Friedrich Schiller (1923)
Friedrich Schiller is a German silent film from 1923 by Curt Goetz with Theodor Loos in the title role .
action
The young Friedrich Schiller actually intended to become a pastor. However, he bowed to the strict, fatherly will and attended the Württembergische Karlsschule, an educational institution geared towards discipline and order, which is under the patronage of the all-powerful Duke of Württemberg. Here, the young Schiller should be driven out of the "youthful idiots" - but above all the tendency towards poetry. Instead, one tries hard to make the law and medicine courses attractive to Schiller. As a young regimental doctor, Friedrich soon devoted himself entirely to his passion: writing. This is how his drama " Die Räuber " ( The Robbers ) comes about, at the premiere of which he took part in 1782 at the Mannheim National Theater, both secretly and illegally.
The play was a huge success and paved the way for the young writer to pursue a great career as a poet. The success with the audience is countered by an equally violent reaction from the rulers. The absolutist ruling, ducal father of the country, imperious and choleric in his character training, is beside himself with anger, especially since he was not asked for his seat before the performance. He thinks he recognizes the omnipresent spirit of rebellion and subversion in Schiller's revolutionary play and threatens the young poet with censorship and imprisonment. Schiller then sees no way out: If he wants to continue living in freedom, including artistic freedom, he has to leave the country. And so he escapes from the garrison with his friend, the talented musician Andreas Streicher .
Production notes and background
Friedrich Schiller , also shown as Friedrich Schiller - Eine Dichterjugend in the 2012 Arte broadcast , was shot in Stuttgart in the second half of 1922 and was censored on February 23, 1923. The film consisted of seven acts and was 2617 meters long. The first performance took place on March 26, 1923 in the Stuttgart State Theater. After more than eight decades, the film, long believed to be lost and restored in Munich, was re-released in 2005.
Goetz was also responsible as director, producer and screenwriter. The film structures were designed by Julian Ballenstedt and the costumes by Leopold Verch.
criticism
In general, the critics praised Goetz's directorial performance and the fact that he resisted the temptation to encounter Schiller's character with pathos. Instead, it was stated, he was able to gain humor from the later great poet. Below are two examples:
On the Lichtbild-Bühne read: “With this film, the Goetz-Film-Gesellschaft tried to portray Schiller's youth up to his escape with the musician Streicher, and one can say that they succeeded in this attempt very well. Curt Goetz's direction completely mastered the material, which was in and of itself quite difficult, avoided being too detailed, and in principle gave details that were less meaningful but characteristic of the poet. Theodor Loos gave a lifelike study of Schiller, Hermann Vallentin in sharp characteristics of Duke Karl Eugen von Württemberg, the imperious tyrant against whom "The Robbers" were directed. - All in all, a film that is not only suitable for conveying a fitting image from Schiller's youth, but is also not without its appeal in terms of film art. Apart from the photography, which is not always entirely flawless, a mistake, which is, however, easy to remove, is the clumsy division of the nudes in places. Particularly striking is the end of the act in which the theater bill of the first performance of the "Robbers" is attached while the close-up of the sheet is the beginning of the new act. In general, a few cuts wouldn't hurt. "
Herbert Ihering said in 1923: “A Schiller film - I feared apotheoses, living images, pathos in the text and in the arrangement. Instead, the writers Curt Götz and Max Kaufmann and especially Curt Götz as a director have chosen a different way out: that of the humorous-anecdotal folk film. Curt Götz does not even try to pathetic Schiller. He relies on humor. This may sometimes be cheap - but it is usually light and visually effective. The film may disintegrate into genre images - but these are often invented in a mimic manner. (For example, when Schiller suddenly gets out of bed in his sleep after the premiere of "Räuber" in Mannheim and bows in memory of the applause.) That Götz avoided the attempts at violent glorification was just as gratifying as that he did during the whole film, which had to contradict its essence, but still enforced its witty talent. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Curt Goetz wrote himself to Kurt Götz at that time.
- ↑ cf. Photo stage . No. 14, dated April 7, 1923.
- ↑ Ihering review on edition-filmmuseum.com