Marriage in the shadows
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Marriage in the shadows |
| Country of production | Germany |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kurt Maetzig |
| script | Kurt Maetzig |
| production | DEFA Potsdam-Babelsberg |
| music | Wolfgang Zeller |
| camera |
Friedl Behn-Grund Eugen Klagemann |
| cut | Alice Ludwig |
| occupation | |
| |
Ehe im Schatten is a German drama directed by Kurt Maetzig from 1947.
action
Hans Wieland, a young actor, marries his Jewish colleague Elisabeth and refuses to divorce her in the Third Reich . Both are of the opinion that it won't be so bad for them. Hans is on stage evening after evening while his wife is banned from working. During the war she was obliged to do heavy physical labor in an armaments factory.
One day he takes her to a premiere where she gets noticed. He is given the alternative of divorcing or being sent to the front, which would result in his wife being deported to a concentration camp . He rejects this claim because human dignity is more important to him than the job he loves. When his wife is about to be deported, he sees only one way out: death together. He makes coffee for the two of them and mixes in poison. Elisabeth sees this, but says nothing, but recognizes and welcomes this only way out that is still available to them to stay together until death.
background
Marriage in the shadow is based on the fate of the actor Joachim Gottschalk . As a template for the script, the amendment served It will not be so bad by Hans Schweikart . Kurt Maetzig shot the film in memory of his mother, who committed suicide as a Jew on February 9, 1944.
The film was shot in the Atelier Berlin-Johannisthal and in Berlin and the surrounding area. Kurt Herlth , Otto Erdmann and Franz F. Fürst created the film structures, Georg Kiaup took over the production management.
It is the only DEFA film that premiered in all four Berlin sectors at the same time, namely on October 3, 1947. In the Soviet sector it was shown in the Friedrichshain film theater , in the American sector in the Cosima film theater in Friedenau , in the British sector in the crank in Charlottenburg and in the French sector in the Prinzenpalast in Gesundbrunnen . The so-called exchange film Central Germany / West Germany also found high recognition in the West. Ten million viewers saw him within a very short time. With a total of more than twelve million visitors, Ehe im Schatten became the most successful German film in the first post-war years. It was also shown at the Venice International Film Festival in 1948 .
Bertolt Brecht , who was shown the film by Maetzig, is said to have taken it very negatively and described it as kitsch. Maetzig later distanced himself from the emotive actions of his main actors.
At the premiere of the film in Hamburg there was a scandal : the director Veit Harlan and his wife Kristina Söderbaum mixed with the premiere guests . Many moviegoers, including some Nazi victims, found this a provocation. Both were finally asked to leave the hall by the producer Walter Koppel , who had spent five years in the concentration camp, and by the cinema operator Heinz Heisig.
Awards
- National Prize of the GDR 2nd class to Kurt Maetzig (director)
- National Prize of the GDR 2nd class to Friedl Behn-Grund (camera)
- After a survey of the audience, critics and movie theater owners, it was awarded a Bambi for the artistically best German post-war film in 1948 , see Bambi Awards 1948 .
Reviews
"After the novella It won't be so bad , in which Hans Schweikart traced the tragic fate of his friend Joachim Gottschalk, Maetzig shot this harrowing, historically significant and formally demanding film drama for DEFA."
"An accusing account of the fate of Joachim Gottschalk, who killed himself and his family before the deportation."
“It is true that there are no cinematic experiments and no substantial discussion of National Socialism and its ideology; after all, a moving case is described here with real sympathy, skill and taste. "
“One of the most important films of the post-war period. Worth seeing."
“The event, which is based on an authentic case by the author Hans Schweikart, shows carefully handicraft human catastrophes during the Nazi era and strongly appeals to us not to forget. Shocking cinematic memorial. (Rating: 2½ out of 4 possible stars - above average) "
"The film about the persecution of the Jews in the Nazi state [...] has retained its haunting power over the years in its shattering commitment to humanity."
literature
- Ingrid Poss, Peter Warnecke (Ed.): Trace of Films. Contemporary witnesses about DEFA. Berlin 2006
- Ellen Blauert (Ed.): Ehe im Schatten. In: The murderers are among us. Four film counts based on the well-known DEFA films. Henschel, Berlin 1969
Web links
- Marriage In The Shadows in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marriage in the shadow at filmportal.de
- Marriage in the shadow at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Holocaust Film before the Holocaust: DEFA, antifascism and the camps, by David Bathrick. The book was published by Verbrecher Verlag , ISBN 9783957320636 and as an e-book
- ^ CV of Marie Anna Maetzig
- ^ Alfred Bauer : German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 7
- ↑ Bundesfilmarchiv - Filmarchiv, No. 3303.
- ↑ See Christa Bandmann and Joe Hembus: Classics of the German sound film. Munich 1980, page 202
- ↑ See: A film premiere with a tangible scandal ( Memento from August 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Prof. Kurt Maetzig ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ Marriage in the Shadow in the Lexicon of International Films
- ^ Reclam's film guide. 2nd edition, 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7
- ↑ 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. 89
- ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz: Lexicon "Films on Television" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 182
- ↑ Published by the Evangelical Press Association in Munich, Critique No. 71/1949