Love can be like poison
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Love can be like poison |
 | |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Veit Harlan |
| script |
Walther von Hollander , Joachim Wedekind |
| production | Arca-Filmproduktion ( Gero Wecker ) |
| music | Erwin Halletz |
| camera | Kurt Grigoleit |
| cut | Use Wilken |
| occupation | |
| |
Love can be like poison is a German drama film directed by Veit Harlan . The black and white film produced by Gero Wecker , based on the novel Andrea and the Red Night by Gilbert Merlin, was shot in West Berlin in the spring of 1958 . The premiere took place on July 23, 1958 in the Zoo Palast in West Berlin.
action
Magdalena Köhler returns to her father's house after many years in a strict boarding school. Neither he nor the governess Fraulein von Tischowitz can direct the unfulfilled heartfelt desires of the girl who lost her mother early on in the right direction. She eventually succumbs to the temptations of the fashion painter Robert Ferber, whose lover and model she becomes. The warnings from medical student Stefan Bruck, a childhood friend of Magdalena's, are also in vain. Stefan, who feels drawn to the painter Susanne, suspects Robert's dangerous frivolity.
Robert and his unscrupulous friend Achill have a nude portrait of Magdalena exhibited and cause a momentous scandal. When Magdalena is first cast out by her father and also by Robert, her path leads to the rough art dealer Bogolla and to love for sale. By chance she meets the opaque Hans von Hehne, who promises her release from her emotional pain in the form of morphine . Stefan tries again to help his childhood friend. But this has finally decided in favor of Susanne and can not return Magdalena's deep affection.
After a heated discussion with Susanne, Magdalena renounces the only man who could have given her support. A little later, the drug addict dies in a hospital. The pain of the father and the remorse of the painter Robert Ferber come too late.
History of origin
prehistory
Gero Wecker had already made several successful scandalous films with his Arca film production founded in 1953 . Veit Harlan's The Third Sex (1957), the first German film on the subject of homosexuality, caused a particular stir . The film, released by the FSK only after numerous changes and under the title Different from you and me (§ 175) , developed into good business, not least because of the controversial discussions. In the same year, Harlan was offered to direct the war film The Green Devils of Monte Cassino, produced by Franz Seitz . After Harlan refused, Harald Reinl took over the project.
In October 1957, the sensational murder of Rosemarie Nitribitt made headlines - and several films about prostitution . Film producer Gero Wecker planned two corresponding films for 1958: Madeleine Tel. 13 62 11 directed by Kurt Meisel and love can be like poison , which in turn was to be directed by the controversial director Veit Harlan.
Pre-production and script
Walther von Hollander and Joachim Wedekind wrote a screenplay based on the theme of the "love novel" Andrea and Gilbert Merlin's Red Night . The Bonn regional court had temporarily banned the submission as indecent within the meaning of Section 184 .
The young actress Sabina Stuhlmann , who was also employed in Madeleine Tel. 13 62 11 , was engaged for the main role . This was discovered during a large-scale casting that producer Gero Wecker had organized in collaboration with the women's magazine Ihr Freund . However, Sabina Stuhlmann had made her film debut earlier in the fairy tale film Aufruhr im Schlaraffenland , shot in 1957 . Joachim Fuchsberger took on the male lead . The film also offered numerous roles for other well-known film and theater actors, including Renate Ewert , Willy Birgel , Helmut Schmid , Paul Klinger , Friedrich Joloff and Werner Peters .
production
The shooting took place from March 12th to mid-April 1958 in West Berlin . The interior shots were shot in the Arca film studio in Berlin-Pichelsberg . The outdoor shots were taken in the southern Hansaviertel in Berlin-Tiergarten and in front of Charlottenburg Palace . For the Design the film architects Ernst H. Albrecht and Hans Auffenberg responsible. Heinz Oestergaard designed the costumes .
Although it was one of several commissioned works that Veit Harlan referred to in his autobiography as a “little film”, the director “left absolutely no listless, resigned impression” on the main actress Sabina Stuhlmann, as she recalled in 1996. “He took great care of all the actors, and that's why they are all good without exception.” Even after Joachim Fuchsberger's memories, Harlan was “anything but broken and without artistic energy in his penultimate film. He directed the film Love Can Be Like Poison with great dedication. […] Of course, his bitterness also came to light in later, very personal conversations. [...] My work with him was extremely interesting and gave me remarkable impulses for my other films. "
Film music
The soundtrack comes from Erwin Halletz . The title song Magdalena (text: Hans Bradtke ) was sung by the Montecarlos . It was released as a single on the Polydor label at the time . This and the instrumental piece Midnight Violins featured in the film were later also released on CD.
reception
publication
The original version of Love can be like poison, which was checked by the FSK on June 25, 1958 , was not approved because a "questionable woman" was portrayed too positively and thus violated religious feelings. In the version released on July 11th for ages 18 and over, almost all scenes with Paul Klinger , who portrayed an understanding clergyman, were missing . On July 23, 1958, the abridged version was premiered in the Zoo Palast in West Berlin.
