Frauennot - women's happiness

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Movie
Original title Frauennot - women's happiness
Country of production Switzerland
original language German
Publishing year 1930
length 1,703 meters, 71 minutes
Rod
Director Eduard Tissé
script Grigory Alexandrov
production Lazar Wechsler , present tense film Zurich
music Martin Uhl
camera Emil Berna , Eduard Tissé
cut Sergej M. Eisenstein , Eduard Tissé, Lazar Wechsler
occupation

Johannes Steiner , Walburga Gmür, unknown laypersons

Frauennot - Frauenglück is a silent documentary with a game plot that Eduard Tissé shot in 1929/1930 in Switzerland for the Zurich present-tense film by producer Lazar Wechsler . The script was written by Grigory Alexandrov . Eduard Tissé and Swiss cameraman Emil Berna took care of the photography . The film was edited by Sergej M. Eisenstein , Eduard Tissé and Lazar Wechsler. The Swiss actors Johannes Steiner and Walburga Gmür worked alongside laypeople who remained unknown. Martin Uhl wrote the film music .

The film, in which the delicate subject of the termination of pregnancy is dealt with, was also subtitled in Germany as "The High Song of Medical Art".

action

In the first part, the film depicts the misery of women who unintentionally become pregnant in a gripping plot. The moving images of the suffering and death of women who secretly seek out an illegal abortionist are juxtaposed in the second part, which provides factual medical information, with photos from the rooms of the Zurich University Clinic, where abortions can be carried out safely and easily, as far as the abortion is medical Reasons is necessary.

background

The Swiss production “Frauennot-Frauenglück” (1929/30) came about shortly after Sergej M. Eisenstein, his assistant Grigorij Alexandrow and Tissé had participated in the First International Congress of Independent Filmmakers at La Sarraz Castle near Lausanne . It was Tissé's first own film direction.

The Russian team shot three game sequences with the actors Johannes Steiner and Walburga Gmür and combined them with documentary recordings of two births and their preparation, which the Swiss cameraman Emil Berna had previously recorded in the Zurich University Women's Clinic. Medical advice was provided by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Waltraut .

The drama of the film, which is composed entirely of extremely short shots, is largely determined by the photographic composition. Through parallel assembly, the contrast between a professional operation in the hospital and an abortion by an angel maker is made clear. The use of significant close-ups and the repetitive contrapuntal montage point to the origins in the Soviet revolutionary film .

The film was on May 30, 1930 under the test no. 26 076 of the Berlin Film Inspectorate. It was premiered in Switzerland on March 21, 1930 in Zurich in the Apollo cinema, and in Germany on June 19, 1930 in Berlin in the Atrium cinema. In francophone Switzerland it ran under the title Misères de femmes - Joies de femmes . It has also been shown in Poland , Finland , America and Brazil .

reception

According to the decision of the Berlin Film Inspectorate [B.27442, 5 files 1686 m (1703 m before censorship)] of November 15, 1930, the film was 'only allowed for public screening in the German Empire if a scientific lecture is given to accompany the film' .

Almost as great as the success was the rejection that the semi-documentary film encountered, especially in Catholic countries and regions. The governments in Bavaria , Thuringia and Baden in particular immediately applied to revoke the approval of the film for showing in cinemas. Except for a few cutting instructions, however, the applications were rejected. Even the condition of an accompanying scientific lecture was withdrawn (decision of the Berlin Film Inspectorate No. 1256 of December 22, 1930). The documentary recordings of a caesarean birth caused moral outrage, especially in church circles: the film 'reveals the sacred moment of birth to a broad audience' and 'thus desecrates motherhood', as the most common allegation was. But the local authorities had other concerns:

"The image strip was ... already banned on October 20th of this year because of its potential to damage the health of onlookers. [...] The presentation of the image strip in Munich also encounters a considerable part of the population Such resistance that larger rallies are to be expected in front of and in the theater. The action against the rallies, which should be considered initially, would, according to the facts, cause a disproportionately greater impairment of public peace and order than the prevention of the performance. " (Decision of the Munich Police Department against the theater owner Hans Greetings from November 27, 1930 [BayHStA MInn 72 693])

Survival:

In 1931/32 three women from the trade union movement in Austria shot a silent film based on the model of “Frauennot - Frauenglück” with the title “Frauenleben - Frauenlos”. The films are not similar in terms of subject matter, but rather in terms of title, technology and camera work.

In 1936, a sound version was created in Switzerland from the images from “Frauennot - Frauenglück”; it had its premiere on March 7, 1936, in Zurich, again at the Apollo cinema.

The Swiss television SF DRS showed the silent film “Frauennot - Frauenglück” on May 16, 2002 in the restored original version, with musical accompaniment by André Desponds.

