Lucrezia Borgia (1922)

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Movie
Original title Lucrezia Borgia
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1922
length 96 minutes
Rod
Director Richard Oswald
script Richard Oswald based on the novel by Harry Scheff
production Richard Oswald for Richard Oswald-Film AG, Berlin
camera Karl Freund (Head of Department)
occupation

Lucrezia Borgia is a German historical and silent film from 1922. Directed by Richard Oswald play Liane Haid (in the title role), Conrad Veidt and Albert Bassermann the leading roles.

action

The film treats the tragic love life of Lucrezia Borgia very freely based on historical motifs - with all the ingredients of a comprehensive drama: from poisoning to betrayal of loyalty to fatal duels.

In this story of revenge and jealousy, lust for power and hatred, the unscrupulous Cesare Borgia is at the center of the action. He longs for the (forbidden) love for his sister Lucrezia and removes everyone who could stand between her and him. Many men close to Lucrezia are struck by his anger and will to destroy. For example, there is Alfonso of Aragon , Lucrezia's lover. Cesare's hateful passion fell victim to his own brother Juan Borgia and the simple girl Naomi. Then he finally murders Alfonso too.

Cesare Borgia's methods are perfidious and devious, and the three compliant lackeys Micheletto, Sebastiano and Ludovico are at his service. Borgia has a prisoner brought to him, for example, who has a suspected hemlock cup emptied in order to obtain information on the whereabouts of the alleged heretic Savonarola . But Cesare spans the curve so that even his father, the Pope, turns away from him.

When Lucrezia rushes to the Pope at night and tells him about Cesare's murderous acts, he has trouble preventing her from violating Cesare. At first, the prince of the church does not want to believe that Cesare murdered both his own brother and Lucrezia's husband Alfonso. Cesare defends himself half-heartedly, the latter was a traitor. The Pope in night clothes raises his cross, which he always carries with him, and pronounces a curse on his son. But even this cannot stop Borgia, because no sooner has Pope Alexander left the siblings than Cesare Lucrezia begs again to stay with him. She turns away from him in disgust. The rejected one follows Lucrezia to the castle of the Sforzas. There it comes to a duel with Giovanni Sforza, Lucrezia's former husband, in the course of which Cesare and his opponent are killed.

Production notes

After the great box office success of Lady Hamilton , Oswald decided the following year to make another monumental film with historical reference. He engaged his Lady Hamilton lovers, Haid and Veidt, and also engaged a wealth of respected actors in other leading roles. Like Lady Hamilton , Lucrezia Borgia was also very expensive to produce - costs that, as with other German films of the early 1920s, were due to the inflation-related depreciation of the Reichsmark .

The shooting took place from April to July 1922. In a shooting report from June 17, 1922, the Film-Kurier says: “Robert Neppach built a castle that is one of the most powerful film structures of recent times. The Sforza banner flies from the tower in the middle, soldiers crowd on the battlements to the right and left of the tower, awaiting the onslaught of the mercenaries of Borgia. And now the storm begins. First the cavalry is used. This arrangement of the stage is inconsistent with the rules of strategy, but at least the image that is obtained in this way has a strong, painterly charm. Behind it the infantry, like a body that is guided by a will, by the will of Caesar Borgia (Conrad Veidt), who in the midst of the battle, with the brazen calm of the General von Geblüt, motionlessly pursues the course of the fight from an elevated position. But running on his mercenaries with such great force, Sforza's troops reject their onslaught. Caesar's troops flood back in random chaos, leaving numerous dead on the slaughterhouse. Desperate, Sebastiano, Borgia's companion (Heinrich George), waves the flag. The soldiers are animated by only one urge: to escape the murderous projectiles of the men of Sforza. Many of the defenders of the castle were shot down from the battlements of the castle by enemy projectiles (which is very cleverly marked by stuffed dolls), but this time the enemy onslaught has been victoriously repulsed. The whole scene was a virtuoso directing by Richard Oswald. He showed that he knows how to master the instrument, which represents the masses for a director, with superior technology. ”The enormous buildings were built on the UFA outdoor area in Berlin-Tempelhof . Reich Minister of the Interior Adolf Köster , President of the Reichstag Paul Löbe and the Russian poet Maxim Gorki were present during the shooting .

Lucrezia Borgia passed film censorship on October 6, 1922 and was banned from youth. The premiere of the very long - seven acts at 3,286 meters, which corresponds to about two hours in the original - took place exactly one year after Lady Hamilton , on October 20, 1922, in the Richard-Oswald-Lichtspiele.

The film was based on a novel by Harry Scheff and notes by Johannes Burckhard, known as Burcadus, and Ferdinand Gregorovius . The film structures were designed by Robert Neppach and implemented by Botho Höfer .

Reviews

Oskar Kalbus ' Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst : “That the director Richard Oswald used to do a lot of work with the historical facts of his subjects and ruthlessly subordinated them to his creative will, summarized them, rearranged and changed them, was already proven by his Lady Hamilton . Insofar as this free switching with the history of the unity of the picture benefits, it will be accepted as poetic freedom, also in Lucretia Borgia (1922), where the historical course of things had to put up with quite powerful interventions. The film writer Oswald has changed the relationship between people ad usum Delphini and thereby withdrew a lot of poison from the inherently gruesome material […] In everything else, however, the manuscript is composed in pictures, born from a creative vision as it were and designed with a perfection which leads to the heights of great visual art. "

Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film states: “In the era of monumental films , mobilizing the masses was often enough an end in itself. No matter how thin the material was, as in the Oswaldt film Lucrezia Borgia , it gained public appeal through the huge, historically accurate mass roster of well-costumed and stylishly armed extras ”.

Lucrezia Borgia dramatically adorns all the intrigues, atrocities and incestuous events in the Florence of the Cesare Borgia rule. Oswald shows a fight between the beautiful (played again by Liane Haid) and the mighty beast (given by Conrad Veidt). The powerless woman who no longer wants to be this is the object of the machinations of her family environment. In the end, she can only free herself from this by challenging Cesare's head. Oswald stages this in the Florence, Pesaro and Naples, which have been lavishly recreated on the Ufa open-air site in Berlin. He directs extra armies and battles. In between, he sprinkles chamber play-like moments of desire.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ under Freund's guidance, Karl Vass , Carl Drews and Frederik Fuglsang served as simple cameramen . Robert Baberske was a camera assistant
  2. ^ Film-Kurier, No. 135, June 17, 1922.
  3. ↑ ibid.
  4. ^ Oskar Kalbus: On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Berlin 1935, p. 52 f.
  5. ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Kindler Verlag, Munich 1956, p. 256.
  6. ↑ Lucrezia Borgia in film.at

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