Comedians (1913)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Comedians |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | about 29 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Urban Gad |
| script | Urban Gad |
| production |
German Bioscop for projection working group "Union" |
| camera | Karl Hasselmann |
| occupation | |
| |
Komödianten is a German silent film drama in two acts by Urban Gad from 1913. It is one of the director's lost films.
action
Kamma This is the undisputed star of a big city stage. She is not only successful professionally, but has also found happiness in her private life: she and actor Zelten have been a couple for years. The connection comes from son Maurice, who is now in toddler age. One day a new actress is hired at the theater. Harriet Wanner is young and beautiful - camping falls in love with her. Kamma believes in a harmless crush but realizes that Zelten is lying to her in order to be with Harriet. With a heavy heart she gives up tents and throws herself into her work. Maurice stays with her.
The premiere of the modern play Pierrot's Death by Arthur Lichtinger is imminent at the Schauspielhaus . Lichtinger himself acts as a director and is desperate for the actors' work. Only kamma shows real understanding of his work and soon the professional relationship develops into a love relationship that helps kamma over the loss of tenting. The happiness was short-lived, however, as Maurice fell seriously ill and asked for his father at the bedside. Kamma goes to tents and refuses to visit Maurice. When Maurice's condition worsens threateningly, Kamma goes to tents again and begs him in his stage dressing room to visit his son. He finally agrees and absorbs the almost passed out kamma. At that moment Lichtinger appears, who has received a message from Harriet, and misinterprets the situation. He immediately separates from kamma, which is devastated.
Although Maurice's health deteriorated rapidly in the period that followed, Kamma was unable to stay at his sick bed one evening because the play Pierrot's Death with her and tents in the leading roles premiered that day. While in costume, Kamma learns that Maurice is dying. She rushes from the theater to her son. It is Lichtinger who picks up Kamma from her apartment so as not to endanger the premiere. The performance begins. Shortly before the last act begins, a nurse appears backstage and tells Kamma that Maurice has died. Kamma is frozen with grief. When she sees Zelten, who has also learned of his son's death, flirting with Harriet unimpressed, she seeks revenge. In the last scene, Kamma and Zelten have to fight a fencing duel in which Kamma has to die as Pierrot. The swords are harmless due to the protective covers on the tips. Kamma secretly removes the covers. The last act begins and Zelten "kills" Pierrot according to the book with a stab in the chest. Kamma struggles with death in front of the enthusiastic audience. The curtain falls and the participants only now realize that kamma is indeed badly injured. They rush to her and kamma dies in her arms.
production
Komödianten was shot in the summer of 1912 in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg within a week. The buildings of the film were created by Robert A. Dietrich . It was the first film by Nielsen and Gads to be made in Germany in which Karl Hasselmann and not Guido Seeber acted as cameraman.
On December 19, 1912, the censorship banned the film from young people. Comedians had its premiere on January 31, 1913 in Berlin. After Der Totentanz , The General's Children , When the Mask Falls , The Girl Without a Fatherland and Youth and Madness, it was the sixth part of the Asta Nielsen / Urban Gad series 1912/13. In March 1913 the film was released in French cinemas (as Les comédiens ) and on March 31, 1913, it was also released in Danish cinemas under the title Komedianter .
No preserved complete copy of the 802 meters (approx. 29 minutes at 24 frames / s) long film is known. From 2005 to 2006, as part of a project funded by the Danish Ministry of Culture, archives were intensively searched for copies or fragments of films with the participation of Asta Nielsen. A short fragment of the film was found in the Danske Film Institute . The 30-page original script for the film is also in the possession of the Danske Filminstitut.
criticism
Contemporary advertising praised the film: “Here we experience the full dramatic power of the work to which Asta Nielsen lends her outstanding art,” the film was praised.
Looking back in 1928, Asta Nielsen recalled the basic ideas behind the central part of the film about Pierrot and the death of the child: “It was a battle for the mood, the juxtaposition of flirting love lure and hiding mother's suffering. The lust for life had to be led to victory over the impression of death. Leoncavallo's laughing Bajazzo was sadly the godfather in the background. ”Nielsen's film appearance with Pierrot's cap, which completely covered the hair, caused protest letters from the audience after the appearance of comedians .
literature
- Comedians . In: Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann (ed.): Nachtfalter. Asta Nielsen, her films . Volume 2 of Edition Asta Nielsen . 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-902531-83-4 , pp. 107-111.
Web links
- Comedians in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comedians at filmportal.de
- Comedians at the Danske Film Institute
Individual evidence
- ^ The films shown in France . In: Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . Volume 1 of Edition Asta Nielsen. 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2010, p. 426.
- ↑ Comedians at the Danske Film Institute
- ^ Thomas C. Christensen: Asta Nielsen - Lost and Found . Journal of Film Preservation , No. 69, Issue 5, 2005, pp. 57–58 ( PDF ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ).
- ↑ See comment by Oliver Hanley ( Deutsche Kinemathek ) on comedians on lost-films.eu.
- ↑ Stephan Michael Schröder: And Urban Gad? On the question of authorship in the films up to 1914 . In: Heide Schlüpmann, Eric de Kuyper, Karola Gramann, Sabine Nessel, Michael Wedel (eds.): Impossible love. Asta Nielsen, her cinema . Volume 1 of Edition Asta Nielsen. 2nd Edition. Filmarchiv Austria publishing house, Vienna 2010, p. 198.
- ^ Advertisement of the Union Theater for Comedians . In: Berliner Tageblatt , January 31, 1913.
- ↑ Asta Nielsen: My way to film. 3. From the early days of German film . In: BZ am Mittag , September 26, 1928.
- ↑ Asta Nielsen: The silent muse . 1st edition of the paperback edition. Henschel, Berlin 1992, p. 174.
