Lola Montez (1955)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Lola Montez |
| Original title | Lola Montès |
| Country of production |
Germany France |
| original language |
German French English |
| Publishing year | 1955 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Max Ophüls |
| script |
Jacques Natanson Annette Wademant Franz Geiger Max Ophüls |
| production |
André Haguet , Alfred Zapelli for Gamma Film and Florida Film, Paris until May 1955: Toni Schelkopf for Oska-Film GmbH Emil E. Reinegger for Gamma Film GmbH and Union-Film GmbH, Munich |
| music | George Auric |
| camera | Christian Matras |
| cut | Adolf Schlyssleder |
| occupation | |
| |
Lola Montez is a Franco-German fiction film about the life of Lola Montez , the dancer and mistress of the Bavarian King Ludwig I. It is based on the novel-like biography Von Glück und Srauer drunken. Lola Montez (original title: Lola Montès ) by Cécil St. Laurent . When it was made in 1955, it was the most expensive film made in Germany since the end of World War II, at over seven million marks . It was the first color film by director Max Ophüls and also his last film before his death in 1957.
action
A whip-wielding stable master in a circus announces the “attraction of the century” and “the most interesting predator” of the circus: the former royal mistress Maria Dolorès Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, known as Lola Montez. She is carried richly adorned into the circus ring , where questions can be asked in the first part of the show. 25 cents have to be paid for a question , which is not used as a salary for Lola Montez, but instead, as the stable master announces, donated by her to a correctional home for fallen girls . The crowd shouts questions to Lola Montez, for example about her waist size and her affairs, which the stable master answers humorously. A lovers parade begins as the circus performers represent the number of Lola Montez's lovers. The question of whether the Countess von Landsfeld still remembers what was before leads Lola Montez to a first flashback of her affair with the composer Franz Liszt .
The affair with Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt and Lola Montez are on their way to Rome in a carriage , but the composer, who writes pieces for Lola Montez to which she dances in front of an audience, notices that their carriage is followed by another. He now knows himself to be a mere lover, since Lola Montez will change to the other carriage as soon as she wants to leave him. Both of them spend the night in a hostel. Franz Liszt wants to prevent Lola's departure. He tears up the just finished farewell waltz and secretly wants to leave the common room, but Lola Montez catches him doing it and they both spend one last night together. The next morning they part ways, Lola Montez reads up the torn notes, whereupon Liszt says that she at least remains true to his music.
Childhood and youth
In the circus arena, the stable master announces a change of scene and costume, as one will now deal with the childhood and youth of Lola Montez. A flashback shows the young Lola boarding a ship to Paris with her mother . While her mother shares a cabin with her lover Lieutenant James, Lola Montez has to sleep in the dormitory with other girls. When she arrived in Paris, her mother wanted her to be married to an old baron who was the family's banker. She escapes with Lieutenant James, who confesses his love to her. Both marry.
At the beginning of the “2. Akts “in the ring that the marriage was happy, but a look back shows that after five years Lola Montez is actually fleeing from her violent, constantly drunk and cheating husband. This is followed by the further life of Lola Montez, depicted in the arena in elaborate still images and game scenes. Lola Montez makes her debut as a dancer in Madrid , is kidnapped by a rich Russian whose love she rejected and can only be freed through the intervention of the French ambassador. During these events in the ring, a doctor appears at the director of the circus, who is still disguised as a clown and counts the daily income. He advises him that Lola's heart is weak and that she should take it easy.
Lola now tells her story herself. She danced at Tivoli and was in love with the conductor. A short flashback shows how she finds out on stage that he is married. She slaps the conductor who is conducting and then exposes him in front of his wife. She is known because of this, the stable master visited her at the time and offered her a contract with the circus, which she refused.
In the ring, Lola Montez's dizzying rise in society is followed. While the number of her lovers is read out, from Richard Wagner to Frédéric Chopin to Count von Lichtenfeld and the Grand Duke of Hesse , Lola Montez swings higher and higher up on a trapeze until she stands on the top platform. This is where the review of her life in Bavaria begins .
