Comedians (1941)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Comedians |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1941 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | GW Pabst |
| script |
Axel Eggebrecht Walther by Hollander G. W. Pabst |
| production | Hans Schweikart for Bavaria Filmkunst (Munich) |
| music | Lothar Bruhne |
| camera | Bruno Stephan |
| cut | Ludolf Grisebach |
| occupation | |
| |
Komödianten is a feature film by GW Pabst from 1941. The focus of this 18th century artist portrait is the theater principal Caroline Neuber , played by Käthe Dorsch . With two other top female stars from different film eras, Hilde Krahl and Henny Porten , the film is extremely well-known.
action
Germany, around 1750: The actress Caroline Neuber, known as the Neuberin , leads her own stage company. Its aim is to establish high art, serious theater. Unfortunately, however, the character of Hanswurst - her real name is Müller - is the most popular person in every play in 18th century Germany, and his job is to make people laugh by making funny and suggestive remarks in the middle of every play. Since she perceives him as detrimental to serious art, the Neuberin takes heart and dismisses him from the ensemble despite all his popularity. From now on, the success of the Neuber troupe rapidly diminished, and the first colleagues left - especially to Hanswurst Müller, who now wants to set up his own acting troupe.
With discipline and a cultural mandate, the Neuberin definitely wants to enforce serious theater art in Germany. This road is rocky and hard. The young Philine Schröder, who is already given small roles, recently joined her troupe. She once fled from her guardian who wanted to pair her up. She is in love with Baron Armin von Perckhammer, who is known for his women’s stories, but who seems to mean business with her. Since actors enjoy a bad reputation at this time, he suspects that his powerful aunt, the Duchess Amalia von Weißenfels, might object to a marriage that was perceived as improper. Rather, Aunt Armin wants to marry his cousin Vera, the daughter of her brother, the Duke of Coburg. But Philine refuses to let go of her Armin, and so one day she is arrested on the orders of the Duchess.
After a theater appearance, the Duchess Caroline Neuber introduces the Duke of Courland, Ernst Biron . They both fall in love, even though the newber is still married. The Duchess is this mesalliance as well as the upcoming one but for the time being prevented more than just a thorn in the side between Baron Armin and Philine Schröder. When the Neuberin argues that serious acting puts a person on the same social level as the nobility , the break with the class-conscious duchess is perfect. She withdraws all support from the Neuber troop, but at least releases Philine. Caroline is soon broke when the Duke of Courland arranges a well-paid engagement for her in Saint Petersburg . But after realizing that she is doomed to fail as an artist at the side of her aristocratic lover, she and her troupe flee back to Leipzig .
But there she does not receive a performance permit and now has to get by more badly than right with appearances in garden bars. When she gives a guest performance about the banishment of the Hanswurst figure from the contemporary theater, there is a real tumult. In the end, the Neuberin troupe disbanded and the artists went their separate ways. Only her loyal husband and her docile student Philine remain at Caroline's side. The young up-and-coming artist then secretly leaves for Weißenfels and tries to put in a good word for Caroline Neuber with Duchess Amalia. The Duchess agrees to support, but when one is looking for the Neuber couple, both have disappeared. The Duchess has the whole country searched for the two. Disaffected, impoverished and exhausted, Caroline Neuber dies in her husband's arms. Now the Duchess is also dismayed and even gives her blessing for Philine's marriage to Baron Armin. But the young up-and-coming artist feels obliged to the unspoken legacy of the Neuberin and from now on only wants to devote herself to high art. The establishment of a German National Theater, without any buffoons, is a done deal.
Production notes
The filming of comedians began on October 17, 1940 with the night shots and continued on October 21, 1940 with the studio shots. The film was shot in the Bavaria studios in Geiselgasteig and in the Ufastadt in Babelsberg . The shooting ended in April 1941. The outdoor shooting took place in the Salzkammergut .
The Berlin premiere of Comedians , based on the novel Philine by Olly Boeheim, took place on September 5, 1941 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
After the film was accepted by the censors, Komödianten received the Nazi ratings 'State-political and artistically valuable', 'Culturally valuable' and 'People-educating'.
The backdrops are by Julius von Borsody and Herbert Hochreiter , the costumes were designed by Maria Pommer-Pehl. The production line had Gerhard Staab . The actor Ullrich Haupt , who worked for Gustaf Gründgens , made his film debut here.
The production costs of comedians amounted to about 2,561,000 million Reichsmarks.
On the IX. International Film Art Exhibition (Biennale) in Venice in 1941, the gold medal in the category “best director” went to GW Pabst for his performance as a comedian .
criticism
In a detailed analysis, the Swiss specialist publication 'Der Filmberater' judged the cinematic qualities of comedians very critically : “We have here a striking example of how the best material, the best screenwriters, the best actors and the best director cannot suffice to make a good film if the whole society is not obsessed with the spirit that composes a FILM with a camera and a few thousand meters of raw film. […]… The book by Eggebrecht, v. Hollander und Pabst does not design the material freely, but based on a novel by Olly Boeheim: 'Philine'. The Neuberin is not quite the focus, but neither is the story of her student Philine Schröder, not even the eventful life of her ensemble. There is far too much material and far too little can therefore be designed. The authors create a good dialogue, which would be valuable as a radio play, but which explains things in the film that one would have to show so that we could experience them. We would much rather see Käthe Dorsch's great talent for representation on stage. [...] And the whole film actually illustrates a whole series of memories from the German lessons in high school rather than reminding us of the great examples of German or Pabst film art. "
The lexicon of international film wrote about comedians : “The film biography is particularly captivating because of Käthe Dorsch's theatrical intensity. The presentation of a 'German' theatrical art in 1941 - knowingly or unknowingly - met the intentions of the Nazi ideologues. "
Reclam's film guide said: “Pabst ... reintroduced himself with a film that perfectly fitted into the landscape of the time. The life pictures of great Germans were very popular. After all, he chose a woman whose life offered little opportunity for ideological indoctrination. And even if he does not match the quality of his earlier films, he still painted a diverse and vivid picture of bygone times. Individual descriptions of the dreary life of the traveling comedians are excellent. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme, Volume 11, born in 1940/41. Berlin 2000, p. 224.
- ↑ Der Filmberater, No. 12a, Lucerne December 1941
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 4, p. 2070. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987. See also comedians. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 3, 2017 .
- ^ Reclam's film guide. By Dieter Krusche, collaboration with Jürgen Labenski. Stuttgart 1973, p. 374.
Web links
- Comedians in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comedians at filmportal.de