The smart women
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The smart women |
| Country of production | Germany / France |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 102 (German original), 75 (re-performance) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Feyder |
| script |
Charles Spaak Jacques Feyder |
| production |
Pierre Guerlais (France) Hans Nerking (Production Manager Germany) |
| music | Louis Beydts |
| camera | Harry Stradling Sr. |
| cut | Wolfgang Wehrum (only German version) |
| occupation | |
and Helga Bodemer , Vera Hartegg , Wilhelm P. Krüger , Hellmuth Passarge , Ernst G. Schiffner | |
Die klugen Frauen is a Franco-German fictional film with satirical undertones from 1936 by Jacques Feyder . The main actress Françoise Rosay played "the diplomatically clever wife of the mayor [...] who uses a lot of cunning to regulate political and private affairs in a Flemish village under Spanish occupation".
action
The Spanish occupied Flanders at the beginning of the 17th century.
In the small Flemish town of Boom, the parish fair is being prepared in 1616 . The city's dignitaries, including the mayor, learned from Spanish horsemen on the evening before that the Spanish Duke of Olivarez was expected to set up his quarters there with his military entourage. This news spreads fear and horror among the population, after all, the Spanish occupiers have the worst memories of previous visits as looters. With a ruse, the mayor intends to keep the Spanish grandees away from visiting the village: he wants to play dead without further ado, in the hope that piety will avoid Boom. The mayor's wife despises her husband for his not exactly heroic idea. Rather, she is forging a different plan. Together with the other women in the small town, she intends to give the Spaniards a warm welcome, to entertain them like good hosts and to allow them to attend the parish fair to placate the Duke and his entourage.
Indeed, the festival is a great success and the Spanish are well behaved. However, the mayor continues his idea of the “dead man” and the duke promises to leave the city the next day out of consideration for the bereavement. Before that, Cornelia can persuade the Spanish grandee to act as a matchmaker between her daughter Saskia and the painter Johann Breughel (in the French original: Jean Brueghel). Cornelia is following her own plan: she wants to outdo her husband. Because Saskia had promised his friend and confidante, the much older and less attractive butcher master. Now he can no longer intervene, since he is officially "dead". Cornelia quickly organizes a chaplain who carries out the wedding on her behalf. In his function as aldermen of the city council, of all people, the butcher master has to issue the marriage certificate.
The mayor is seething with rage. Not only that all his plans are thwarted by his own wife. Now he has to find out that the handsome duke is staying in his town hall of all places. The mayor immediately suspected that his wife might have a quarrel with the noble noblewoman. In order to stifle this "affair" in the beginning, the simpleton mayors and butchers decide to murder the duke. But before the bloody act can happen, Cornelia has long since "abused" the Duke very skillfully for her services. The next day he and his husbands leave, and Cornelia can proudly announce to her husband that she has achieved that the duke will waive the taxes that the city has to pay to the Spanish crown for a year. In order not to make her husband look like a complete fool, his wise wife explains in public that it was her husband who achieved this perk. And all the boomers cheer their mayor on.
Production notes
The film, which is based on a novella by Charles Spaak , is the German version of the 110-minute French original version La Kermesse héroïque . This version ran on December 3, 1935 in Paris. Only the main actress Rosay, who also speaks German, was involved in both versions.
Filming began in mid-August 1935 in the Tobis studios in Épinay near Paris. The exterior shots were taken in the French capital.
The first time German censorship passed the clever women on December 30, 1935 and on February 11, 1936 for the second time. The film was banned from young people and premiered on January 15, 1936 in the Berlin Capitol .
The clever women received the title "artistically valuable".
Lazare Meerson designed the very impressive film structures that were executed by Alexandre Trauner and Georges Wakhévitch . The contemporary costumes are from the hand of Georges K. Benda. Marcel Carné assisted Feyder Director, Louis Page worked as a simple cameraman Sr. Harry Stradling to.
In view of the state of war with France as a result of the beginning of the Second World War , the film was banned by the film inspection agency on September 7, 1939.
Reception and reactions
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , who attended the premiere together with French Ambassador André François-Poncet in Berlin , is said to have made very positive comments about the film. Director Feyder was well liked in the Third Reich because of his basic anti-Semitic attitude .
Large parts of the Belgian population as well as the French film critics, however, were extremely hostile to Feyder's work. In Belgium , the homeland of director Feyder, people were mainly excited about the impression conveyed in the film that the Flemish population consisted mainly of collaborators and cowards. A performance ban was even considered in Parliament, but La Kermesse héroïque was only not shown in Bruges cinemas. “The film, to whose success the decorations by Lazare Meerson - in the style of Dutch painters - contribute, violates national sensibilities. In Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Brussels and Amsterdam there are brawls between demonstrators and the police. One feels that one's honor has been hurt by the unheroic portrayal of the Flemings and one senses political propaganda for Hitler's Germany, because "The Wise Women" was produced by the German Tobis-Film. "
In France , people were particularly upset about the supposedly defeatist character of La Kermesse héroïque and attacked the film especially from 1938, when the indulgence of Western nations towards Hitler's Germany ( annexation of Austria , Munich Agreement , smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic ) became more and more political and weakness of character became evident. French film critics identified a “Nazi spirit” ( Henri Jeanson spoke of l'inspiration nazie ) or “traditional pacifism” ( Georges Sadoul in Histoire du cinéma mondial , Flammarion, 1972, Chapter XV) in Feyder's production .
Awards
Despite all the political differences, the film received several awards.
- The Grand Prix du cinéma français (1936)
- The Prize for Best Director at the Venice Biennale (1936)
- The Grand Prix du Cinéma International, awarded by French film critics
criticism
The lexicon of the international film judged: "Elaborately staged costume farce with coarse humor, satirical tips and a beautiful picture design in the style of Dutch painters."
Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film. The great chronicle. From the first note to the colored wide screen, Die klugen Frauen called “a witty and extremely pictorial comedy by the women of a Flemish town who, in their own way and to the sorrow of the“ seemingly dead ”mayor, grapple with the Spanish conqueror”.
Knowing.de called "» The Wise Women "an intelligent satire on the weakness of men."
See also
Web links
- detailed discussion in cegesoma.be (PDF; 4.0 MB)
- The wise women in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ the German dialogues come from Robert A. Stemmle
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 6: N - R. Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 624.
- ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 27.
- ^ The wise women in Wissen.de
- ↑ La Kermesse héroïque in critikat.com ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 4, p. 2051. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987
- ↑ Immortal Film, p. 127, Munich 1957
- ^ The wise women in Wissen.de