A kind of remake under the same title, but with different conditions and probably with less luck, Luciano Emmer tried to create in Italy in 1957 for the Illiria film.

Illustrations

literature

  • Hervé Dumont: History of Swiss Film 1896–1965 - All film productions in Switzerland. Foreword by Fredy Buache. Swiss Film Archive Lausanne, 1987, ISBN 2-88267-001-X .
  • Ulrich Gregor, Enno Patalas: History of Modern Film. S. Mohn, 1965.
  • Ulrich Gregor, Enno Patalas: History of the film . Volume 1: 1895-1939. Rowohlt, 1992, ISBN 3-499-16193-1 .
  • Adolf Heinzlmeier, Bernd Schulz (Hrsg.): Lexicon films on television: 8500 feature films TV - video - cable. 2nd ext. Edition. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990.
  • Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski, Josef Nagel (eds.): Reclams film guide. 12. Re-edit Edition. Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Ditzingen 2003, ISBN 3-15-010518-8 .
  • Joachim Linder, Claus-Michael Ort (ed.): Crimes - Justice - Media: Constellations in Germany from 1900 to the present (= studies and texts on the social history of literature. Volume 70). Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1999, ISBN 3-11-094476-6 , pp. 364, 382.
  • Kai Nowak: Motherhood and Motherhood. The film scandal about “Frauennot-Frauenglück” (1929/30). In: Ariadne. Forum for women's and gender history. 27 (2012), H. 62, pp. 32-40. online at: kai-nowak.de
  • Hans Günther Pflaum : Film review on »Frauennot - Frauenglück«. Director: Sergej M. Eisenstein. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 6, 1981, p. 24.
  • Janina Urussowa: The new Moscow: the city of the Soviets in the film 1917–1941 . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar, 2004, ISBN 3-412-16601-4 , p. 147 to note 99.
  • Werner Wider, Felix Aeppli: The Swiss Film 1929–1964: Switzerland as a ritual . 2 volumes. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 1981.

Web links

Views

  • Frauennot - women's happiness at abortionfilms.org
  • First part of the film (game scenes, 20 '24 ", with English titles) on youtube

Individual evidence

  1. the obtained in the Federal Archive / Film Archive copy (no. 2881-7 BSP) has a length of 1,923 meters, see. bundesarchiv.de
  2. a more detailed description of the contents according to Arbeiterbühne and Film , No. 7 (July 1930) at difarchiv
  3. “On lecture tours through Germany, Eisenstein made creative contacts with German artists and scientists. In 1929 Eisenstein traveled to Western Europe to study new film technology. With Grigori Alexandrow and his permanent cameraman Eduard Tisse he shot the film "Frauennot-Frauenglück" in Switzerland (subject: abortion) and a music film "La Romance sentimentale" in France, from which he later distanced himself ” , cf. filmmuseum-hamburg ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmmuseum-hamburg.de
  4. a large cinema with 2000 seats, built in 1928, the architectural model was the Titaniapalast in Berlin; see. cinema-lifestyle ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cinema-lifestyle.com
  5. also Beba-Palast atrium. Large cinema for 2025 viewers, 1926 by Friedr. Lipp built, cf. berlin.de
  6. cf. difarchiv
  7. A compilation of the censorship decisions (until 1949) and the FSK test decisions (from 1949) at difarchiv.de
  8. cf. difarchiv
  9. cf. kai-nowak.de
  10. reproduced at filmportal.de , there still further censorship documents.
  11. "... to stimulate trade union propaganda among women"  ; their names were Anna Boschek and Wilhelmine Moik (screenplay) and Käthe Leichter (assistant), cf. Sabine Lichtenberger: The life of Leopoldine Weinmüller, at Frauenstudienzirkel.net ( memento of the original from June 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (May 6, 2010). The film ran for about 33 minutes and was finished in November 1932. It was shown in 126 events by the end of June 1933. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.frauenstudienzirkel.net
  12. cf. also viennale.at  ; the first 9 minutes of the film can be viewed on youtube
  13. cf. srf.ch ( Memento from June 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  14. in Germany; in Italy the film was called Il momento piú bello
  15. cf. Der Spiegel 36/1957 of September 4, 1957: Frauennot - Frauenglück (Italy): “The young doctor Pietro (Marcello Mastroianni) and the nurse Luisa (Giovanna Ralli), who is expecting a child, sulk and defy until shortly before Luisa's birth. Lectures and demonstrations to educate people about painless births are inserted into this neatly staged, but hardly very fascinating affair. Pregnancy gymnastics and progressive delivery were depicted as discreetly as possible. Nevertheless, the moderately instructive scenes in the middle of the feature film look quite strange. " (Illiria film), cf. also moviepilot.de