Dr. Bessel's transformation

Movie
Original title	Dr. Bessel's transformation
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1927
length	approx. 125 minutes
Rod
Director	Richard Oswald
script	Herbert Juttke Georg C. Klaren
production	Richard Oswald for Matador-Film GmbH
camera	Axel Graatkjaer
occupation
Hans Stüwe : Dr. Alexander Bessel Jakob Tiedtke : Factory owner Julius Bessel, his father Sophie Pagay : his wife Agnes von Esterhazy : Alexander's wife Gertrud Eysoldt : Madame Pelagie Trouille Agnes Petersen : Germaine, her niece Kurt Gerron : Georgakopoulos, the Greek Angelo Ferrari : Pedro de Ferrante, the Spaniard Betty Astor : Karin Lundbye, a model Siegfried Arno : Chevallier, a French soldier Hella Kürti : Paulette, a housemaid Hermann Picha : French bookseller Max Neufeld : French major Otto Wallburg : French sergeant Curt Bois : Simche governor Ilka Grüning : Mrs. Regierer Ferdinand Bonn : Colonel Simon Jovanitsch Lydia Potechina : his wife Hertha von Walther : a miss Georg Burghardt : French officer and Eva Speyer , Jaro Fürth , Hugo Döblin , Friedrich Kühne

Dr. Bessel's Metamorphosis is a German silent film drama from 1927 by Richard Oswald based on an illustrated novel by Ludwig Wolff .

action

Alexander Bessel is a young man who believes his marriage is in a dead end. His wife cheats on him, and so the outbreak of the First World War comes in handy for the subsequently tired of life , as he hopes to fall gloriously as a volunteer in the "field of honor". His definition of the pride of a "real" man makes it impossible for him to forgive his wife for her misstep. The course of the war and a great coincidence opened up the possibility for him to start a completely new life. A young French soldier dies right in front of him. Dr. Bessel seizes the opportunity, takes on his identity and is sent home after being wounded, and that means now: Paris!

But from 1914 to 1918 Paris, the city of love, was an extremely dangerous place for someone who was called a “hereditary enemy” at the time. Dr. Bessel meets the fiancée of the dead Frenchman, whose identity he has assumed, and promptly falls in love with her. But this relationship is doomed to failure under the given circumstances, especially since the mother of the fallen victim immediately exposes the identity thief. Bessel, who believes that he has just found the joy of life again, must now, as a captured German spy, expect to be sentenced to death as a captured German spy, having renounced the longing for death. But the French mother has an understanding and convinces the court that a fallen son, her real son, is more than enough. Dr. Bessels is now finally cured of his longing for death. He returns home to Germany and is reconciled with his parents as well as with his unfaithful wife. Finally the war also comes to an end.

Production notes

Dr. Bessel's metamorphosis was censored on November 22, 1927 and premiered on December 8, 1927.

The film structures were made by Franz Seemann and Bruno Lutz .

The film measured seven acts and was 3,148 meters long.

Artistic classification

“Oswald re-explores the male sensitivities of the post-war generation in an unusual melodramatic construction. The moving camera feels the rooms and the cracks in the figure of a depressed hero who has to find himself. "

Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film pointed to the film's “tendency to reconcile nations”.

Web links

• Dr. Bessel transformation in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Dr. Bessel's transformation at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr. Bessel's transformation on Stummfilm.at
2. ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Munich 1956, p. 427