You shall not commit adultery!

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title You shall not commit adultery!
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1928
length US version 90 minutes
Rod
Director Jacques Feyder
script Fanny Carlsen
Willy Haas
production Jacques Feyder and
Eugen Kürschner for the Deutsche Film Union AG
music Pasquale Perris
camera Frederik Fuglsang
Hans Scheib
occupation

You shall not commit adultery! , also Therese Raquin - You shall not commit adultery , is a German literary film adaptation by Jacques Feyder from 1928 based on Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola . The film, which can be assigned to the chamber feature film, has been considered lost since the mid-1960s .

action

The paralyzed Madame Raquin is the owner of a small shop in Paris. She once came to the French capital from the provinces so that one day her beloved son Camille would be better off. The orphan Thérèse is his cousin and grew up in her aunt's house. Eventually Thérèse Camilles becomes wife. But the cheerful, young woman is not happy with the sickly and weak Camille, an unexciting office worker. She doesn't love him.

One day Camille introduces an old childhood friend, the painter Laurent, into the house. This is the exact opposite of Camille: impetuous and lively, bursting with strength and challenging, but also a little raw and brutal. Thérèses passion is aroused quickly and Laurent her lover. During a joint excursion, both murder Camille, the crime is disguised as an accident. After a while the murderous couple married and from then on lived under the same roof with their mother Camilles, who was tied to the armchair. Their constant presence is on the one hand annoying for the two, on the other hand it is also a constant reminder and reminder of their terrible crime.

The couple is plagued by nightmares and fears. One day the emotional burden becomes too great for them. Thérèse and Laurent confess to the old woman the terrible murder of their son. As a result, Madame Raquin suffers a stroke and is now finally a nursing case. Thérèse and Laurent begin to no longer trust each other, believing that one of them could betray the other to the police. So murderous thoughts come up with each of the two. Ultimately, they see no other way out and take their own lives together.

Production notes

The film was based on Zola's novella Thérèse Raquin . It was shot under this title, but was shown in cinemas under the title You shall not commit adultery! .

The film was shot in Staaken's studios between October 24, 1927 and January 14, 1928. Andrej Andrejew and Erich Zander created the film structures . When the censorship was accepted on February 18, 1928, the film received the rating "Artistic". The premiere took place on February 22nd, 1928 in the Berlin Tauentzien Palace. By the end of 1928 the film was also shown in Finland , France and the USA .

criticism

Reclam's film guide writes: “In this film, Feyder attached great importance to the description of the milieu, which, especially in the first part, served him to interpret the character of his heroine from her environmental experiences. The film was shot in Berlin with numerous German employees, so the influences of the German 'Kammerspiel' can be clearly felt in it. "

In Georges Sadoul 's 'History of Cinematic Art' you can read: “With Thérèse Raquin, Feyder returned to one of the sources of his art - and the French film tradition -: the naturalism of Zola. [...] The background dominates the work: the Pariser Passage and the Secret Annex, where the two criminal lovers live before the silent accusation of a paralyzed mother. What Feyder owes above all to Germany is that he was able to create in excellently equipped studios what he used to have to look for in outdoor shots. "

The film's large personal lexicon said "with the German, strongly psychologizing adaptation of Émile Zola's 'Thérèse Raquin'," You shouldn't commit adultery, "he consolidated his reputation as an excellent observer of social circles.

The story of the film reads: “In the cinematic adaptation, Feyder preserved exactly the emotional, erotic atmosphere of the literary original. But at the same time, as the real originator of the crime, the petty-bourgeois, musty world of selfish and low interests and false morality becomes transparent. Feyder also inherited from Zola the preference for the prop and the tuning detail, which becomes the key to the hero's psychology. The goldfish, constantly swimming in circles in the aquarium, is the symbol of Thérèses existence. Changes in hairstyle and clothing illustrate the erotic adventure. Finally, in the final scenes of the film, the armchair to which the paralyzed mother is tied becomes a threatening, eternally agonizing vow of conscience that ultimately drives the criminal lovers to suicide. Feyder's Thérèse Raquin is a cinematic highlight of the chamber play. The psychologizing intensity, the inner dynamics of the passions against the background of the lifeless furniture and a refined application of the light-shadow effects emphatically confirmed Feyder's directorial talent and at the same time became an artistic indication of his style will. "

Bucher's Encyclopedia of the Film writes: "The expressionist style of the film with its dark shadow effects and its cramped atmosphere captures the horror of the Zola novel."

literature

  • Joachim Reichow: Thérèse Raquin. In: Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 168 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams film guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 138.
  2. ^ Georges Sadoul : History of the cinematic art. Extended German language edition. Schönbrunn-Verlag, Vienna 1957, p. 203.
  3. 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 Fitz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 665.
  4. Jerzy Toeplitz : History of the film. Volume 1: 1895-1928. Henschelverlag, Berlin 1972, p. 464 f.
  5. Liz-Anne Bawden (ed.): Buchers Enzyklopädie des Films. CJ Bucher, Luzern et al. 1977, ISBN 3-7658-0231-X , p. 241.