Stuttgart, 2003; ISBN 3-15-018403-7 (ibid: The Little Mermaid, pp. 107-109)
- ↑ cf. Karl Kerényi : Acheloos and the Sirens in The Mythology of the Greeks - the gods and human stories ; Vol. I; Pp. 49-50; Unabridged edition from November 1966, published by Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag in the twenty-third edition, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-30030-2
- ↑ On the puzzling change in late antiquity from the bird figure of the siren, which beguiles boaters on sea cliffs with its song, to the mermaid figure, cf. Gwen Benwell and Arthur Waugh: Daughters of the Sea - of Mermaids, Nereids, Sirens, and Tritons , p. 38; Marion von Schröder Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 1962
- ^ Parallel to the bird-fish change of the Greek siren, the change from swan maiden to little mermaid takes place. Examples of this are the swan girls in the Middle High German Nibelungenlied , who become Rhine mermaids in Wagner's Ring ; also Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake , where a similar fate occurs as with the little mermaid and finally also the transitional forms of swan and mermaid in Vorlíček's sea queen .
- ↑ Cinderella also faces this difficulty in the knowledge of love and self . And that's why the question about yourself, i.e. the answer to the riddle to the Prince at Cschenbrödel, is the prerequisite for happiness. The story of loving and being loved with the little mermaid is different - the strange mermaid is mute and cannot ask the question about her "I". She has to deny herself in love and even sleeps with the dogs in front of the prince's door.
- ↑ The Czech fairy tale film in How to Wake Up the Sleeping Beauty is similarly psychologically enlightening and the fairy tale can also be explained in the wonderful through inherited family fate. While Sleeping Beauty stings herself and can escape her fate, the little mermaid stabs her finger as she takes off the blood-red rose that she wears as a hair ornament. A drop of blood escapes and for a brief moment she sees the face of her mother's statue instead of her own face in the mirror. In the case of Rosa, however, the course of hereditary fate can be countered through energy, which the little mermaid in the relationship with her mother only succeeds in terribly by sacrificing herself.
- ↑ Das Donauweibchen in fairy tales of mermaids and mermaids ed. by Barbara Stamer pp. 49-50; Königfurt-Verlag, Kiel 2007, ISBN 978-3-89875-197-1
- ↑ On the ambivalent Melusin type with the taboo problem cf. also the fairy tale The Meermaid (pp. 223–235) from the Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald collection : Estonian fairy tales translated by Ferdinand Löwe Verlag Perioodika, Tallinn1981
- ↑ First born first married is a Swedish folk tale in Nordic folk tales Part 1 - Denmark / Sweden, pp. 237–248; translated by Klara Stroebe; Eugen Diederichs-Verlag, Jena 1922
- ↑ In the spectrum between Sirène Fragile and Sirène Fatale , Dahut (also: Ahès), a French sister of the little mermaid, occupies a middle position. Dahut is the daughter of the king of Ys . As this Breton town sinks into the sea, Dahut becomes a singing siren who can be both lovingly friendly and dangerous.
- ↑ Novalis: Works in One Volume , pp. 325f .; Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, Vienna 1981; ISBN 3-446-13367-4
- ↑ Another parallel to the Czech Rusalka is shown in the film in the importance of the King of the Sea. With Andersen, the little mermaid's father only plays on the sidelines, while with Dvořáks Rusalka an aquarius worries and advises about the fate of the beautiful sea mermaid. In addition to the character traits of Andersen's mermaid, the Czech Rusalka also has features of the Russian conception of Rusalka. Pushkin writes a fragment on the subject and Dargomyschski an opera ( Russalka ). In the Russian storytelling tradition - unlike the Czech one - the Rusalka is first about a girl who throws herself into a river because of a heartache and only then is transformed into a dangerous mermaid. With this prehistory from the human world, the Russian Rusalka is a sister of the Rhenish Loreley . The girl who goes into the water and the mermaid who belongs in the water are connected to one perspective at the beginning of Ingeborg Bachmann's novella Undine goes .
- ↑ The image of the moon by Mucha also shaped the representation of sun, moon and wind in the Czech fairy tale film The Seven Ravens , but this allegory was not implemented as monumentally with the seven ravens as with the little mermaid. As a result, the violence of nature's power is not felt to the same extent as in the mermaid film.
- ^ Alfons Mucha: Study for The Moon , 1902; Study for The North Star , 1902 , referenced by [1] on muchafoundation.org
- ↑ Alfons Mucha: picture on imagecache2.allposters.com
- ↑ Alfons Mucha: Illustration of the moon
- ↑ Image: Edward Burne Jones : mermaids in the deep
- ^ A Sea-Nymph, 1881 by Sir Edward Burne-Jones , referenced by WorldGallery
- ↑ The Little Mermaid. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
