Eva (1913)

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Movie
Original title Eve
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1913
length approx. 77 minutes
Rod
Director Curt A. Stark
script based on the five-act play of the same name by Richard Voss
production Oskar Messter
camera Carl Froelich
occupation

Eva is a German silent film drama from 1913 with Henny Porten in the title role.

action

Count Düren brought the Neue Westfälische Aktiengesellschaft into being, which he named “Evamine” after his daughter Eva. At the top he appoints the experienced businessman Johannes Hartwig, who enjoys his full confidence and who also adores daughter Eva. Hartwig knows how to lure future shareholders, most of whom he finds among Count Düren's circle of friends or among the company's employees. While Düren is hosting a reception to mark the start of “Evamine”, a dismaying telegram arrives from a judicial council stating that the company has already declared bankruptcy. Although everyone is now rushing to Hartwig, he is not to blame. Rather, Düren had kept the true financial position of this new company a secret from the start. Eva is appalled by her father's business conduct and stands in solidarity with Hartwig - much to the annoyance of the class-conscious and blasé Count Elimar, her fiancé, who likes to keep his distance from bourgeoisie and expects this attitude from his Eva. Eva Düren then broke off the engagement.

Hartwig sees it as his duty and uses all his assets to protect the shareholders from a total loss of their deposits. Then things take a dramatic turn. Eva's father sees himself dishonored by his own irresponsible behavior and shoots himself. Eva, in turn, marries Johannes Hartwig out of a noble understanding of gratitude and a sense of duty, but without loving this much older man. The couple have a daughter who they call Lieschen. The marriage is not a lucky star, Eva is not happy with the unloved man. Mother Hartwig does her part by, as a kind of counterpoint to Count Elimar, accusing Eva of her aristocratic origins. When Elimar comes back into Eva's life and claims that he still loves her, Evas takes this as an opportunity to leave her husband and child. With a heavy heart, her husband agrees to a divorce.

But Elimar does not want Eva back in the sense that he intends to marry this woman. Rather, he has a liaison in mind, a love affair without a permanent bond, and so he tries to thwart Eva's divorce from Hartwig. Then one day another ex Elimar, a certain Toinette, turns up and tells Eva warmly about all the other girls that this man seduced and then abandoned. Now Eva ultimately demands of her ex-fiancé to marry her, because this is the only way to preserve her honor. When the latter refuses, Eva shoots him. Countess Düren is sentenced to three years in prison, receives care from Toinette during that time and is nevertheless terminally ill after her release. After all, it is again the loyal, decent Johannes Hartwig who immediately approaches her when she is released to take her to him. But Eva is already so exhausted that she dies with a smile on her face because Hartwig has forgiven her.

Production notes

Eva was made in the spring of 1913 in the Messter film studio in Berlin's Blücherstrasse 32, passed film censorship on April 12, 1913 and was shown to the press on May 22, 1913 in the Admiralstheater. One day later, the official premiere took place at the same location. The film had four acts and was 1,408 meters long.

criticism

“However, the plot of this drama is particularly well suited to being portrayed on the screen with its strong movement. The famous film actress Henny Porten shone as Eva. In the expressiveness of her face and her facial expressions, she demonstrated a complete mastery of film technology. At her side stood in the main roles Hans Marr, the excellent Ibsen actor who, however, still seemed to feel somewhat alien in the film, Frieda Richard from the Berlin theater and Messrs. Liedtke and Seldeneck. "

- Berliner Morgenpost dated May 23, 1913

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