In night and ice
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | In night and ice |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1912 |
| length | 35 or 41 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mime Misu |
| script | Mime Misu |
| production | Max Rittberger for Continental-Kunstfilm GmbH (Berlin) |
| camera |
Willy Hameister Emil Schünemann Viktor Zimmermann |
| occupation | |
| |
In Nacht und Eis is a German silent film drama by Mime Misu from 1912. The production is considered the first film to retell the events that led to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the morning hours of April 15, 1912 .
action
The film begins with the embarkation of the passengers on the Titanic. You can see how luggage and goods are lifted onto the ship by freight elevator . After the side entrances have been closed, the ship casts off. The captain and his first officer are on duty on the navigating bridge. As an intertitle reveals, one sees the Empress Auguste Viktoria of the Hamburg-America Line on departure . The ship's own band has positioned itself on the railing and plays the title Home Sweet Home . Meanwhile, the first-class passengers stroll across the deck. You pass the time on board with playful games.
In the meantime a seaman has gone to the ship's lookout . The captain hands over the command to his first officer and goes below deck himself. The telegraph operator begins his work. After a while the sailor recognizes an iceberg in the lookout , towards which the Titanic is moving at full speed. He warns the first officer, who then sees the accident with binoculars and reacts frantically. He calls the captain who immediately gives instructions for an evasive maneuver. “Full steam backwards!”. The men in the engine room are doing their best. In the ship saloon, however, people celebrate and drink. Suddenly there is a violent jolt, the champagne glasses topple from the tables, the entire room is tilted, and the passengers stagger and sometimes fall. The Titanic touched the iceberg.
The machinists and the passengers in their cabins are also mixed up. Immediately hectic and panic breaks out on board. Some travelers try to help each other. The telegraph operator sends an emergency call to other ships on the orders of the captain. The first lifeboats are launched. The on-board band plays “ Closer, my God, to you ” while the ship begins to sink. Meanwhile, the luxury liner sinks threateningly with the bow forward. You can see how already quite overcrowded lifeboats approach passengers swimming in the water in order to take them on board.
Water entering the boiler rooms and flooding them causes the boilers to explode. The telegraph operator desperately sends more SOS signals while the water flows into his room. The captain and his telegraph operator decide to go down with the ship. But before that, the captain dared to fight to save some passengers. He sees a drowning man in the water, jumps into the water and saves him. Then he swims back on board. You can no longer see the Titanic sinking into the water, as the final scenes are considered lost.
Production notes
The overall title was according to the opening credits: In Nacht und Eis. Sea drama. True to life based on authentic reports . The working titles were The sinking of the Titanic and Titanic . The film was advertised on a poster with the lurid line “In Nacht und Eis will be the talk of the day with theatergoers”.
As early as the end of April 1912, the producing Continental-Kunstfilm announced a "Sea Drama" which would "comprehensively depict the entire catastrophe, including the collision with the iceberg and heavily dramatic scenes on board". The shooting took place in May / June 1912, less than two months after the events that led to the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912. The exterior shots were shot in the ports of Hamburg and Cuxhaven . The Berliner Tageblatt reported on the shooting in its June 8, 1912 issue. The film, which consists of three files (946 meters), was censored on July 6, 1912.
In Nacht und Eis had its first performance on August 17, 1912. At that time it received little attention. Almost 86 years later, the film, believed to be lost, was rediscovered by a German private collector as a result of the worldwide success of James Cameron's Titanic film.
The director Mime Misu, who had previously had little film experience, was a 24-year-old Romanian with a largely in the dark vita.
The shooting took place in the Continental Film Atelier at Chausseestrasse 123 in Berlin and on the Krüpelsee near Königs Wusterhausen . The recordings on the ship were shot on the Empress Auguste Viktoria , while the ship ramming the iceberg is an eight-meter-long model. Siegfried Wroblewsky designed the studio buildings. "For the representation of the interior scenes on board the" Titanic ", swaying backdrops were erected on a tilting platform in the backyard of Berlin's Chausseestrasse, through which the waves at sea and the vibrations below deck were illustrated. Press representatives reported:" Water, steam, fire, smoke and all sorts of things fills the air. You can see terribly injured people across the scene of the accident, and while the stopping heart causes paralyzing fright, a supposedly insane man shouts: 'More fire! The other cauldron must also explode! Let the people drown! More water ! '"With the supposedly maddened the director Misu was meant."
Classification and criticism
Much of this film seems very amateur and theatrical. After the collision, the first officer acts like a mixture of a startled chicken and hopelessly overwhelmed ordinary seaman, the captain looks similarly helpless and waving his arms around wildly in the face of impending danger. Kay Wenigers The large personal lexicon of the film called In Nacht und Eis a “cinematic snap shot”, while contemporary critics, such as the photo stage , call it “a great achievement of today's film art”. It also says there:
“We have to confess that the“ Continental-Kunstfilm ”edited and carried out the material, which is extremely difficult to deal with for the film and which, due to its serious tragedy, could very easily seduce to its most sensational reproduction, with appreciable delicacy. The cinematographic rendition of the “Titanic” disaster is not the sensationalism of a brutal director who has the effects of effects and who works with cheap means, but in terms of ship technology it is even a very instructive picture. The individual scenes that took place on the deck and inside the huge hull were reproduced with professional thoroughness. We particularly praise the brilliantly emerging photographic technique, the sharpness of the picture and the atmospheric effect of the delicate tint of the virus. "
Web links
- In night and ice in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- In night and ice at filmportal.de
- Titanic - In Night and Ice in TwoTickets.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ “More water!” - In night and ice in Potsdam's latest news
- ↑ 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 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 199.