The new masters
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The new gentlemen The friend of the minister |
| Original title | Les Nouveaux Messieurs |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 123 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Feyder |
| script |
Francis de Croisset Jacques Feyder Charles Spaak based on the play of the same name by Robert de Flers and Francis de Croisset |
| production | Films Albatros and Sequana Films |
| camera |
Georges Périnal Maurice Desfassiaux |
| occupation | |
| |
Die neue Herren , also given in Germany under the title The Minister's Girlfriend (original title: Les Nouveaux Messieurs ), is a French politician and social satire from 1929 by Jacques Feyder with Albert Préjean in the leading role.
action
At the center of the action is the young electrician Jacques Gaillac, who does his trade at the Paris State Opera. All of his affection goes to the pretty and clever dancer Suzanne Verrier, who in turn has a powerful admirer in the politically influential Count de Montoire-Grandpré, a patron of other people and puller in the background. Times are turbulent in France and a public transport strike is paralyzing life on the streets of Paris. As a union official, Gaillac is keen to strengthen and enforce the rights of ordinary workers. With his determined, combative manner, he also draws the attention of city leaders to himself. Eventually he achieves a decisive victory in his struggle for workers' rights.
The union wants him to go into politics as one of its own, and Jacques Gaillac is elected as a member of the National Assembly. After all, the ambitious political novice is even appointed minister. Suzanne is more than impressed by the rapid rise of her admirer, but Gaillac doesn’t like this soaring character at all. Power goes to his head, and Jacques, who loses his grip on his roots and loses touch with his roots, threatens to become just like all his predecessors, who only indulge themselves for pleasure and serve their own political gain instead of serious about their interests of the common people. The political soaring threatens to turn into megalomania. With his behavior, Gaillac ultimately even jeopardizes his love for Suzanne.
Production notes
The New Men premiered in Paris on April 5, 1929. The film could be seen for the first time in Germany at the beginning of the following year. After the war, this film was shown for the first time in Germany on May 29, 2012 on ARTE .
Lazare Meerson designed the buildings . Marcel Carné , 22 at the time of shooting , later one of the most important film directors ( children of Olympus ) in his country, made his film debut here as a camera assistant.
The film, shot in 1928, encountered considerable problems when it was made available for theatrical use at the beginning of 1929. State authorities saw the dignity of parliamentarism and that of politicians and members of parliament attacked and demanded considerable cuts to the new gentlemen . Until then, the film remained indexed. Above all, a beating scene in the Chamber of Deputies and the scene of the inauguration of a workers' settlement, which the minister is executing in a hurry because he absolutely wants to go to a rendezvous with a beautiful woman waiting for him, was criticized. A sequence in which a parliamentarian falls asleep and dreams that the chamber will become a hall with scantily clad dancers also met with government rejection. These quarrels with the censors led Feyder to turn his back on France, to accept an offer from the USA and to shoot the last silent film The Kiss with Greta Garbo in Hollywood that same year .
Reviews
“The extreme left saw it as a satire of the treachery it branded and received“ Les nouveaux Messieurs ”(The New Gentlemen) well. But the censors discovered a dangerous attack against parliamentarism in the dream of a member of the parliament through whom the Palais Bourbon is populated by short-cropped dancers. "
“[The film] ironized the parliamentary conventions and bourgeois lifestyle of trade union officials and the process of their bourgeoisisation. (...) On stage this comedy was just a conventional amusement. The film set sharper accents. Feyder attacked the whole mendacity of bourgeois parliamentarism and thereby worried the people and authorities concerned. "
In the Lexicon of International Film it says: “The silent film caused long disputes with the French government. In spite of all the socio-political seriousness, he impresses with his staging lightness and intellectual depth at the same time.
“In a satirical way, Feyder not only attacks the blindness and corruption of the working class or the trade union movement in his film, but also the social and political system, which always remains the same with minor changes. The parliamentary conventions and the bourgeois lifestyle of the trade union officials, their process of bourgeoisisation, are skillfully ironized. Ironic satire and romantic comedy are in constant change and give the silent film lightness and esprit. "
DVD release
- Les Nouveaux Messieurs is contained in: David Shepard, Jeffrey Masino (Eds.): French Masterworks: Russian Émigrés in Paris 1923-1929. Five Iconic Films Albatros Productions (5-Disc DVD Collection) . Flicker Alley, Los Angeles 2013, ISBN 1-893967-65-4 . (Restored version, music compiled by Antonio Coppola, French subtitles with optional English subtitles, region 0)
Web links
- The new gentlemen on arte.tv
- The new men in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- full review in The New York Times, December 15, 1929
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 665, (biography: Jacques Feyder).
- ↑ cf. on this Georges Sadoul: Geschichte der Filmkunst, p. 203. Vienna 1957
- ↑ cf. History of Film, Volume 1 1895-1928. P. 465.
- ↑ The new masters. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 11, 2015 .