Miss Else (1929)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Miss Else |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Czinner |
| script | Paul Czinner based on a template by Arthur Schnitzler |
| production | Paul Czinner for Poetic-Film GmbH, Berlin |
| camera |
Karl Freund Adolf Schlasy Robert Baberske |
| occupation | |
| |
Fräulein Else is a German silent film from 1929 based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler . Under the direction of Paul Czinner , his future wife Elisabeth Bergner plays the main role.
action
Else Thalhof, the middle-class daughter of a respected Viennese lawyer, lives a life largely without worries and sorrow. When she was spending her carefree winter holiday in snow-covered St. Moritz , she received a letter from her mother stating how things really are with her father. Dr. Thalhof is in dire financial straits because he embezzled the money entrusted to him and speculated on the stock exchange. Now her mother asks her to apply for a loan from the wealthy art dealer Dorsday. The situation for this is favorable, as Dorsday is also in St. Moritz.
The art dealer is much older than Else and is very interested in her. Dorsday stands ready to help the family by providing a loan of 30,000 guilders . But only on one condition: he wants to see Else naked. Else, a self-confident young woman, finds it extremely difficult to make a decision. On the one hand, she absolutely wants to save her father from the self-inflicted plight, on the other hand, she would surrender herself to a guy who ruthlessly abused her plight and would, with this act, degrade her to a prostitute. Caught between two evils, Else finally swallows an overdose of veronal and goes to Dorsday wearing only a fur coat. When she drops the precious piece in front of his eyes in the hotel lobby and Dorsday finally sees Else naked, the young woman passes out on the floor and dies a little later.
Production notes
Miss Else was Bergner's last silent film. Her colleague Albert Steinrück , who could no longer fully play his role, gave his farewell performance in front of the camera, already seriously ill. He died four weeks before the premiere.
The film was shot in the winter of 1928/29 in the Efa studios, in Berlin-Staaken and in the Grunewald studios . The outdoor shots were taken in Vienna and St. Moritz . One of the three cameramen was Karl Freund , who immediately after the end of his work (early 1929) left for Hollywood forever . Fräulein Else received the title "artistic" and was premiered on March 8, 1929 in the Berlin Capitol .
The film structures were designed by Erich Kettelhut , Artur Kiekebusch was the production manager.
Reviews
In contrast to the previous Czinner-Bergner film collaborations, the reviews of Miss Else turned out to be mixed.
Ernst Jäger commented in the Film-Kurier : “A Bergner observation film , eyeing them and capturing them optically, the camera is positioned near or far, amazingly elaborate, warming, richly motivated decorations are set up: hotel halls in St. Moritz, ballrooms, hallways, corridors in which the baroque glitter of the chandeliers, the swing of the upholstered chairs are supposed to entwine themselves as a set around the Bergner. Everything about Bergner. Nevertheless, Dr. Czinner, head of production and responsible author and director, once again made his 'star' film in the usual sense. He does not urge the Bergner to transform, to create the role of a 'Fräulein Else' - which Arthur Schnitzler only uses poor motifs - he lets the Bergner give the cinematic part of their speaking stage existence to the camera protocol. [...] The change in lighting in the psychological landscape, the mental shifts that are so tangibly shaped and intensified with Schnitzler. From the rose-red alpine glow to the veronal night. The formers of the Bergner script do not succeed in the psychological phases where the Schnitzler novella begins and Bergner's task would have been. [...] Why do the authors of the film give the director such a non-film base? Or should this factual photograph, which is nevertheless theatrical photography here, seriously replace film-image technology? Even an individualist with such a tough theatrical attitude must not ignore the fact that the film has long since clarified its own laws of composition. "
