Youth and madness

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Youth and madness
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1912
Rod
Director Urban Gad
script Urban Gad
production German Bioscop
for PAGU
camera Guido Seeber
occupation

Jugend und Tollheit is a German silent film in three acts by Urban Gad from 1912. It is one of the director's lost films .

action

Lieutenant Ernst von Prangen picks up his guardian, the landowner Peter von Prangen, at the train station. He makes a good face for the bad game: Not only has he accumulated debts that he wants Peter to pay off. He also wants Peter to agree to marry the beautiful but poor teacher's daughter Jesta Müller. Peter agrees to pay Ernst's debts. However, he refuses to marry Ernst and Jesta. What Ernst and Jesta do not know is that Peter himself is in financial difficulties and that his estate is already heavily in debt. Back at his estate, Peter is visited by his neighbor Graabe, who wants his bill of 130,000 Marks to be paid. He knows that Peter cannot pay the money and suggests a deal: The bill of exchange will be destroyed when Ernst becomes engaged to Graabe's daughter Sophie.

Peter tells Ernst about the deal that he would like to make and that would ultimately help Peter and Ernst. Ernst is also in a quandary as he owes a lot to his guardian. It is Jesta who is ready to fight. With the help of her brother and her father's wig, she transforms into a young man and accompanies her lover on the journey. Ernst, on the other hand, is not allowed to betray Jesta's prank and introduces her to her father's estate as his friend "Klette", a student. All sorts of entanglements arise, mainly due to Jesta's secret identity and the difficulty of properly appearing as a man. She fails at the game of Skat, has to drink grog and smoke cigars and is supposed to share a bedroom with Ernst, whereupon she takes refuge with a pillow in Peter's study and sleeps there. The next day, more embarrassments follow: Jesta has to ride a horse and barely escapes the haircut at the barber's, but has to be shaved. On the estate, Jesta tries again to spend every minute with Ernst, while Peter and Graabe try to let Ernst and Sophie spend undisturbed time together. Peter and Graabe want to persuade them to go swimming, but Jesta can escape in time and at the last second prevent an intimate scene between Ernst and Sophie. The old Graabe is so angry that he lets Sophie use the 130,000 mark for use. Inevitably, Peter and Ernst agree to Ernst's engagement to Sophie, which is to be announced at a garden party the next Sunday.

Jesta continues to try to disrupt Sophie and Ernst's meeting, but soon thinks about a different tactic. She wants to seduce Sophie herself. Jesta encourages Sophie to drink alcohol and they both go for a walk in the moonlight. There is a kiss on the hand and finally a deep kiss on the mouth and close hugs - observed by Ernst. When she also pretends that Sophie would never love her because she has Ernst in her hand through the change, Sophie gives her the change as a pledge of her love in her room. Jesta manipulates the room lamp so that everyone sitting in the garden can recognize their supposed love scene in the room as a silhouette. The company thinks they see Sophie and Ernst, but Ernst approaches their table just as Graabe has announced Ernst and Sophie's engagement. Indignant, they all rush into Sophie's room and tear her and Jesta apart. Jesta's wig is lost. Sophie turns out to be a fair loser. She realizes that Jesta loves Ernst and also ensures that the high bill does not have to be redeemed immediately. Everyone goes back to the party and Sophie announces to everyone's astonishment that Jesta and Ernst have become engaged.

production

Jugend und Tollheit was shot in the summer of 1912 in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg within a week. After the dance of death , the general's children , when the mask falls and girls without a fatherland , it was the fifth part of the Asta Nielsen / Urban Gad series 1912/13. The censors checked the film in September 1912. In December 1912, the film must have been shown for the first time following the performance schedule of all Nielsen films; however, the earliest recorded performance dates from January 3, 1913.

Jugend und Follheit was shown in cinemas in numerous countries, including the USA (January 1914, Lady Madcap's Way ), Italy (1913, Giovinezza e follia ), France (February 1913, Ce que femme veut ), Luxembourg (March 1913) and the Netherlands (1913).

There is no known copy of what is believed to be a 900 meter long film.

criticism

Contemporary critics praised Nielsen's game: "Asta Nielsen's men's suit is excellent, it looks shiny and plays the funny intrigue with a lot of humor and grace," according to Danish politics . Urban Gad's excursion into the comic subject was also praised:

"This time he [...] let his spotlight play on the cheerful side of life and picked out a bit of sunny milieu with the hand of the master. He gave the characters in his comedy a good dose of splendid humor and endowed his heroine, embodied by Asta Nielsen, with this quality to such an extent that the viewer could not fail to notice it.
The exciting plot, the rich abundance of situation comedy, the warm, pulsating life that flows through the lovely three-act act, will make 'Jugend und Follheit' a film creation that fully satisfies every theater-goer and lets them take away the consciousness to be warmly amused to have."

- 1912 film program

Asta Nielsen herself described youth and madness in retrospect in 1928 as "a naive but funny comedy in which, as a young girl in men's clothes, I go on adventures with an enterprising uncle."

“Asta Nielsen's trouser role films are among the funniest and most imaginative comedy films that were produced at the time,” the review said in retrospect.

literature

  • Youth and madness . In: Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus: Classics of the German silent film 1910–1930 . Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-10212-X , p. 197.
  • Youth and madness . In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films . Volume 2 of Edition Asta Nielsen . 2nd Edition. Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-83-4 , pp. 101-106.
  • Youth and madness . In: Renate Seydel, Allan Hagedorff (Ed.): Asta Nielsen. Your life in photo documents, self-testimonies and contemporary reflections . Henschelverlag, Berlin 1981, pp. 84-85.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Youth and madness . In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films . Volume 2 of Edition Asta Nielsen . 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2010, p. 101.
  2. ^ Politiken , February 5, 1913.
  3. ^ Film program Youth and Madness , Internationale Film-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft mbH, 1912.
  4. ↑ Asta Nielsen: My way in the film. Part 4: Years of Development of the Film . In: BZ am Mittag , September 27, 1928.
  5. ↑ Youth and madness . In: Ilona Brennicke, Joe Hembus: Classics of the German silent film 1910–1930 . Goldmann, Munich 1983, p. 197.