Illusion (1941)

Movie
Original title	illusion
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1941
length	88 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Viktor Tourjansky
script	Werner Eplinius; Viktor Tourjansky
production	Georg Witt for the UFA
music	Franz Grothe
camera	Werner Krien
cut	Hans Domnick
occupation
	Johannes Heesters : Stefan von Holtenau; Brigitte Horney : Maria Roth; Nikolai Kolin : Nowotny, stage manager; Hilde Sessak : Margot Korali; OE Hasse : Peter Walbrecht; Theodor Danegger : Servant Jacob; Maria Krahn : Agnes Keller; Werner Scharf : Axel Hold; Hans Stiebner : Brommel; Walter Steinbeck : Pocher; Willy Witte : Bessel; Edith Wolff : Gabriele; Walter Ladengast : Feldgruber estate manager; Karin Lüsebrink : Ilse Hein; Max Vierlinger : Brandt; Gisa Wurm : caretaker; Helene Nordländer : Maria's cloakroom; Käthe Dyckhoff : Ilonka, a country girl; Walther Bechmann : Head Waiter; Franz Pollandt : older actor; Elisabeth Gogotzky; Lotte Juergens;

Illusion is a German Filmmelodram from the year 1941. Directed by Victor Tourjansky play Johannes Heesters and Brigitte Horney the leading roles.

action

The young actress Maria Roth has started a successful career in the theater. After her farewell performance as Gretchen in Faust in Vienna , she wants to move to Berlin, where she has accepted a new engagement. Therefore, she is giving a small party for her Viennese theater friends to say goodbye. The wealthy industrialist and art lover Peter Walbrecht has had an eye on the attractive artist for some time and is determined to marry her. To underline the seriousness of his intentions, he takes this opportunity to present her with the deed of ownership of his country house. Her friends in a high-spirited celebratory mood advise her to accept this generous gift, and so afterwards the small company, with the exception of Peter, who has work to do, drives to this same country estate, Gut Holtenach near Vienna, where Maria takes the next two Want to use months break in play to relax.

A minor hearing defect and you accidentally end up on the no less stately property of Stefan von Holtenau, where the bus driver drops you off due to a misunderstanding. The landlord is amused by the high-spirited troop who want to seize his property and, for fun, plays the game that initially seems strange to him. He indicates his own position as administrator. Something seems to be happening quickly between Stefan and Maria, so he pours her pure wine and explains the real ownership situation to her the following day. Maria's friends leave quickly, and Stefan brings the artist to her real estate, Gut Holtenach. During the journey you start chatting and the subject of “marriage” comes up. Stefan von Holtenau doesn't believe in it at all, and Maria resolves to tease and challenge him again: She makes a bet with Stefan that he would have a lot of fun if he could only play her husband for two months. Stefan steps in and the two spend carefree, happy weeks together: the illusion of perfect harmony and bliss.

Maria has long since won the bet without her knowing it, because Stefan falls in love with her and now wants to turn the game, the illusion, into hard facts. He proposes to Maria, but on the non-negotiable condition that she gives up her acting career. Maria is torn here and there, especially since a dream theater role offered by Peter Walbrecht demands her unreserved commitment. For the first time, there is a heated argument between Stefan and Maria, especially since Stefan does not want to give up his maximum demand that she should turn her back on the art of acting forever. And so Maria has no other choice. In order to make the separation from her easier for him, all of her acting skills are required: she reminds Stefan with a tender smile of the bet and that her “marriage on trial” should always be a relationship for a while. Everything was, she lies to him with a heavy heart, but only theater, only illusion.

production

Shooting began on July 29th and ended in mid-October 1941. On December 23rd of the same year, the film passed the censorship and was premiered exactly one week later in Berlin's Gloria-Palast and in the Palladium on Bärwaldstrasse. The theater scenes were created in the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm , the outdoor shots in Mariazell in Styria .

The production cost amounted to 1,162,000 RM.

For the exiled Russian actor Nikolai Kolin , the role of stage manager Nowotny was the greatest role in his entire sound film career.

The songs Illusion and Ruh 'Your dear, tired heart from me were composed by Franz Grothe to texts by Bruno Balz . The song Illusion was played on Swedish radio at the end of the broadcast for years.

The buildings were designed by Max Mellin and implemented by Gerhard Ladner .

criticism

In the lexicon of international films it says: "A little interesting cinema romance, oscillating between light comedy and fateful melodrama."

The film's large personal lexicon noted in the entry by Johannes Heesters: "With the elegiac melodrama" Illusion ", Heesters was given the opportunity to appear as a character actor for the first time in 1941" and in the Tourjansky biography recalled the "strong response" that the Film found with the audience.

Web links

Illusion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Illusion at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

↑ See Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme 11th year 1940/41. P. 210 f., Berlin 2000
↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Films Volume 4, p. 1746. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 609.
↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 8: T - Z. David Tomlinson - Theo Zwierski. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 21.

[1] See Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme 11th year 1940/41. P. 210 f., Berlin 2000

[2] Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Films Volume 4, p. 1746. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.

[3] Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 609.

[4] Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 8: T - Z. David Tomlinson - Theo Zwierski. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 21.