Donna Leon - Venetian Final

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Episode of the Donna Leon series
Original title Venetian finale
Country of production Germany
original language German
classification Episode 5 ( list )
German-language
first broadcast		 October 23, 2003 on Das Erste
Rod
Director Sigi Rothemund
script Kathrin Richter
Ralf Hertwig
production Malte Grunert
music Robert Schulte Hemming
Jens Langbein
André Rieu
camera Dragan Rogulj
cut Darius Simaifar
occupation

Venetian Finale is a German television film directed by Sigi Rothemund in 2003, based on the novel by Donna Leon . It is the 5th film in the Donna Leon film series .

action

In his fifth case, Commissario Brunetti is investigating the case of the opera conductor Helmut Wellauer, who was found poisoned in the cloakroom. Brunetti learns that the star conductor had many "enemies" around him, because his way of dealing with people brought him little affection. According to those affected, Wellauer enjoyed exercising power, promoting or destroying careers, depending on his mood. For example, he had promised a famous opera singer that in return for his promise to take part in one of Wellauer's productions, he would get a friend to play at the Handel Festival. He had not kept this promise, which led to a dispute between the tenor and the conductor.

Furthermore, Wellauer punished all indiscipline of singers or instrumentalists with hurtful remarks. He also had very antiquated morals; the lesbian relationship of the soprano Flavia Petrelli was a thorn in his side. Petrelli makes no secret of her contempt for the conductor.

Brunetti's superior, Vice-Questore Patta, urges the inspector to treat the case with priority but also with the utmost discretion. He considers Wellauer's much younger wife to be quite suspicious, but she makes an authentic impression on Brunetti. Her dismay at her surprising death seems real to him.

In conversation with the first violinist from Wellauer's orchestra, the inspector learns that the conductor is beginning to doubt himself. In his opinion, age has been causing him massive problems lately. By researching Wellauer's appointment calendar, Brunetti becomes aware of a doctor's appointment. He asks the attending physician, who reports that the conductor has a significant hearing loss. Due to the side effect of an antibiotic, Wellauer's hearing had deteriorated to such an extent that he was threatened with complete deafness. Brunetti then asks Wellauer's only friend whether he had told him about his health problems. So Brunetti learns that Wellauer once said that it would be better to put an end to it than to become old and frail. This suggests that the conductor may have committed suicide.

This theory is confirmed when Brunetti speaks again with the victim's widow. She is a doctor and now admits that she consciously injected gentamicin into her husband , knowing full well that he would lose his hearing as a result. He had molested her daughter from her first marriage and in revenge she wanted to take from him what meant most to him - the music. Wellauer then poisoned himself out of desperation. However, he also wanted revenge on his wife and tried to lay the traces in such a way that they would be mistaken for his murderess.

In a secondary line, Brunetti determined that Wellauer had been noticed decades ago by pedophilia and that he destroyed the lives of female singers. Three sisters who sang successfully were destroyed by Wellauer by sexually assaulting the youngest sister, impregnating her and then having her aborted in a hotel without adequate medical care. Loss of blood left her there in agony for days. One sister emigrated, the other stayed in Venice, but due to Wellauer's influence never got a stage engagement and subsequently became impoverished.

In the closing scenes, Brunetti allows the wife who took her husband's hearing to be able to leave Venice by plane without being charged with bodily harm. And he "agrees" with Patta that Wellauer's death was suicide.

Production notes

Venetian Finale was filmed in Venice and premiered on October 23, 2003 at 8:15 pm on Das Erste .

criticism

The critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm gave a medium rating (thumbs to the side) and commented critically: "Commissario Brunetti (Uwe Kockisch) finds motives for murder up to the point ... yawn."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Start dates for Donna Leon - Venetian Finale . In: IMDb.de. Retrieved January 10, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Donna Leon - Venetian Finale TV Feature Film ; January 10, 2017.