Episode (1935)

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Movie
Original title episode
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1935
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Walter Reisch
script Walter Reisch
production Viktoria-Film , Walter Reisch
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Harry Stradling Sr.
cut Willy Zeyn junior
occupation

Episode is an Austrian feature film from 1935. The work, which can be assigned to the genre of Viennese film , was written and directed by Walter Reisch . In terms of film history , the film has a special meaning, as it was the only Austrian film by a Jewish director that was approved for import into National Socialist Germany after 1933 , where people of Jewish faith had been banned from working on films since 1933.

The premiere of the film took place on August 23, 1935 in Berlin's Gloria Palast . In Austria, the film premiered on September 13th in a Vienna cinema. It was first broadcast on television on December 2, 1958 on ARD . On April 1, 1994, the film reappeared on VHS video.

action

Vienna in 1922 - inflation and unemployment shape everyday life. To distract from the joyless everyday life, the population celebrates extravagantly at night in the bars and pubs of the city. Morale is falling.

The Viennese arts and crafts student Valerie Gärtner loses her small fortune, on which she and her mother lived, through speculation by the bank president. The art dealer Torresani noticed her need and bought some ceramics from her. Furthermore, he offers her to support her monthly with financial donations. Valerie believes that he would expect something in return for this and indignantly refuses the offer. When Valerie doesn't know what to do after a while, she desperately asks Torresani for help. Torresani can also convince her that he does not expect anything in return, but only wants to help a poor girl . The two subsequently become good friends.

One day when Torresani cannot appear for a meeting, he sends his sons' head of house to her. He believes Valerie is Torresani's lover and is initially very reserved towards her. In the course of the evening, however, he falls in love with her. From the teacher Kinz, Valerie also learns that Torresani has a wife and two children. She decides that she can no longer accept Torresani's monthly checks. But a friend who does not share her decision cashes the check for her. However, she soon regrets her insidiousness and goes to Torresani's house to explain everything and put everything back in order. Once there, however, she hardly has a say and is sent away again with a letter for Valerie. When she hands the letter to Valerie, she assumes that it is a farewell letter from Torresani and immediately rushes to his house. There she is received in a surprisingly friendly manner by Torresani's wife. It turns out that the letter was an invitation to a party at Torresani's house.

Through Kinz, Torresani's wife had believed Valerie was her husband's affair. The mistake can be cleared up, however, and Kinz falls on the defensive. At the same time he is finally aware of his true feelings for Valerie.

background

The German Reich Filmkammer granted the film a special permit for showing in Germany. It was the only time after the National Socialists came to power in Germany in 1933 that an Austrian film, on which Jewish people had also worked, received a license for Germany. The name of the Jewish director and screenwriter Reisch was not mentioned in the program of the Illustrierte Filmkurier.

From an artistic point of view, Episode is characterized by the fact that the atmosphere of Vienna at the time of the economic crisis could be translated into a coherent psychogram of Viennese ambiguity, also thanks to Paula Wessely as a poor arts student.

production

The film was produced by Wiener Viktoria-Film . The sound system used was that of the Tobis sound film . Production designers were Emil Stepanek and Franz Meschkan . The overall outfitter was Oskar Strnad . Max Nekut took over the recording management .

Syndikat-Film took over the film distribution . The film distributor was the Tobis Sascha film industry .

Versions and censorship results

At the censorship test in Germany on August 8, 1935, the film was 2893 meters long. The censorship authority placed the film under youth ban and cut out a total of 61 meters, so that the film was shown in Germany with a length of 2832 meters. In Austria, the film was shown with a length of 2930 meters and received the rating “artistically appreciable”.

Film music

The film music was implemented by Willy Schmidt-Gentner using compositions from other people from the early 1920s. The title song of the film was composed by Robert Katscher . Director Walter Reisch worked on the lyrics. The Viennese music publisher Ludwig Doblinger (Bernhard Herzmansky) published three pieces of music from this film: A dirndl must be small , the moment will come and now the world should sink in .

Awards

literature

  • German sound films - Volume 06 - 1935. Ulrich J. Klaus Verlag, Berlin 1995 ISBN 3-927352-05-5

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