Finale (1948)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | final |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ulrich Erfurth |
| script | Harald G. Petersson |
| production |
Walter Koppel , Gyula Trebitsch for Real-Film , Hamburg |
| music | Winfried Zillig |
| camera | Eugen Klagemann |
| cut |
Alice Ludwig-Rasch , Klaus Dudenhöfer |
| occupation | |
| |
Finale is a German melodrama from 1948 by Ulrich Erfurth . The main roles are played by Edith Schneider , Willy Fritsch and Peter Schütte .
action
Germany 1938: The young and talented pianist Michael Reimers is considered a rising star in the classical music sky. He plays Tchaikovsky, he plays Beethoven and Chopin ... and the audience reverently listens to the sounds of the people's receivers. Ten years later, Reimers also reached the post-war misery: an injury to his hand made it impossible for him to pursue his artistic passion and play the piano.
Flashback, 15 years earlier: The old businessman Karl Ellerbrock, a well-respected and class-conscious gentleman of old, wants his daughter, blonde Hanna, to marry the respected doctor Tommy Benninghoff. On her birthday, Ellerbrook hopes to announce the engagement. But she has long since become an eye on the "young and wild" Reimers, an artist through and through with a wild, dark, fluffy mane. This doesn't suit her father at all, as he considers all artists to be dubious and not exactly down-to-earth. Someone like Reimers will probably never be able to continue his company, especially since Hanna as his daughter is out of the question for the successor. When Reimers asks Ellerbrock for his daughter's hand, the old man cleverly evades. When Benninghoff heard from Hanna on the phone that she was planning to marry, he too was quite upset, but tried not to let it show.
Both young people get married, and father Ellerbrock tries to "pimp" his unwanted son-in-law by trying to get a professorial title for the pianist through his business partner Osthus, whose son Ewald is a ministerial advisor and a staunch Nazi party member. Osthus junior purposefully picks up Heinrich Heine's “Book of Songs” , ostracized as a Jew by the Nazis, from the shelf in Michael's apartment . When Osthus also identifies a graphic signed by Käthe Kollwitz and a group of sculptures reminiscent of Ernst Barlach's work - both artists were also ostracized in the Third Reich - Musikus Reimers instantly appears as a Jew-friendly "cultural Bolshevik" and therefore not worthy of the regime's title. Instead of receiving a prestigious title, the intellectual artist was drafted during the Second World War and sent to the front in the east.
During the war, a bullet pierced his right hand and suddenly buried other artistic dreams. Reimers is promptly referred to the doctor Benninghoff, who despite his affection for Hanna tries everything to save the playing hand of the maestro. Medical officer Benninghoff as well as pianist Reimers return home at the end of the war, but the pianist will never be able to pursue his profession again. Nevertheless, Reimers clings to the fact that one day he will be able to sit and play at the piano again. The realization that this dream will remain, makes Michael increasingly bitter. This puts a lot of strain on his marriage to Hanna, especially since he also becomes jealous and suspects that Dr. Benninghoff purposely operated on him badly in order to alienate Hanna from him. Michael is degenerating more and more, he hardly cares anymore and indulges in gloomy thoughts. Finally he returns to the country, lonely and depressed, to his own mother, where he tries to cure his nervous disease. There he met the village school teacher Franziska Rettberg, whose husband was once "picked up" by the Nazis. She brings him back the courage to face life, so that Reimers, who now teaches the village children to sing, can be reconciled with his wife.
Production notes
Finale was made in the studios of Hamburg-Ohlstedt and Hamburg-Volksdorf with external recordings from Wewelsfleth and was premiered on July 23, 1948 in Hamburg. The Berlin premiere took place in the west on July 27, 1948, that in the east on September 23, 1948.
Co-producer Gyula Trebitsch also took over the production management. Herbert Kirchhoff designed the film structures, assisted by Albrecht Becker . Heinz Pehlke assisted chief cameraman Eugen Klagemann . This was the last time Else von Möllendorff stepped in front of a cinema camera.
The finale was a German contribution to the 9th Venice International Film Festival , which took place between August 19 and September 4, 1948.
This production was a so-called exchange film West Germany / Central Germany.
music
Walter Gieseking plays works by Peter Tschaikowsky , Ludwig van Beethoven and Frédéric Chopin . The Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra will play under the direction of Winfried Zillig . The boys' choir of St. Michaelis sings under the direction of Friedrich Brinkmann.
useful information
What is remarkable about this film is that, apart from a station announcement, no word is spoken for the first twelve minutes in this film and this time is devoted exclusively to music.
Reviews
In Der Spiegel 31/1948 it was read: “At the finale, there was moderately friendly applause for 'Finale'. Some felt pity. Others left the Hamburg Waterloo Theater with their hands raised, so to speak. They capitulated. Only a few spectators were not shaken. But different than expected. There were whistles in the Berlin Marble House, where the Hamburg Real film premiered. The story is good. Its creator, HG Petersen, created many tricky situations and conjured up a series of timely images that made viewers shudder. (...) Music alone is reconciling. "
Erika Müller wrote in Die Zeit on the occasion of the Hamburg premiere : “'Finale, the great music film reported for the 1948 Biennale' - this advertisement is very promising. And it is great, the music of Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky in the beautiful reproduction of Gieseking and the Radio Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Winfried Zillich [sic!]. But if the film should really go to the Venice Biennale, then, as a joker suggested after the premiere in Hamburg, a prize for the small middle class would first have to be created (...) In the beginning there was still hope when the camera was completely without film Dialog began to capture the dramatically tense atmosphere in an artist's house. (…) Why give the impression of great art when all you can do is show cheap imitations? (...) It has a nice, serious subject, this film about the successful young pianist who, due to the terrible war fate, can no longer use his right hand. But the course of the plot is so everyday cinematic that you wearily remember every scene: you've seen that before, no sometimes. (…) Young people were among them who tried to be good actors - with considerable success the Hamburg operetta star Peter Schütte in the lead role, with visible effort his unhappy partner Edith Schneider. And there was an experienced actor among them who effortlessly embodied a real person: Willi [sic!] Fritsch (as a doctor). (...) In the close-ups, however ... the proven theater director did not manage to get the right dose: So many kisses without charm; and Cupid is crying ... (...) By the way: The audience at the premiere in Hamburg was grateful for every modest punchline. "
"A drama that, in its superficial, larmoyant design, captures neither the psychological problem nor the timbre."
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , pp. 21 f.
- ^ Critique in Der Spiegel from July 31, 1948
- ^ Review in Die Zeit of July 29, 1948
- ↑ Finale in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on June 19, 2019
Web links
- Finals in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Finale at filmportal.de