Lola Montez and Ludwig I of Bavaria
Lola Montez speaks to a hiking student in the snowy mountains who, taken in a carriage, shows her the way to Munich. Here Lola wants to make a career as a dancer, but she is not hired. Shortly before her departure, she begins an affair with Ferdinand von Freiberg, through whom she hopes to get in touch with King Ludwig I. She receives an audience with the king and complains about the lack of opportunities to perform. She nips any doubts about a bad figure in the bud by tearing open her bodice in front of Ludwig I ("I have grown very well, do you want to see?"). The king arranges for her to appear as a dancer in the Munich court and national theater, after which she wants to leave. He keeps her at court by commissioning a portrait of her, the completion of which he keeps delaying. She becomes his mistress , but also interferes more and more in politics. The citizens rebel against Lola Montez, who finally flees over the border to Austria at night with the help of the student she met on the way to Munich. She rejects the possibility of a simple life as the student's wife because something has broken in her and she can no longer love.
final
The stable master announced in the ring that Lola Montez had finally remembered his offer of cooperation and so came to the circus. She has performed here every day for four months and ends her show by jumping from a platform in the big top without a net onto a padded mat. The doctor asks the ringmaster to keep the net tensioned this time, but the stable master fears that he will disappoint the audience and removes the net. The jump shot from Montez's point of view leaves the exit open, but at the end you can see her sitting in a barred car. The male spectators crowd in front of the car to kiss Lola Montez's hand for a dollar. The stable master confesses to Lola Montez that he could not exist without her. She replies resignedly: "Life goes on."
Emergence
“Lola Montez” was planned as a major project to put the theory of a European film into practice. Therefore the film was shot in French, German and English. The German director Max Ophüls was won as a director, who was initially critical of the material, but after studying Lola Montez's biography he began work on the script for a black and white film.
The production companies expected the film to be a success from the start and cast it with top-class actors. The French sex symbol of the 1950s Martine Carol was hired in September 1954 and received a fee of around 350,000 marks, Adolf Wohlbrück's fee was 100,000 marks. Since Ophüls wanted the film to revolve around the idea of a circus in which Lola Montez answers questions about her life in front of the audience in the manege, the production and distribution department decided to have the film shot as a color film. Although the production company had terminated contracts with the actors, the start of filming was delayed because Ophüls only consented to a color film after long test shoots. He rewrote the script to consciously use colors in the film.
As CinemaScope films became increasingly popular with the public, the “prestige project” was also planned in the then new recording format. This entailed further changes to the script, which ultimately also meant high costs for contract extensions for the actors involved, some of whom did not experience a single day of shooting during the first contract period. "I started to work two days before the contract was over," wrote leading actor Peter Ustinov looking back.
The first day of shooting took place in mid-February 1955, the shooting locations in the following months were Paris, Nice, Weissenstein Castle in Pommersfelden, Bamberg and Bavaria Film in Munich. In return for a shoot in CinemaScope, Ophüls had assured himself that “all technical and artistic resources would be made available to him”, the cost of the film rose to unprecedented levels at the time. Paths were artificially colored for the ingenious color concept of the film; for a shot in which snow was needed, the set was taken to the Hohe Tauern while the scenes of the parade of Ludwig I in the English Garden at Monopteros from winter to summer were relocated and therefore all costumes had to be reworked. For the circus scenes, which represent the general plot and the central theme of the film, a permanent circus building was built, as the building of the Circus Krone in Munich was too low for Max Ophüls' ideas, and the Brumbach circus was engaged with artists and animals. Each scene was shot in French, German and English, so production costs and shooting time increased more and more.
Two circumstances saved the film from prematurely stopping filming due to lack of money: The distributor of Union-Film Reinegger had the film “Lola Montez” insured against exceeding the planned shooting time of 82 days due to force majeure and through the purchase and subsequent box office success of the home film Der Förster from the Silberwald sufficient financial means to have “Lola Montez” completed.