The uncut version of the film was first broadcast on pay TV in the 1990s .
Reviews and audience response
Georg Herzberg wrote in the film echo that “Veit Harlan pushed the realism to the limit of what was just reasonable and FSK possible” and called love can be like poison a “piquant colportage .” He went on to write: “Acting the film is remarkable in two ways. Sabina Stuhlmann can show that she has talent under Harlan's leadership. [...] Renate Ewert has to play the virtuous counterpart to the heroine. She does it with very pleasant cheerfulness. "
The Catholic Film Service found it incomprehensible that a well-behaved girl takes pleasure in “nudes of compromising repugnance” in the film. The subject was dealt with “with great effort and horrendous tastelessness” and the direction had set great store by “showing the woman who was cast out by her father in the melancholy, noble pose of the abandoned. […] One cannot, of course, come to terms with the tendency to present the girl's bad posture - she becomes a morphinist and incessantly changes her fat lovers - as a fate that is completely beyond human will. ”The critic was also bothered by the fact that the The main actress "is endowed with a luscious gold glory, with an inauthentic delicacy on the outside that successfully prevents a moral issue from being seriously discussed at all". In addition, the “degradation of religious motives” is to be deplored. The lexicon of the international film sums it up accordingly : "A tasteless and artistically indisputable story that blatantly abuses religious motifs and covers every approach to criticism with a swell of hypocritical feelings."
The Protestant film observer judged that Harlan's film was “not only spoiled in terms of content, but also botched by poor direction. Something so mendacious, so much emotional gusto, so much false religious pathos, such an arrogantly raised index finger has seldom been seen. [...] We warn everyone to waste time and money on this work. "
Der Spiegel described the film as the "silliest sin drama that the" Jud-Süß "filmmaker Veit Harlan ever staged in solemn sultriness."
The Hamburger Abendblatt claimed love can be like poison is a work of the "level of a mentally underexposed educational film" and asked the question: "Who will finally enlighten Mr. Harlan?"
Despite the bad reviews, which in any case did not come unexpectedly for producer Gero Wecker, Love Can Be Like Poison turned out to be a passable success. In Nuremberg the box office business was described as “good average”. The audience in Stuttgart, where the film was also well attended, fully recognized “the effective photography and the performance”, but was bothered by “the embarrassing moral trumpeting”. In some cities, the film was shown in the cinemas over a year later with good to satisfactory attendance figures.
Web links
- Love can be like poison in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Love can be like poison at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ 91 minutes for cinema projection (24 images / second), 87 minutes for television playback (25 images / second), film length: 2502 meters (FSK version)
- ↑ a b c Frank Noack: Veit Harlan. "The devil's director" . Belleville Verlag Michael Farin, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-923646-85-2 , p. 373-379 .
- ↑ Black longing . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1962, pp. 48-52 ( online ).
- ↑ Veit Harlan: In the shadow of my films . Ed .: HC Opfermann. Sigbert Mohn Verlag, Gütersloh 1966, LCCN 66-025801 .
- ↑ The Montecarlos: Why are the stars shining so bright tonight . Bear Family Records . 2000. Order no. BCD 16434 AH
- ^ Erwin Halletz: German film composers, part 8 . Bear Family Records . 2001. Order no. BCD 16488 AR
- ↑ Georg Herzberg: Love can be like poison . In: Film-Echo , Wiesbaden, July 30, 1958.
- ↑ Love can be like poison . In: Catholic Film Service , July 25, 1958.
- ↑ Love can be like poison. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Love can be like poison . In: Evangelischer Filmbeobachter , July 31, 1958.
- ^ Film: New in Germany . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1958, pp. 51 ( online ).
- ↑ Nudity, War, Jazz. The screen is patient - the audience too? In: Abendblatt.de. Hamburger Abendblatt , November 29, 1958, accessed on May 27, 2018 .
- ^ Film-Echo , Wiesbaden, August 13, 1958.
- ^ Film-Kurier , October 17, 1959.