Echo of the mountains

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Movie
German title The forester from the Silberwald
Original title Echo of the mountains
The forester from the Silberwald Logo 001.svg
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1954
length 88, originally 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Alfons Stummer
Alfred Solm (Assistant)
script Alfons Stummer
Alfred Solm
Günther Schwab
Franz Mayr-Melnhof (idea)
Friedrich Schreyvogl
production Rondo film ( Alfred Lehr )
music Viktor Hruby
camera Walter Tuch ,
Sepp Ketterer ,
Hans Gessl
cut Eleonore Kunze
occupation

Echo der Berge ( Der Förster vom Silberwald in Germany ) is an Austrian classic of Heimatfilm from 1954 and one of the most successful German-language films ever. For the starring actors Anita Gutwell and Rudolf Lenz , the film marked their career breakthrough and the beginning of another successful collaboration as a film couple.

The color film premiered on November 25, 1954 under the original title Echo der Berge in Vienna . In Germany it started under the title Der Förster vom Silberwald on February 8, 1955 in Munich in the distribution of Union-Filmverleih GmbH, Berlin.

action

Hubert Gerold, the new Ranger from Silverwood, fights with the help of Councilor Leonhard successfully against the cutting down of the forest . He reaches the local council to have the building site of the village sold instead of the forest.

At a hunters' ball, Hubert meets the Councilor's granddaughter, Liesl Leonhard. She is a sculptor in Vienna and has accepted her grandfather's invitation to the Styrian mountains. Hubert takes her on his stalking walks and shows her the beauty of the silver forest. Her professional colleague and admirer Max Freiberg from Vienna shows up. When he realizes that Liesl is now in love with the hunter and that Hubert does not give him a hunting permit, he poaches the most magnificent stag in the area. He is discovered by Hubert, but because he suspects that Liesl got him the rifle, he does not reveal it for her sake. This results in Hubert's dismissal.

After a falling out with Hubert, Liesl travels back to Vienna disappointed. It wasn't until months later that she happened to find out the truth at a Freiberg studio party. She goes back to her grandfather's and meets Hubert at a party, who has since been rehabilitated. So the two can finally be happy together.

production

background

The film was originally planned and financed by the Styrian entrepreneur and Austrian Federal Hunting Master Franz von Mayr-Melnhof as a documentary about the activities of the hunters. A plot was only subsequently inserted into the lavish nature photographs that resulted. The filming locations were next to the studio in Sievering : Salzburg , Trofaiach , Frohnleiten , Tyrol and the Karawanken .

Echo der Berge is one of the classics of Heimatfilm of the 1950s , along with Black Forest Girls and Green, and with an estimated 28 million moviegoers it is possibly the most successful German-language film to date. Until then, both the members of the film staff and the main actors were hardly known. Characteristic of the work is the extraordinary dominance of impressive nature shots, compared to the usual Heimat films, which means that the action takes a back seat at times. The film helped Rudolf Lenz and Anita Gutwell to achieve their breakthrough. They were later seen as a couple several times. Co-author Günther Schwab published his novel Der Forster vom Silberwald in 1956 . The unusually successful film was first shown on German television on September 26, 1980 as part of a Heimatfilm retrospective designed by ARD .

With this role offer, Rudolf Lenz had the choice between a fee and a profit-sharing scheme. Lenz chose the fee, but it later turned out that the profit sharing would have made him considerably more money given the enormous financial success of the film.

publication

In addition to Austria and Germany, the film was released on April 2, 1956 in Denmark under the title Jægeren fra Sølvskoven and on August 27, 1956 in Sweden under the title Silverskogen and under the title Il cacciatore della foresta d'argento in Italy.

The film was first released by Kinowelt / Studiocanal on November 7, 2008 together with the Heimatfilm Hohe Tannen as part of the series “A reunion with ... Anita Gutwell” on DVD. Another release by Kinowelt took place on July 17, 2009 and January 6, 2011 together with the follow-up film Der Poacher vom Silberwald . On February 17, 2011, Kinowelt released the film as the second in the series “A piece of home to collect”, including a tin sign. On February 9, 2018, Alive - Vertrieb und Marketing published the classic film The Forester and the Poacher vom Silberwald in a double box as part of the "Jewels of Film History" series.

reception

criticism

Despite its commercial success, the film was rated rather ambiguous in later times.