At the time of its cinema premiere, “Lola Montez” had consumed 7.2 million D-Marks, which Ophüls commented in an interview:
“Whatever sum you will hear, don't forget to divide it by three. Because basically we are shooting three films, one German, one English and one French, since all three versions are shot one after the other with the original cast. Each of the three films will cost a sum that cannot be called unusual. "
Reactions
Failure at the premiere and criticism
The premiere of "Lola Montez" took place on December 25, 1955 in the Marignan cinema in Paris, and the audience of the premiere was disappointed. The film was mainly advertised with a provocative Martine Carol, whose low-cut cleavage seemed to meet the audience's expectations of one of the greatest sex symbols of the time. Max Ophüls played with the audience's expectations, but disappointed them at the crucial moment, for example by keeping the historically guaranteed “breast test” in which Lola Montez tore her top in front of King Ludwig I's eyes swings two lackeys in the adjoining room, who are supposed to procure sewing materials for the destroyed top. “Instead of an audience-safe breast and leg film that the name Martine Carol promised”, the audience saw a complex, interlaced work.
“The audience at the premiere showed less consideration. There was a whistle in Paris, and disappointed Martine Carol fans, who waited in vain for the otherwise abundant breast glimpses, were to be prevented by barriers from warning the visitors of the next performance. When the police were foolishly used, there was a 'scandal' that is not always undesirable. "
The film focused on Martine Carol's acting talent, "whose beauty far surpassed her acting talent." Max Ophüls deliberately wanted to use the poor acting skills of his leading actress for the film and said on the set of the film: "The worse she is, the more the better the cheesier , that's exactly what my film is about. "
The German premiere took place on January 12, 1956 in Munich and was accompanied by negative criticism. Friedrich Luft wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that the film would be a "big hit - but [...] a big hit off the mark" and the French film critic Georges Sadoul rated it as bad cinema with a few nice ideas.
Cuts
The box office results fell short of expectations. Both the French and the German premiere versions were therefore shortened by four scenes. Since German and French passages alternated in both premiere versions and some scenes were even subtitled, but this was perceived as negative by critics and the audience, it was decided to use full dubbing in the respective national languages. For success in Great Britain, where the film had not yet opened, Max Ophüls made cuts himself, but the producers did not go far enough. They rearranged the film and replaced the alternation between flashbacks and circus scenes in favor of a chronological version, at the end of which the circus scene was shortened. On the basis of the version for the British audience, third German and French versions were also created, which, however, went unnoticed by the cinema audience. Max Ophüls died on March 26, 1957, the British version was released in 1957. Another shortened version, which was only 75 minutes from the German premiere version of 115 minutes, was released in the USA in 1959, but was also unsuccessful.
| country | Premiere date | Movie name | length | volume | language | modification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| France (Paris) |
December 22, 1955 | Lola Montès | 113 minutes | 4-channel magnetic sound | French, German, English, Italian; partially subtitled | |
| Germany (Munich) |
January 12, 1956 | Lola Montez | 115 minutes | 4-channel magnetic sound | French, German, English, Italian; partially subtitled | longer due to longer takes, was marketed as an "international version" |
| France (Paris) |
January 20, 1956 | Lola Montès | 110 minutes | 4-channel magnetic sound, mono optical sound | French | Subtitled and German passages dubbed, four scenes shortened |
| Germany (Berlin) |
February 9, 1956 | Lola Montez | 113 minutes | 4-channel magnetic sound, mono optical sound | German | Subtitled and French passages were dubbed, four scenes were shortened and marketed as the “German original version” |
| France (Paris) |
February 22, 1957 | Lola Montès | 91 minutes | Mono light tone | French | chronological order with shortened circus scenes at the end |
| Great Britain (London) |
November 22, 1957 | The Fall of Lola Montez | 90 minutes | 4-channel magnetic sound | English | chronological order of the scenes with shortened circus scenes at the end |
| Germany (Frankfurt am Main) |
3rd December 1957 | Lola Montez - The King's Dancer | 102 minutes | Mono light tone | German | chronological order with shortened circus scenes at the end |
| USA (New York) |
November 1959 | The Sins of Lola Montes | 75 minutes | Mono light tone | English | chronological order of the scenes with voiceover |
The French and German premiere versions of the film were cut to the chronological versions in the course of the cuts. As early as 1968, a restored French version was produced based on the second, slightly shortened French version, which was 110 minutes long and was distributed worldwide with subtitles. On the basis of a surviving second German version of the film, which is unique with a wider picture and original 4-channel magnetic sound, a restored German version of the film was created in 2002 in cooperation with the Munich Film Museum and the Cinémathèque Municipale de Luxembourg , which is based on the German premiere version is approaching.
