Escape to the Dolomites

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Movie
Original title Escape to the Dolomites
Country of production Germany , Italy
original language German
Italian
Publishing year 1955
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Luis Trenker
script Luis Trenker
Giorgio Bassani
Pier Paolo Pasolini
production Bardo Film, Milan,
Primus Film GmbH
music Georg Fabor
camera Albert Benitz
Enzo Oddone
cut Aldo Quinti
Ludolf Grisebach
occupation

Escape in the Dolomites is a German-Italian film adaptation by Luis Trenker from 1955. It is based on the novel The Flight of Giovanni Testa by Gustav K. Bienek . In Italy the film was released under the title Il prigioniero della montagna .

action

Giovanni, the owner of a small shipyard in Bardolino on Lake Garda , is on the verge of bankruptcy. With his wife Teresa, who has always wanted a (successful) man, there is an increasing argument, and his children Pauletta and Carlino also feel their father's anger. Above all, Giovanni's brother Enzo, who has now become a wealthy hotelier, shows Teresa what Giovanni could have done. Nevertheless, she rejects Enzo's successful business partner Beppo, who is in love with her. Giovanni goes to Enzo to ask for a loan. He declines the request because he is not convinced of Giovanni's business and has already helped him with money several times. There is a dispute between the brothers, which Beppo secretly pursues. When Giovanni and Enzo both pull out a knife, Giovanni comes to his senses, drops his knife and leaves.

He returns home on foot, where the police are already talking to Teresa: Enzo had been murdered and Giovanni the suspect because his knife had been found in Enzo's room. Giovanni flees. He takes the train to the small village of Benia at the foot of the Dolomites , where he is employed as a worker building a dam . On the train he met the beautiful Graziella, who turns out to be the daughter of Benia's innkeeper. She is with the worker Sergio, but she doesn't love him because she feels misunderstood. Sergio, in turn, suffers from the fact that Graziella also flirts with other men and repeatedly gets into arguments with her. The good relationship between Graziella and Giovanni, who introduced himself as Guillermo in Benia, also makes him jealous.

Giovanni reveals to Graziella that he is actually wanted for murder, but she dreams of a life with him in France . Sergio discovers Giovanni's secret when he searches through his belongings and comes across a newspaper clipping that reports on the murder on Lake Garda and printed Giovanni's picture. When he shows Graziella the clip and announces that he will report Giovanni to the police, the police stand behind Giovanni, of whose innocence she is convinced. Sergio then climbs unsecured from anger on a steep face on which he and two other workers are supposed to measure a route. He crashes and is rescued by Giovanni. Shortly before Sergio dies, he gives Giovanni the stolen newspaper clipping.

Giovanni leaves Benia to face his past. At home, Teresa had to take on a job as a laundress. While her daughter has accepted the outgoing and incoming Beppo as a possible surrogate father, Carlino is rebellious. Beppo has testified in court against Giovanni, who is now facing jail on return. He tries to bind Teresa to himself by trying to save the shipyard from bankruptcy with an advance payment. When Teresa tells him that she never loved him, he accuses her of doing everything for her. He even murdered Enzo in order to finally win her over. Teresa now knows that Giovanni is innocent and rejects Beppo. He caused an accident with his car in which he died.

Giovanni returns home. His children welcome him happily and tell him that Beppo was the real culprit. Teresa is also pleased to have Giovanni back home.

production

The shooting lasted from August 18 to November 15, 1955. The Milan studio was used for the interior shots. The outdoor shots on Lake Garda were shot in Bardolino , while other outdoor shots were shot at the Fedaia reservoir , which is located at the foot of the Marmolada . In the film, Trenker flees to the Dolomites on the Val Gardena Railway , which was shut down a few years later.

The first performance of Escape in the Dolomites took place on February 28, 1956 in Theater am Karlstor in Munich .

criticism

The lexicon of international films described Escape to the Dolomites as "a film staged according to tried and tested templates ..." whose plot "is largely determined by chance [...] and is only moderately entertaining".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Luis Trenker in CineGraph - Lexicon for German-language film
  2. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 2. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 1043.