Curse of beauty
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Curse of beauty |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1915 |
| length | approx. 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | DJ Rector |
| script |
Walter Turszinsky Robert Wiene |
| production | Erich Zeiske, German Bioscop, Berlin |
| camera | Hermann Boettger |
| occupation | |
| |
Curse of Beauty is a German silent film melodrama from 1915 with Maria Carmi .
action
Vera Countess Selbitz is trapped in an unhappy marriage with her significantly older husband. She always longs for new experiences and is therefore constantly looking for new male acquaintances. It is currently a young painter who is in danger of falling into their clutches. He was hired to make a portrait of the countess. The old count overhears the two of them and, in unbridled anger, cuts up the painting that has just been completed. Then he puts an end to his life with an aimed shot. With the suicide of her husband, Countess Vera now lets go of all remaining inhibitions and enjoys herself to a great extent. Her son, who grew up in a boarding school, has now grown into a young man. From his environment, but also from other representatives of the upper class, Vera now only experiences rejection more than once because of her behavior, her behavior appears too little as comme il faut . Vera's bad reputation has penetrated into the boarding school walls, so that their pupils soon refuse to want to have anything to do with the junior. Vera's son's best friend suddenly refuses to shake hands and berates his mother. Finally, the director of the institute asks the young Count Selbitz to leave this noble institution, and so the junior returns to his mother. After all, the boarding school director recommends the boys for training at a machine factory.
Years have passed since then. Young Selbitz became an engineer and got engaged to his boss's daughter. But Mama's wild past life also penetrates him, and so the future father-in-law sets a condition: Only if Selbitz breaks off contact with his mother will he be ready to give his daughter to him. The young man shows character, rejects this audacious suggestion and returns to his mother. There, however, in the Count's castle, the son has to witness how his mother continues her old role behavior even today. Again she invited a young lover and of all places where Selbitz senior caught his wife cheating. Now the son understands why his father once killed himself. Deeply disappointed in his sire, the son ends his life with the same weapon in the same armchair, which he sees as wasted and meaningless. When Vera sees her dead son, she collapses on top of him.
Production notes
Curse of Beauty , shot in the spring of 1915 under the working title His beautiful Mama , was created in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg . The five-act act with a length of 1675 meters passed the film censorship in June 1915 and was premiered in August of the same year.
The film structures were designed by Robert A. Dietrich . The director "DJ Rector" (= director) is none other than the director of the production company Deutsche Bioscop, Erich Zeiske .
Curse of Beauty was the first film in the Maria Carmi series by Deutsche Bioscop.
criticism
“A large-scale film in which Maria Carmi-Vollmöller shows her wealth of dramatic skills to the fullest is the five-act tragedy…” Curse of Beauty ”. In this moral play, Maria Carmi is the woman between two ages, who, however, still confuses all men's hearts with her dazzling beauty, but cannot feel any deeper, lasting affection for any. (...) Maria Carmi-Vollmöller's performance in this role is downright unique. Like no other, she knows how to reproduce the woman consumed by the glow of sensuality and to express that inner struggle that rages on her between the duty of her mother and the prostitute being. "Curse of Beauty" can undoubtedly be considered one of the best of the previous film works in which Maria Carmi-Vollmöller has participated. "