The forbidden door
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| German title | The forbidden door |
| Original title | L'âge heureux |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| year | 1966 |
| Production company |
Cat's Films; Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF); Société Générale de Gestion Cinématographique (SGGC) |
| length | 208 minutes |
| Episodes | 4 in 1 season |
| genre | Ballet film , children's film |
| Director | Philippe Agostini |
| script | Odette Joyeux |
| music | Georges Auric |
| camera | Christian Pétard |
| cut | Germaine Arthur |
| First broadcast | February 12, 1966 |
| German-language first broadcast |
1st February 1970 |
| occupation | |
|
Main actor:
Supporting cast:
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The forbidden door (original title: L'âge heureux ) is a French television series from 1966. The script is based on Odette Joyeux 's 1951 youth book Côté jardin: memoires d'un rat . The German first broadcast took place on February 1, 1970. In Germany, the series was broadcast in nine episodes, in France in four.
In 1975 a sequel , L'Âge en fleur , also created by Joyeux and Agostini , with other characters and other actors followed.
action
1st episode ("La porte interdite")
Ivan Barloff, ballet master and first dancer at the Paris Opéra Garnier , is preparing a new ballet, the story of Galathée, a doll that comes to life like the statue of Pygmalion . After the audition, he chooses twelve-year-old Delphine Nadal for her natural and unpretentious charm. The dance teacher contradicts that the technically best student in the class is Julie Alberti; But Barloff prevails. The ballet hall is located on the upper floor of the opera, where a door leads to the roof, which is forbidden to all members of the opera. After Delphine and her friend Bernadette meet the devil in the tailor shop - in the form of an appropriately costumed actor - fate takes its course. The door accidentally stays open because of painting work, and Bernadette persuades Delphine to go on a trip to the roof. When the girls return, the key to the door falls from the lock into a paint bucket. They giggle and hurry on.
In the evening the ballet Giselle is performed at the opera . The young schoolgirls who are part of the corps de ballet steal into the attic during a break; only Julie remains. They fish the key out of the paint bucket and have fun on the roof, which is now only lit by headlights in the evening. Véra gets scared and quickly leaves the roof with her sister Reinette. Julie is still resentful that she didn't get the role of Galathée. Her parents intervene with Barloff in vain. The girls are still romping around on the roof and have forgotten the time, but Véra calls them and reminds them of the upcoming gig. Only Bernadette and Delphine do not hear them and stay on the roof. This offers Julie a chance, she locks the door and takes the key. As the way through the door is now blocked, Bernadette kicks in a window with the hard tip of her ballet shoe, but falls in the process and breaks her leg. Delphine brings help.
2nd episode ("Le labyrinthe")
Delphine lives alone with her mother, who works from home as a secretary, in an apartment on the Île Saint-Louis . Thérèse Nadal has been a widow for a long time, but has a boyfriend, Frédéric Aubry, who lives upstairs with his mother. Frédéric would like to marry Thérèse, but Thérèse hesitates because she wants to be there for her daughter's career. Frédéric is fond of Delphine, but is not free from jealousy. As a cellist, Frédéric belongs to the opera's staff and learns from Delphine's teacher about the incident on the roof and that Delphine was involved in it. When Delphine asks him not to tell her mother about the story, Frédéric has the opportunity to prove himself to be a loyal fatherly friend to the girl. The mother reads about the incident in the newspaper but has no idea that her daughter is in trouble because of it.
The opera management insists that the case be investigated and plans to make an example. Although Delphine has to fear that Julie, who is studying the part of the Galathée as a jump- in, will soon replace her entirely, she wants to protect her classmates and therefore does not mention that she and Bernadette were by no means alone on the roof on the night of the accident.
