Ferryman Maria
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Ferryman Maria |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frank Wysbar |
| script |
Hans-Jürgen Nierentz Frank Wysbar |
| production | Eberhard Schmidt |
| music | Herbert Windt |
| camera | Franz Weihmayr |
| cut | Lena Neumann |
| occupation | |
| |
Ferryman Maria is a German feature film by Frank Wysbar from 1936. It was shot from mid-August to October 1935 in the Lüneburg Heath not far from Hof Tütsberg near Schneverdingen ( Heber ) and Soltau . The interior photos were taken in Berlin studios. The premiere took place on January 7, 1936 at the Bernward-Lichtspiele in Hildesheim .
action
The old ferryman from a small village dies while doing his job. Since the circumstances of his sudden death remain unclear, the ferry office has been orphaned for a long time.
One day a homeless girl comes into the village looking for work. She immediately declares herself ready to take over the position of ferryman. The following night, she set a young man across the river who was injured by his pursuers. She hides him in her hut, nurses him back to health and finally falls in love with him.
Soon afterwards, a strange-looking stranger appears on the other bank who wants to be taken across the river. When he asks about the young man, Maria immediately realizes that death is before her. She wants to save her lover by all means and lures death away from her hut to the nearby village. But all their efforts to seduce death, to change its mind or even to deceive it, are unsuccessful. Death also turns down their offer to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones. He demands to take her back to her hut, where he hopes to find her lover. Maria chooses the path through the moor. While death slowly sinks into the mud, Maria reaches her hut on safe feet. Now she can start a new life with her lover.
background
- The film was shown to Joseph Goebbels about 14 days before the premiere . He was not very enthusiastic and noted in his diary on December 21, 1935: Films in the evening: Ferryman Maria, an experiment, but not a good one. Wanted! Literature! Despite these reservations, the film was given the title of artistically valuable and popular education . Dr. Hans Joachim Lemme "regrets" in the journal Volk und Rasse , published by Heinrich Himmler , "that the film could by no means withstand racial hygiene demands" because the girl is "dark-haired and of strange beauty", while her lover looks "racially excellent", and "Homeless girls could not be loyal". Nevertheless, the co-author of the film, Hans-Jürgen Nierentz, was appointed Reichsfilmdramaturge a few months after the premiere by Goebbels .
- (Of his last name after his emigration to the United States in 1945 turned Wysbar Wisbar had changed) with The Strangler in the fog ( Strangler of the Swamp ) is a simplified new version of ferryman Maria for those on B-movies specialized production company Producers Releasing Corporation .
- The film was shot in the area around Soltau. The Ahlftener Flatt , a heather pond north of the city that is still preserved today, served as the river . Further exterior shots were taken in the Pietzmoor .
Voices and reviews of the film
A very nice film of legends, which is more committed to the tradition established by Fritz Lang's Tired Death than Leni Riefenstahl's Blue Light . (Christa Bandmann / Joe Hembus : Classics of the German sound film, Munich 1980, page 204)
Thanks to the great atmospheric coherence, dramaturgical precision and a strong lyrical note, this legendary film is one of the best German works in the genre of fantastic film. The unconditional credibility that the fascinating Sybille Schmitz is able to give to the metaphysical features of the title character also plays a major role in this. In America, where he emigrated at the end of the 1930s, Wysbar shot a flatter, horror-rich remake (Strangler of the Swamp, USA 1945). (Thomas Kramer (ed.): Lexikon des Deutschen Films, Stuttgart 1995, page 97)
Wysbar's artistically most mature film (...): Ferryman Maria , a legend about the fact that love is stronger than death. It almost sounds like a provocation, since the heroine of this legend is a woman from nowhere, she has no fatherland, is persecuted and seeks protection in the land of forests and swamps. (…) It is astonishing that the film, in which reality and dream merged into a whole, in which unknown persecutors appeared who came at night in black uniforms, was able to save itself from the intervention of the censors and the thunderbolts of the regime press. Perhaps the co-author of the script, Hans-Jürgen Nierentz, the future Reichsfilmdramaturg, a "persona grata" in the NSDAP, was a protective shield. ( Jerzy Toeplitz : History of the Film, Volume 3: 1934-1939, Berlin (GDR) 1982, Page 275/276)
See also
References and comments
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Tast "Ferryman Maria". 80 years ago world premiere in Hildesheim cinema ; in: Sven Abromeit (Red.) Hildesheim Calendar 2016. Yearbook for History and Culture , Hildesheim 2015, ISSN 1863-5393 , ISBN 978-3-8067-8616-3 , pp. 133-143
- ↑ Beyer: p. 67
- ↑ Quoted from: Josef Wulf (Ed.): Theater and Film in the Third Reich , Rowohlt 1966, page 423
- ^ Everson: pp. 181-185
- ↑ See: Albert Hölscher: Alt Soltau tells, from its history, from its houses and families. Soltau 1975, page 254
- ↑ See: Brigitte and Hans-Jürgen Tastt: So close to light, to shadow. from the life of Sybille Schmitz, Schellerten 2015, page 15
literature
- William K. Everson : Classic Horror Movies (Citadel Movie Books). Munich 1979
- Christa Bandmann, Joe Hembus : Classics of German sound films ( Citadel film books ). Munich 1980
- Thomas Kramer: Lexicon of German Films . Stuttgart 1995
- Friedemann Beyer: More beautiful than death. The life of Sybille Schmitz . 2nd, improved edition. Munich 1998
- Brigitte Tast, Hans-Jürgen Tast: So close to light and shadow. From the life of Sybille Schmitz. Kulleraugen - Visual Communication No. 46. Schellerten 2015. ISBN 978-3-88842-046-7
- Brigitte Tast, Hans-Juergen Tast: Ferryman Maria. A heath drama by Frank Wysbar and Sybille Schmitz . Kulleraugen - Visual Communication No. 52. Schellerten 2018. ISBN 978-3-88842-052-8