Catherine the Great (1920)
Katharina the Great is a German historical film from 1920 by and with Reinhold Schünzel . Lucie Höflich played the title role of the Russian tsarina .
action
On the bier of Catherine the Great, the most important stages in the life of the almighty ruler appear before the priest's eyes. The film tells the life story of the young Princess Sophie-Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst in a pictorial arc-like narrative style, whose path leads her to Russia into a marriage with an unloved and later declared insane man before she ascends the throne of Russia as Empress Catherine II . At the center of the plot are the years of power and splendor from her wedding to her death. While the first three acts are more aimed at the intimate and personal moments in Katharina's life and emphasize, for example, her first appraising approaches to her lover, a Russian officer on watch, the last three acts are largely determined by crowd scenes and pomp. In between the tsarina has her hands full, intrigues against her unrestrained, foolish and helpless husband Peter III thanks to his inability to rule the vast empire of Russia. to spin. Hardly after his accession to the throne, she has him overthrown and killed by a docile officer and lover. Now the once insignificant princess from the German province has reached the peak of her power.
Production notes
Katharina the Great was created in early / mid-1920 in the Cserépy film studio in Berlin (studio shots) and in Döberitz (outdoor shots). The film was censored on August 13, 1920, was banned from young people and was premiered on October 22, 1920 in Berlin's Richard-Oswald-Lichtspiele.
Rochus Gliese designed the film structures that Fritz Seyffert, Hans Flemming and Heinrich Schacker carried out. The costumes come from the hand of Peter A. Becker.
Heinz Schall acted as artistic advisor, Eugen Zabel as literary-historical advisor, Alexander Carbenin-Kiev as Russian advisor.
Director Schünzel and supporting actress Hanne Brinkmann were a married couple at the time.
criticism
“Schünzel, Lüthge and Behrendt (die author-Gm bH) took the biography as a basis and tried to raise it above themselves with light irony and fluid style (well-fitting, refreshingly short titles). Sometimes it worked surprisingly well, sometimes not at all. There are scenes in the film that, in their taut, concise brevity, and in their expressive imagery, reveal strong intellectual connections; and there are others in it who tell in detail at a slow pace, tell very beautifully and richly in pictures, but tell a story. (…) A beautiful, vivid biography with a loving approach to the well-known great moments in the life of this strong woman. (...) Its outward appearance is very tasty and very rich. Schünzel's direction is a great, strong achievement that must be recognized. (…) The presentation was faced with difficult but tempting tasks that it could not always do justice to. Lucie The Tsarina is courteous, but not the young Grand Duchess. What remains of the guilty remain guilty must , they are those in richest measure. (...) Next to her stands Schünzel as Tsar Peter, splendid in his mastery of gestures and facial expressions ... and building a bridge from one to the other with the finest means of representational art. Arousing pity without trying to. "