A wonderful summer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A wonderful summer |
| Country of production | Liechtenstein |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg Tressler |
| script |
Hans-Dieter Bove Klaus-Peter Schulze Georg Tressler |
| production | Wolfgang Reinhardt |
| music | Siegfried Franz |
| camera | Georges C. Stilly |
| cut | Horst Rossberger |
| occupation | |
| |
A wonderful summer is a mystical Liechtenstein homeland film from 1958 by Georg Tressler , the country's first cinema production with a game story. In addition to a dairy cow, who is at the center of the action, Barbara Rütting and Maximilian Schell play the main roles as a poor married couple. The story lies in the novel “Ludmila. A Legend of Liechtenstein ”(1955) by Paul Gallico .
action
Road worker Josef Rainer and his wife Marianne, who are both trying to make a living as waitresses, lead a very frugal life in the tiny Principality of Liechtenstein, characterized by all sorts of privations. Josef has a talent for handicrafts and in his spare time he carves animal figures and religious sculptures out of wood. His cabaret is at best ridiculed by his fellow citizens, but mostly dismissed as worthless. In order to make ends meet, Josef and Marianne strive for a life as farmers, and so they use their meager savings to buy a weak and rather sickly-looking dairy cow, which their son Hansli Rainer baptizes after their little sister Ludmila. Soon the already precarious living situation of the Rainer family worsened: First Josef broke his leg, then you had to realize that Ludmila was not giving the milk you hoped for and you wanted to live on it.
In order to earn at least some money, the family head finally plans to have the poor cattle slaughtered. But this doesn't suit Hansli and little sister Ludmila at all, and so the two children bring the cow to a lush pasture, where they lovingly look after the animal. Since the Lord God holds his protective hand not only over the people, but also over the four-legged friends, the great miracle happens one day: Ludmila becomes a real wonder cow who suddenly gives more milk than any other cow in the village. The devout locals are sure that this is closely related to Joseph's carving of a figure of a saint. And so Ludmila also indirectly ensures that the Rainer family is doing well financially, because suddenly one tears over Josef's wooden cabaret. But the good Ludmila, exhausted from giving milk, dies a peaceful cow death.
Production notes
A wonderful summer arose between June 9 and August 15, 1958 in the Liechtenstein Alps. The premiere took place in the presence of Princess Gina zu Liechtenstein on October 16, 1958 in the Vaduzer Tonkino. One day later, the German premiere was in Stuttgart. The film was later shown again under the title "Das Glück auf der Alm". A wonderful summer started in Austria under the title Der Wunderpfarrer , in Switzerland as children of the mountains .
Max Reinhardt's son Wolfgang, who rarely works in film, produced this strip, which works almost without film decorations, for the Vaduz company Rialto-Film. A High German and a Swiss German version were shot.
The Prince Constantin of Liechtenstein and his then 16-year-old daughter Monica can be seen with guest appearances .
Reviews
The reviews of the star-studded production, which could not pay off financially, were mixed. Below are several examples.
Der Spiegel judged: “The novel about a wondrous skinny cow, to which the narrator Paul Gallico (" Lili ") was inspired by the view of the upper Rhine Valley and by the ringing of the Liechtenstein cowbells, served as a literary model. But "youngsters" director Georg Tressler let the milk fairy tale curdle in fermenting colors on the alpine pastures of the dwarf state. While he only granted extras to members of the Princely House, he at least gave the cattle an award-winning film death. "
In The History of Swiss Films you can read: “ Children of the Mountains … arouses the worst fears, it’s a uniquely internationalist brew (…) and yesterday’s fairy tale set in today… But we’re surprised because this contemporary Heimat film ( Gretler on Vespa!) Without the usual poachers and lascivious peasant women is based on a high-quality text. (…) Tressler, trained as a documentary, does not feel comfortable in this world of legends and decides to bring it to life with a sure taste and without cheap puffiness. The film knows how to please with its directness in tone, simplicity of representation and - all too thin - poetic coloring that goes back to Gallico. "
In the film service it says: “Not entirely without stencils designed in a simple Heimatfilm style, but fresh in tone and warm in presentation; all in all quite entertaining with poetic undertones that can be traced back to the novel. "
In an essay on Georg Tressler's biography in CineGraph you can read: “In fact, STILL MINOR (1957) and EIN WUNDERBARER SOMMER (1958) got very ambivalent. Tressler's extraordinary talent for acting and creating realistic designs was quite helpless in the face of the more or less staid fables. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ A wonderful summer in Der Spiegel 48/1955
- ^ Hervé Dumont : The history of Swiss film. Feature films 1896–1965. Lausanne 1987, p. 497
- ↑ A wonderful summer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 24, 2019 .
- ^ Georg Tressler in CineGraph, Delivery 3, E 2. Essay by Pit Riethmüller and Roland Zag.
Web links
- A wonderful summer in the Internet Movie Database (English)