Fire! (1979)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Fire! |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1979 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Reinhard Schwabenitzky |
| script | Thomas Pluch |
| production | Karl Schwetter (production manager), Robert Siepen (production manager) |
| music | Arthur Lauber |
| camera | Jiři Štibr |
| cut | Eliška Štibrova |
| occupation | |
| |
Fire! is an Austrian historical film about the revolution of 1848/1849 in the Austrian Empire .
action
March 13, 1848: More and more demonstrators gather in front of the Hofburg to protest against Metternich's restorative policies and the lack of civil rights. In place of the weak Emperor Ferdinand , Archduke Albrecht made the decision to deploy guns and fire at the demonstrators. The chief fireworker Eduard Pollet refused the order at the last moment and opposed his own guns. In the chaos of the ensuing street fight between imperial soldiers and insurgents, the young student Karl Albrecht Schlick saves him and hides him in the attic of his father's workshop. During the night, the impoverished working class and unemployed riot in the suburbs, during which factories are also set on fire and destroyed. The vigilante group, to which Karl Albrecht's father Ludwig Schlick belongs, fights the uprising and arrests residents of a supply house for the unemployed.
Eduard Pollet is wanted by the government because of his insubordination . One wants to interrogate his nephew Ferdinand Pollet, who lives in a supply house for the unemployed, but he hides from the authorities.
On March 15, the government promised a constitution and the abolition of press censorship. Karl Albrecht and other commoners cheer, but the workers have no hope of a better future. It becomes clear that both classes pursue completely different goals and that the workers have nothing to do with abstract terms such as “constitution” and “freedom of the press”.
Karl Albrecht and his parents are invited to a reception at the Anzenberg jeweler, the father of Karl Albrecht's secret love, Justina, and he takes Eduard and Ferdinand with him. Anzenberg is upset and doesn't want the "rabble" in the house; there is a political dispute between Anzenburg and Karl Albrecht.
Eduard is arrested in the attic, but freed again in the street and hidden in the basement of the supply house for the next few weeks, while in May a first draft of the government's constitution is rejected by the students.
Karl Albrecht snuck into Justina's bedroom at night and seduced her. When Anzenberg, her father, comes home, Karl Albrecht flees through the window, but Anzenberg can still see him. He later notices that expensive jewelry has disappeared and suspects Karl Albrecht of theft. Karl Albrecht is arrested, but the real jewelry thief is Ferdinand, who has now fled Vienna. Justina tries to convince her father of her lover's innocence, but without admitting that he is her lover.
Eduard, who has heard of an amnesty for political crimes, is now leaving his hiding place and wants to report to the Hofburg. There, however, the entire imperial court is currently in the process of leaving Vienna due to the renewed unrest and moving to Innsbruck . Thereupon Pollet also leaves Vienna and goes to his brother Martin (Ferdinand's father), who works as a teacher in a village, and his wife Maria. Martin is seriously ill and fears that he will die soon. He regrets always raising his students against his own convictions to be loyalty to the government and a spirit of submission. He admits that he always despised Eduard for his military service. Eduard does not understand him and is still unsure whether he acted correctly with the refusal to give orders.
Justina becomes faint and the doctor declares she is pregnant. Because of the family honor, her father urges an early wedding with Karl Albrecht. At the engagement party, Justina emphasizes that she wants to marry him out of love and not just because of honor.
In the meantime Ferdinand has also arrived in his parents' village, together with the manager of the supply house - obviously an accomplice in his theft. But he hides from his parents when he notices the presence of his uncle Eduard. Martin Pollet dies, and after the funeral Ferdinand goes secretly to his father's open grave. A police officer who has followed him from Vienna to there arrests him in the cemetery and shoots his fugitive accomplice. There was a final discussion between Ferdinand and his mother Maria: he had once run away from home and only wanted to return when he had achieved something - but now it was too late to prove this to his father.
Vienna, controlled by the bourgeoisie, is preparing for an attack by imperial troops. The newly married Karl Albrecht and his father also want to take part in the fight. In the meantime, Eduard returns to Vienna in order to be informed in black and white that he acted correctly when he refused to order and that he has no consequences to fear. Since he is unable to prove his identity as the "chief fireworker at the castle guard" to the responsible military authorities, he returns to his hiding place in Schlick's workshop to put on his uniform, which is still there. Because of this uniform he is mistaken for an imperial soldier in the barricade fighting that is just beginning and is shot by a member of the vigilante group. When Archduke Albrecht found out about this, he was furious because he wanted to arrest him and hang him as a deterrent. After the end of the fighting, Karl Albrecht, stunned by astonishment over Pollet's death, allows himself to be arrested without resistance and meets Ferdinand again in prison. The imperial government is now taking revenge on the revolutionaries and has many political prisoners shot - including Ferdinand, who is not believed to be a political prisoner, and Karl Albrecht, whose last word is Justina's name.
Deviation from historical reality
The fire chief who refused to give the order was actually called Johann Pollet, not Eduard. He did not fall out of favor and did not die during the revolution, but took part in the campaign against the revolutionaries in Hungary, was promoted, retired in 1860 and died in 1872.
production
The film, published in 1979, is a joint production by ORF , ZDF and SRG , made by Schönbrunn-Film . The first broadcast was on May 27, 1979 on ORF.
Web links
- Fire! in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Fire! on Youtube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pollet Johann. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 8, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 183.
- ↑ fire! at filmportal.de