Ludwig II (1972)
Ludwig II. (Original title: Ludwig ) is a historical film drama from 1972 by director Luchino Visconti with Helmut Berger in the leading role and is about the life and decline of King Ludwig II of Bavaria .
action
In 1864, the young Ludwig II was crowned King of Bavaria at the age of 18 . A first official act is the promotion of the composer Richard Wagner , who is very revered by the idealistic Ludwig. This is brought to Munich and can be generously equipped with financial means. In the Cabinet of Ministers, Ludwig's donations of money caused a lack of understanding, and the people were prepared to be dissatisfied with Wagner and his lifestyle. Ludwig does not notice that Wagner has a relationship with Cosima von Bülow , the wife of Wagner's conductor Hans von Bülow . When Ludwig learns the truth from his advisors, he feels betrayed and asks Wagner to leave Munich. Although Ludwig continued to support Wagner with a lot of money after his marriage to Cosima, the king's admiration for the man Wagner has cooled.
Ludwig has an enthusiastic romantic admiration for his cousin Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary ; he considers her to be his soul mate. At a nobility meeting in Bad Ischl , they ride out together at night and there is a kiss. But Ludwig soon felt his pride hurt by Empress Elisabeth's haughty behavior. Elisabeth advises him to marry her sister Sophie in Bavaria , which Ludwig, however, treats largely with disinterest. Disappointed by both Wagner and Elisabeth, Ludwig increasingly withdrew into private life and indulged in dreams. In the German War of 1866, the Bavarian cabinet took the side of Austria against the Prussians - against the will of Ludwig, who wanted to remain neutral. The war, which Ludwig simply ignores to the incomprehension of many on his country estate, is lost. His confidante Count Dürckheim advises Ludwig to get married to get out of the loneliness.
Shortly after Ludwig became aware of his homosexual tendencies, he spontaneously announced in 1867 that he was engaged to Princess Sophie. An actress named Lila von Buliowski, who is supposed to bring him sexual experiences, he angrily rejects because she was sent to him by family members and advisors of Ludwig. Ludwig doubts whether he can make Sophie happy and his desire to marry soon grows cold again. He postponed the wedding to Sophie for months and finally broke off the engagement. The king pursues his homosexual inclinations with the servant Richard Hornig - although the Catholic Ludwig feels guilty about it. Bavaria enters into an alliance with Prussia and in 1871 becomes part of the newly founded German Empire. Ludwig can only bring himself to this loss of sovereignty under the great influence of confidants. Meanwhile, the mental condition of Ludwig's younger brother Otto , who has been plunging into depression since serving in the war in 1866, is deteriorating. Otto goes mad and has to be taken to a psychiatric clinic, which leaves Ludwig in shock.
Ludwig's full attention is now on the construction of the Neuschwanstein , Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee castles . The construction of the castles, however, devours huge sums of money and the cabinet is increasingly turning against Ludwig. The king himself becomes more and more alienated from his surroundings, no longer fulfills the duties of representation and withdraws into the solitude of his castles. In 1881 Ludwig went on a trip to Switzerland with the actor Josef Kainz, whom he admired , and Kainz was supposed to constantly recite youthful heroic roles and poems for the king. The brief relationship between Kainz and the king ends in an argument. Ludwig loses himself more and more in his dreams and has sexual excesses with his servants at night. When Empress Elisabeth inspected her cousin's magnificent castles and wanted to see him again after a long time, Ludwig's servants turned her away at the door on his instructions.
In 1886, Ludwig was finally declared insane by a government commission at Neuschwanstein Castle. Ludwig then has the government commission arrested by his servants for a short time, but the king is too remote and weary of life to fight against the charge of mental illness. Ludwig is deposed, his uncle Prince Luitpold takes over government affairs. The head psychiatrist, Professor Bernhard von Gudden, accompanies the deposed Ludwig to Berg Castle on Lake Starnberg . Two days later, Ludwig and Professor von Gudden leave the palace for a walk in the palace gardens. After hours of searching in the park, the bodies of the two men are found in Lake Starnberg.
background
The film plot is interrupted several times by scenes in which actors look directly into the camera against a black background and talk about King Ludwig and his behavior like a witness. Visconti's film adheres meticulously to historical facts, but its main focus is less on historical events and more on the private person Ludwig with his private interests and idiosyncrasies. An early version of the script stipulated that at the end of the film a servant should find a hole in the clothing of the late Ludwig and speak the words "A bullet killed the king". The end of the film leaves the question open whether Ludwig's death was a suicide or a murder.
Along with Die Verdammten and Tod in Venice , the film is part of a film series that is often referred to as the “Visconti's German Trilogy”. Director Luchino Visconti was fascinated by the story of the loner and esthete Ludwig II and saw him as “the last absolutist ruler who would rather rule with art than with politics”.
The production costs of the film were around 12 million Deutschmarks . The interior shots were filmed in the film studios of Cinecittà , the exterior shots at the original locations. Including Neuschwanstein Castle , Hohenschwangau Castle , Schloss Linderhof , Herrenchiemsee Castle , Nymphenburg Castle , the Cuvilliés Theater , the Imperial Villa in Bad Ischl , the Lake Starnberg and the casino on the Rose Island . There, pioneers of the Bundeswehr built a pontoon bridge over the lake for the film team as a "maneuver exercise" . Possenhofen Castle , also located on Lake Starnberg, acted as a substitute backdrop for Berg Castle , as the Wittelsbachers refused permission to film the former. The redesigned passenger ship Leoni was used for the steamship Tristan , acquired by Maximilian II and liked by Ludwig II .