3rd episode ("La sanction")
Delphine's punishment is to have to leave school. Because she is unsure how her mother will take this message, she intercepts the corresponding letter from the postman. The policewoman is not satisfied with the results of the investigation so far and continues to research, initially with Bernadette, who remains silent. Delphine urges her classmates in vain to admit their complicity. The girls send them to Barloff; who promises to help her and then insists on his decision to cast Delphine in the role of Galathée in a conversation with the director. While the other girls rehearse - Julie as a substitute for Delphine - Delphine is mistaken because she can neither go to the opera nor go home through the streets of the city. The mother later tells her that she would like to marry Frédéric, but would like to make her yes on the condition that Delphine agrees to the marriage.
In the evening Gisèle is on the program again . Frédéric's mother, who doesn't know that Delphine isn't dancing at all, takes her to the opera, where Véra tells Delphine that Barloff actually stood up for her. The real turn for the better comes when Mercédes, the cloakroom lady, observes one of the girls, Véra, as she accidentally discovers the key in Delphine's things. Julie hid it there to cast suspicion on dolphins. When the policewoman then asks Véra, of course, she doesn't know who besides Delphine could have put the key there.
4th episode ("Côté jardin")
Delphine explains to her mother that she agrees to the marriage. She senses that the daughter is hiding something from her, but cannot get Delphine or Frédéric to talk. The school teacher and the director, who learned about the secrets of the young dancers from the policewoman, speak to the girls' consciences. But only when they have to watch how Delphine is expelled from the house by the artistic director against Barloff's resistance do they give in and admit that they were almost all involved in the trip to the roof. The only thing they don't know is who has locked the door. In the event that the key comes up again, the policewoman takes fingerprints from all the girls.
Bernadette, who is still in the hospital, urges Delphine to confide in her mother. But Delphine fears that her heart now belongs only to Frédéric, so that she will not forgive Delphine.
Julie doesn't know the key has been found and now worries that her fingerprints will give her away. During a dress rehearsal for the new ballet, she sneaks into the cloakroom to remove the key from Delphine's things. Mercédes catches her doing it and Julie confesses what she did.
Delphine, who has no idea of any of this, takes the courage to talk to her mother. She looks for them and learns that the mother is on her way to the opera to pick her up, Delphine. In this way, the mother should not find out about Delphine's expulsion! Delphine leaves the house and wanders through the now dark streets again. In the opera, Thérèse Nadal learns that her daughter had lost the role and was excluded from school, but has since been relieved and rehabilitated. Together with Frédéric she goes in search of dolphins who are about to throw themselves into the Seine . They find her, tell her everything is fine now, and take her to the opera for rehearsal. The film plot ends with the premiere showing Delphine dancing the role of the Galathée.
Production and reception
L'âge heureux is a joint project by Odette Joyeux, who herself was a student at the Ecole de Danse de l'Opéra , and Philippe Agostini; both had been married since 1958. For Agostini this was the first directorial work for television. The interior shots for the film were made exclusively in the studio. The shooting took a total of 11 weeks. The choreography was done by Michel Descombey .
The series was very popular with parts of the generation born around 1960, and on relevant internet forums, ballet-loving women of this generation have repeatedly referred to The Forbidden Door as the defining television series of their childhood.
Video output
- L'âge heureux , Koba Films, 2007 (2 DVDs), in French
Web links
- The forbidden door in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The forbidden door at Fernsehserien.de
- L'âge heureux. Retrieved July 20, 2017 (French blog).
- L'âge heureux. In: www.mercipourlechocolat.fr. Retrieved July 20, 2017 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The forbidden door. In: fernsehserien.de. Retrieved July 26, 2017 .
- ↑ L'âge heureux. Retrieved July 26, 2017 (photos and magazine clippings).
- ↑ L'âge heureux. In: Toutelatele. Retrieved July 26, 2017 .
- ↑ Film wanted: The forbidden door. Retrieved July 26, 2017 . The forbidden door. Retrieved July 26, 2017 . The forbidden door. Retrieved July 26, 2017 . The forbidden door. Retrieved July 26, 2017 .
- ↑ L'âge heureux. In: fnac.com. Retrieved July 26, 2017 .