colour
Max Ophüls based his first and only color film on a conscious color concept. Scenes were assigned to the different seasons.
- Spring: The colors black, gray and dark blue represent Lola Montez's dreary childhood and dominate the scenes of the crossing to Paris, the mother's attempt to couple up with the baron in the opera and the unhappy marriage to Lieutenant James.
- Summer: Lola Montez's first successes in Tivoli and the affair with Ferdinand von Freiberg are shown in warm colors.
- Autumn: In the joint scenes by Martine Carol and Will Quadflieg as Lola Montez and Franz Liszt, the warm basic colors red and gold predominate, which are supplemented by other colors of autumn.
- Winter: Scenes between Lola Montez and the Bavarian King Ludwig I are dominated by the colors of Bavaria, white, blue and silver / gold, and are the only ones in the film to take place in the snow.
Scenes in the circus are dominated by aggressive, garish red or blue tones, while the audience remains in the dark.
language
Although “Lola Montez” was recorded in three different languages, four languages were spoken in the German and French premiere versions. As in earlier films, Max Ophüls determined which native language the respective actors spoke and let them speak this largely in the film. Passages in foreign languages were subtitled. This concept was only partially undermined by the multilingual recording of the film.
If the German premiere version is considered to be the longest version of the film, the circus scenes, in which the polyglot Peter Ustinov speaks, were included in the German version. Martine Carol, who did not speak German, also spoke her passages in German. “What she had to say was written to her in phonetic transcription on a blackboard held up behind Peter's back, and he had to keep changing his position so she could read it. They communicated with each other with eye signals. ”In the German premiere version she was not dubbed,“ Elle parle elle-même, avec un accent et des incorrections adorables, qui ajoutent à son personnage un charme supplemetaire. ”Scenes in which German and French actors appeared together, were recorded mixed in the German version, so Martine Carol spoke French "partly with Liszt, who simply repeated many of her French sentences in German"
Some scenes in the German version were included in the film in French or English and French only; in one scene set in Italy, the actors speak Italian. In these cases, the scenes were subtitled, with the German premiere version with 30 subtitles and the French version with 18 subtitles. However, numerous foreign-language comments remained without subtitles and thus incomprehensible to most viewers. "Overall, the subtitles reflect Ophüls' intention to only make the viewer understand what was necessary to understand the film - a concept that also applied to the entire sound mix and caused a lot of displeasure." For example, criticized Friedrich Luft explains Ophüls' sound concept: “... when someone ... opens his mouth in the film, one expects he wants to say something. One is naive enough to want to understand what he is saying. Ophüls is constantly teasing us with his method of covering up, as profound and correct as it may be. And you don't want to stay tainted, left hungry, uninformed. ”Since the contemporary criticism began with the tone of the film, the producers decided to“ normalize ”the film and, from the second cut, did without a synchronization of the incorrect German ones Martine Carol's dialogues on multilingualism, which even in the reconstructed German version could only be partially restored.
Today's rating
Today, “Lola Montez” is considered a masterpiece by the director, which was ahead of its time, especially due to the interleaving with flashbacks and the use of color.