Rudolf Kurtz judged in the Lichtbild-Bühne : “The renunciation of all noisy, theatrical effects leads Czinner to search for his effects with quiet, dramatic means. He masters the register of retardations: it is excellently done, how Bergner does not dare to address the brutal fellow, how she runs after him, turns away, comes up again, disappears behind a pillar, a few steps forward again - until the final meeting almost like a dramatic release. With the same means, Czinner stages the end when Bergner goes into the art dealer's room, does not find him, pursues him - while the poison already destroys her life forces. Czinner wrote the manuscript with haunting rigidity for Elisabeth Bergner, as he sees it. For him, she is the great designer of emotional nuances, gently passing spiritual delicacy, a person who expresses his inner being with rare art. This is undoubtedly the Bergner's strength, but this skill alone does not provide the prerequisites for an effective film. The effect of a film is a dramatic effect with optical means: and what Bergner needs, above all, is the strong, firmly established dramatic framework into which she can fit, which provides the possibilities for her skills, and at the same time puts the viewer in the fabric of a heart-touching one Action. It has to be said again and again: Bergner is a great possession of German film. There is hardly an actress in the whole world whose face, whose body is so pure expression of her inner life. With an incomprehensible clarity, her expression speaks of the pain and joy of her soul, here is precious material that can only be classified into the cinematic opportunities with a strong hand. Only a high-ranking artist is able to use visual monologues, without a partner and only relying on herself, to create an inner tension that has a really dramatic effect. "
Siegfried Kracauer said in the Frankfurter Zeitung : “Schnitzler's important novella 'Fräulein Else' provided the material for this film. Of course, Paul Czinner only used poetry motifs. If only he had stuck more closely to the text instead of taking over the action more or less freely! […] Czinner did not see or did not want to see the possibility that arose from the original for the film. Instead of building up the plot from Miss Else's perspective, he shot a normal social film that also featured Miss Else. With this, however, the event loses its meaning, and what remains is a rather stale chain of events that would not have required a great deal of effort. In addition, Czinner did everything to make people forget the conditions under which Miss Else is at Schnitzler and which alone make her actions understandable. He doesn't show her as a girl who could be trusted to mix innocence and reflection, but rather places her in the midst of the sporty post-war world. […] Czinner's other mistakes are based on the wrong direction of the director: Since he leaves Miss Else's associations unused, the plot turns out to be too meager for him. So what is he doing? He just fills them up mechanically. We are the involuntary witnesses of the entire train journey from Vienna to St. Moritz and get caught up in the life and goings-on in the luxury hotel with little detail. All this is superfluous if it is done routinely. In addition, it consists entirely of itself, while it should only have life from the girl. Elisabeth Bergner has a hard time making Miss Else comprehensible with this director. As always, she brings her essential appearance with her, which says something before it expresses itself. The actual game, on the other hand, is only strong in a few places. "
Reclam's film guide said: “Schnitzler is only sporadically present in this film. The rather broad descriptions from the life of high society predominate, which, however, gain through the brittle charm of Bergner's appearance. "
In Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal film it means to Elisabeth Bergner three central silent film work in the 1920s: "In the Geiger of Florence (with Walter Rilla ) in which Arthur Schnitzler's novella as sensitively modeled Kammerspiel Fräulein Else and Nju (with Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt ) Bergner had the opportunity to try their very idiosyncratic stage style with cinematic nuances ”.
Oskar Kalbus ' Vom becoming German cinematic art said: “Schnitzler's Fraulein Else also did not provide enough visual material for six film acts. Paul Czinner (1929) was therefore only able to create a film ensemble play with actors like Bergner, Bassermann and Steinrück that lacked the tempo everywhere. "
literature
- Alexandra Tacke: Schnitzler's> Fräulein Else <and the naked truth. Novella, film adaptations and adaptations. Cologne / Weimar / Vienna: Böhlau Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-412-22497-4
Web links
- Fraulein Else in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Miss Else at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Film courier . No. 59, dated March 8, 1929.
- ^ Photo stage . No. 57, dated March 8, 1929.
- ^ Frankfurter Zeitung , April 14, 1929.
- ^ Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams Film Guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 59.
- ^ Heinrich Fraenkel : Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Kindler, Munich 1956, p. 192.
- ^ Oskar Kalbus : On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Cigarette Picture Service, Berlin 1935, p. 71.