It was a glittering ball night
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | It was a glittering ball night |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Carl Froelich |
| script | Géza from Cziffra |
| production | Sound film studio Carl Froelich & Co. on behalf of UFA |
| music | Theo Mackeben |
| camera | Franz Weihmayr |
| cut | Gustav Lohse |
| occupation | |
| |
It was a glittering ball night is a German film melodrama by Carl Froelich from 1939 with Zarah Leander and Marika Rökk in the leading roles.
action
Moscow in 1865: After years of separation, Katharina Alexandrovna met her once great love Peter Tschaikowsky again at a ball through Maximilian Hunsinger. Katharina is now married to the wealthy industrialist Michael Murakin and therefore expects Peter veiled in a box. This arouses the curiosity and jealousy of the dancer Nastassja Petrovna, who is in love with Peter. His pieces are not played, he lives in poor circumstances. Only Nastassja has stuck to him in the last few years and made it possible to dance to his music every now and then. Since the masks fall at the ball from midnight, Katharina and Peter go together at this time and spend a few hours together. During this time Katharina's husband appears at the ball. Hunsinger notifies Katharina and they both rush back to Murakin's property. He suspects of Katharina's affair.
Katharina decides to secretly support Peter financially. She gives the money anonymously to Peter's publisher Glykow, who publishes Peter's works. Concerts are now also taking place and Murakin invites his wife to one. She feels his jealousy and wants to leave the concert early, but Murakin forces her to stay. Numerous guests of the ball also appeared at the concert, who now recognize Murakin's wife in the then veiled woman. Music critic Kruglikow, who loves the dancer Nastassja, threatens Peter to make Katharina's identity known in Moscow and is slapped by him. He challenges him to a duel.
Kruglikow appears at Murakin's house and tells him that he has no plans to duel with Peter, after all it is all about his wife, who disappeared with Peter during the ball. Murakin takes over the duel and goes to Peter to let him know. To protect Katharina, Peter pretends to have had an argument with Kruglikow about his fiancée Nastassja. Nastassja, who is waiting in the next room, falls around Peter's neck - the wedding takes place a little later, but Peter escapes unhappily on the wedding night to Maximilian Hunsinger. He advises him to compose.
In the following years Peter became a star, his pieces became known and he himself traveled all over the world. On the occasion of conducting the Pathétique , he returned to Moscow, where cholera was rampant. His servant breaks down with cholera at the train station and Peter stays with the dying man despite the doctor's warning. Katharina, who has since separated from her husband, learns of Peter's whereabouts and comes to Moscow. But Peter greets them coolly. Only Hunsinger tells him that Katharina has supported him financially all these years, and reconciliation ensues. During the performance of the Pathétique , Peter leaves the hall apparently exhausted and collapses behind the stage. Katharina rushes to him, he dies, listening to his music, in her arms. Weeping it is a consolation to her that although Peter died, his music made him immortal.
production
It was a glittering ball night based only loosely on the life of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky . This film had only marginally to do with the real events in Tchaikovsky's life. The melancholy Tchaikovsky was not an avid ball-goer, and he felt drawn to men, even if he tried to hide this from his fellow men.
The film was shot from January 18 to March 15, 1939 in the Froelich Studio Berlin-Tempelhof. It had its premiere on August 13, 1939 at the Venice International Film Festival and was shown for the first time in Germany on August 15, 1939 in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
In the film, Zarah Leander sings the hit song Nur nicht von Liebe weeping by Hans Fritz Beckmann (lyrics) and Theo Mackeben (music). In addition, she sings Romance Op. 5 and the chanson is dreary to tunes by Tchaikovsky. The orchestra of the Berlin State Opera provided the musical accompaniment.
It was the only time that Zarah Leander and Marika Rökk played together in a film, even if they hardly had scenes in common. During the shoot, Marika Rökk developed appendix problems. On her last day of filming, she had to dance to exhaustion in one scene on a table and then collapse. Her breakdown in the film was real: Rökk was immediately taken to the hospital and operated on on the appendix. Few people on the set, including director Carl Froelich, had known about their health problems.
The film structures were designed by Franz Schroedter , the costumes by Herbert Ploberger . The two later well-known directors Harald Braun and Rolf Hansen assist both director Froelich and the production manager Friedrich Pflughaupt . Hansen was also to become the director of Leander's last three films before the war ended.
The idea for the film comes from Tr. Georg Wittuhn and Jean Victor. Frank Thieß wrote the dialogues.
criticism
Contemporary critics noted that Zarah Leander “looked more beautiful than ever and in the dramatic scenes of the film carried people away with passionate concern. Something else about this film is absolutely perfect: the picture. Franz Weihmayr is a congenial cameraman, a creative designer of the picture, a man who makes music with his eyes. "
The film-dienst wrote: “Vaguely based on details from the life of the Russian composer, the costume melodrama Zarah Leander gives the opportunity to play an (apparent) 'femme fatale', with a chanson like 'Just don't weep for love' between Tchaikovsky melodies is a bit strange. "
Cinema stated: "Zarah Leander vehicle with Weltschmerz".
Awards
In July 1939, the film received the ratings “culturally valuable” and “artistically particularly valuable” from the National Socialist film testing agency .
It was a glittering ball night in August 1939 was awarded the 1st bronze medal at the IFF in Venice .
See also
Web links
- It was a glittering ball in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- It was a glittering ball night at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cornelia Zumkeller: Zarah Leander. Your films - your life . Heyne Film Library, No. 32/120. Heyne, Munich 1988, pp. 108-109.
- ↑ Marika Rökk: Heart with paprika. Memories . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 148-149.
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German Feature Film Almanach 1929–1950, 2nd edition Munich 1976. p. 460
- ^ HE Fischer in: Die Filmwelt , 1939. Quoted from: Manfred Hobsch: Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlagerfilme . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1998, p. 99.
- ↑ It was a glittering ball night. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de
- ↑ See filmportal.de ( Memento of the original from April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