“Ophüls' last film goes beyond the scope of traditional narrative cinema with its dramaturgy of constantly changing and interpenetrating levels of representation. The complex narrative is subordinated to the unrivaled handling of cinemascope format and color, which reflects Lola's state of mind. The central motif - the reification of women - shows the director as a sensitive portraitist with bourgeois passion and self-deception. "
“Max Ophüls' great Cinemascope color film is a masterpiece of visual dramaturgy, an exquisite, sad demonstration of immoderate life. Lola Montez becomes a symbol of a time that was merciless and that drove its challengers to mercilessness themselves. Ophüls has repeatedly redesigned the flashbacks in their confusing variety on the screen, the colors take on - as it were by themselves - playful dramaturgical significance. A film full of sensuality which is impressive in its excessiveness. "
literature
- Cécil St. Laurent : Drunk with happiness and sadness. Lola Montez (original title: Lola Montès ). German by Waldemar Sonntag . Verlag der Europäische Bücherei, Bonn 1956, 221 pp.
- Martina Müller, Werner Dütsch: Lola Montez - A film story . Walther König, Cologne 2002.
Web links
- Lola Montez in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Lola Montez at filmportal.de
- Collection of facts about the film on cine-holocaust.de ( Memento from October 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ The length refers to the German premiere version.
- ↑ Lola Montez: Ophüls and his circus . In: Der Spiegel , September 14, 1955, p. 38.
- ↑ Lola Montez: Ophüls and his circus , p. 39.
- ^ Martina Müller, Werner Dütsch: Lola Montez - A film history . In: Stefan Drößler (Red.): Lola Montez . Filmmuseum München, Munich 2002, p. 6.
- ↑ Lola Montez - A Film History , p. 5.
- ↑ Hans R. Beierlein: 1000 extras cheer in the English Garden . In: evening newspaper . Munich, May 5, 1955.
- ↑ Ophüls and his circus , p. 40.
- ↑ The fact that the leading actress was ill and heavy rain in Munich was responsible for exceeding the limit by 18 days. See Ophüls and his circus , p. 41.
- ↑ Cf. Lola Montez - A teaching? . In: Der Spiegel , January 25, 1956, p. 35.
- ↑ Ophüls and his circus , p. 42.
- ↑ See also the German film program of the Illustrierte Film-Bühne, No. 3120, on the film "Lola Montez", which shows Martine Carol almost topless.
- ↑ A teaching? , P. 35.
- ↑ A teaching? , P. 35.
- ↑ Peter Ustinov: The gift of laughter. His life story . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 132.
- ↑ Max Ophüls 1955. cit. after Peter Ustinov, p. 132.
- ^ Friedrich Luft: First performed in Munich. The monstrous film about Lola Montez . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . No. 12, January 14, 1956.
- ^ Georges Sadoul: Lola Montez . In: Le Monde . Paris, January 1956.
- ^ Martina Müller, Werner Dütsch: Lola Montez - A film history . Walther König, Cologne 2002.
- ↑ Hellmut Stolp: Union starts the Lola Montez film . In: Film Week . Volume 11, No. 4, January 21, 1956, p. 14.
- ↑ Hellmut Stolp: Union starts the Lola Montez film . In: Film Week . Volume 11, No. 4, January 21, 1956, p. 14.
- ^ Stefan Drößler: The reconstruction of the German Lola Montez . In: Stefan Drößler (Red.): Lola Montez . Filmmuseum München, Munich 2002, p. 13.
- ↑ The following cf. Georges Annenkov: Max Ophüls . Le Terrain Vague, Paris 1962, pp. 89f.
- ↑ Peter Ustinov, p. 132.
- ↑ T: "... she speaks herself, with an accent and sweet mistakes that give her character an additional charm." André Golea: Le petit journal du cinéma. 12 January four . In: Cahiers du Cinéma (Paris) . Volume 10, No. 56, February 1, 1956.
- ^ The reconstruction of the German Lola Montez , p. 23.
- ^ The reconstruction of the German Lola Montez , p. 23.
- ^ Friedrich Luft: First performed in Munich. The monstrous film about Lola Montez. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . No. 12, January 14, 1956.
- ^ Martin Prucha: Lola Montès / Lola Montez . In: Thomas Kramer (Ed.): Reclams Lexikon des Deutschen Films . Reclam, Stuttgart 1995, p. 202.
- ^ Klaus Brüne (ed.): Lexicon of international films . Volume 5. Rororo, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, pp. 2315f.