On the one hand, Echo der Berge is described as a classic or prototype of the Heimatfilm. The TV feature film lexicon still classifies it as worth seeing today: "One of those indestructible homeland films that is always called in the same breath as Black Forest girl and Grün ist die Heide and despite its repeated television broadcasts still apparently shows no signs of wear and tear." Many reviews also highlighted the excellent landscape and animal shots.

However, the stereotypical, conventional plot is viewed critically. Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz rate the film in the lexicon "Films on TV" as average. The Lexicon of International Films and Handbook V of the Catholic Film Critics speak of a “sweet” plot that is only compensated for by the beautiful nature shots.

On the film page Remember it for later , reference is made to the fact that the film “was originally planned as a documentary about hunters in Styria” and was “only made afterwards by adding a love story to the feature film”. It goes on to say that director Alfons Stummer staged the film “without flair, without a sense of tempo or rhythm and without any joke as a dull dance of images with questionable ideology, whose stubbornness is difficult to bear today”.

Johannes Kösegi from KinoFilmer said with "a few exceptions such as a jealous admirer from the city or the profit-hungry sawmill owner", "only good people are shown". A "love triangle, which in the end resolves to the satisfaction of everyone by bringing the right people together", dismiss the viewer "with a good feeling". The "emotional plot" is "shaped by the typical clichés of the Ganghofer novels". Ultimately, "many folk song interludes would enrich the mountain idyll shown". According to “this rigid pattern”, both “Silberwald films are knitted, which like their successful sister works ' Grün ist die Heide ' and ' Schwarzwaldmädel ' show no signs of wear and tear”.

Awards

  • The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the title valuable .
  • Bambi as the most commercially successful foreign film in 1955

See also

literature

  • Günther Schwab : The forester from the Silberwald. Novel . Unabridged paperback edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin 1993, 173 pp., ISBN 3-548-22999-9
  • Nadja Julia Scheitler: Representation and meaning of home in the feature film "Der Forster vom Silberwald" . Master thesis. University of Erlangen-Nuremberg 2002, 73 pp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jens Ivo Engels : Natural Policy in the Federal Republic. World of ideas and political behavior styles in nature conservation and the environmental movement 1950–1980, Paderborn 2006, page 238.
  2. ^ According to Der Spiegel, issue 39 of September 22, 1980
  3. ↑ See: Der Spiegel, Issue 1, January 7, 1980
  4. ↑ The forester from Silberwald / Hohe Tannen Fig. DVD case "A reunion with ... Anita Gutwell"
  5. ↑ Der Forster vom Silberwald (Echo of the Mountains) Fig. DVD case Kinowelt
  6. ↑ Der Forster vom Silberwald / Der Poacher vom Silberwald Fig. DVD cover Kinowelt
  7. ↑ The forester from the Silberwald Fig. DVD cover "A piece of home to collect"
  8. ^ Thomas Kramer: Reclam's Lexicon of German Films . Reclam, Ditzingen 1995, ISBN 978-3-15-010410-1 .
  9. ^ Lexicon of International Films . CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997
  10. ↑ The great TV feature film film lexicon . Digital library special volume (CD-ROM edition). Directmedia, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89853-036-1 , pp. 4205-4206
  11. ^ Thomas Kramer: Reclam's Lexicon of German Films . Reclam, Ditzingen 1995, ISBN 978-3-15-010410-1 .
  12. ^ Lexicon of International Films . CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997
  13. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 120
  14. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 120
  15. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on TV" . (Extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 243
  16. ^ Lexicon of International Films . CD-ROM edition. Systhema, Munich 1997
  17. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 120
  18. ↑ The forester from the Silberwald / Echo der Berge, Alfons Stummer, Austria / Germany 1954 see page funkhundd.wordpress.com. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  19. ↑ Der Förster vom Silberwald and Der Poacher vom Silberwald Criticism & Opinion on the kinofilmer.de website, accessed on May 11, 2019.