Romy Schneider had her breakthrough with the Sissi films in the 1950s, in which she portrayed a more romanticized version of the Empress. She later moved away from this image through European art films and more serious roles. Therefore, Schneider was initially skeptical when she was offered the role of Austrian Empress again, this time by her close friend Visconti. Before she accepted, she made sure that Sissi in this film is not romanticized, but rather disillusioned and sometimes cynical, as the real Empress Elisabeth was portrayed by contemporaries and historians.
During the shooting of the film, Visconti suffered a stroke on July 27, 1972 , after which he was physically weak.
Film versions and censorship
The world premiere took place on January 18, 1973 at a gala premiere at the Metropol cinema in Bonn , where the film was shown for the first time in a 3-hour version. The producers did not want to allow the version of a 4-hour version originally planned by the director, which was to be interrupted by a short break in the cinema. Due to his weakening after his stroke and the fact that the producers had the long run, Visconti finally accepted reluctantly. The film critic Wolfram Schütte wrote in 1975, referring to the shortened 3-hour version, “Anyone who has seen the film in Germany has not seen it”. In this version one would only begin to recognize the mastery of the director and the subtle metaphor of the film. The 4-hour version, on the other hand, would be a different, new film.
After its premiere in Bonn there were violent protests from Bavaria. Bavarian homeland associations believed they had discovered “perverse passages” and “degradations” in the film, and CSU politicians like Franz Josef Strauss (who was present at the gala premiere) also criticized the film. Thereupon the Munich Gloria film distribution , which was responsible for the nationwide distribution, removed a further 55 minutes from the 3-hour version and released a censored cinema version for the Federal Republic in which Ludwig's homosexuality was no longer an issue . The scenes with Marc Porel as Ludwig's lover Richard Hornig were shortened to Richard's function as Ludwig's servant. The scenes of the Hundinghütte were missing and the close affinity between Ludwig and Elisabeth and the aesthetic discussions between Ludwig and Wagner were no longer shown. The Frankfurter Rundschau recognized “the worst film barbarism” and filmmaker Hans-Jürgen Syberberg asked “Whose Ludwig II is that?”. Visconti later took legal action against the arbitrary cuts made by the German distributor, but could not prevent the film from being released in a mutilated version in German cinemas.
At the end of the 1970s, Ruggero Mastroianni , who was responsible for editing the film, and screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico reconstructed a complete version for the RAI in the spirit of Visconti, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1980 and was released on video and DVD in 2000 (for the version published on DVD has a running time of 247 minutes as it is divided into five parts and the full opening and closing credits are shown each time). The reconstructed version, which was broadcast in two parts by ZDF in 1993 (and also by ARTE in 2008 ), was dubbed in places for the German version by ZDF in order to add the voices of the actors who have since died or are not available.
synchronization
| role | actor | German voice (3-hour version) |
German voice (scenes from the reconstructed version) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ludwig II. | Helmut Berger | Jürgen Clausen | Stephan Schwartz |
| Richard Wagner | Trevor Howard | Holger Hagen | Holger Hagen |
| Cosima Von Bülow | Silvana Mangano | Rosemarie Fendel | - |
| Father Hoffmann | Gert Frobe | Gert Frobe | Günther Lüdke |
| Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary | Romy Schneider | Romy Schneider | Marion von Stengel |
| Count Dürckheim | Helmut Griem | Helmut Griem | Helmut Griem |
| Count of Holstein | Umberto Orsini | NN | Eberhard Haar |
| Richard Hornig | Marc Porel | Karl Walter Diess | Marco Kroeger |
| Prince Otto | John Moulder-Brown | Michael Ande | NN |
| Professor Gudden | Heinz Moog | Heinz Moog | Hans Sievers |
| Lila from Buliowski | Adriana Asti | NN | Micaëla Kreißler |
| Hans von Bülow | Mark Burns | Manfred Schott | Achim Schülke |
| Pfistermeister | Henning Schlueter | Henning Schlueter | Wolf Rahtjen |
criticism
“Stylish and poetic, as sensitive as it is dissecting study of an anachronistic existence and the failure of self-liberation. Luchino Visconti succeeds convincingly in elaborately conjuring up the intoxicating aesthetics of the 19th century and at the same time breaking it critically several times. "
“The film is considered a masterpiece by critics and film fans - when it premiered in Germany, however, it became a (political) scandal, especially in Bavaria, because of its portrayal of Ludwig's homosexuality, fell victim to rigorous censorship and was released extremely shortened. Visconti's idiosyncratic staging, meticulously designed in the historical details, hardly focuses on the historically 'great' moments in Ludwig's life, but rather tries to shed light on the private interests and idiosyncrasies of the monarch. "
"A multifaceted masterpiece about art and politics, about eros and pathos, about beauty and death."
"Magnificent elegiac portrait of the Bavarian 'fairy tale king'."
“'Ludwig II' is a convincing success in those passages in which Visconti visually implements his hero's fragile feverish dreams. Eternal darkness reigns in Ludwig's fantasy realm. Once the figures leave the oppressively overloaded interiors, they find themselves in cold winter landscapes, when rain lashes their faces, they lose themselves in the fog. "
“With Romy Schneider alone, in this film, which struggles to breathe between monstrosity and severity, cinema asserts itself as a vital, physical, sensitive medium that does not just pay homage to beautiful images and artificial feelings, and so one must above all say that Viscontis Ludwig II Romy Schneider's victory is that cannot be admired enough. "
Awards (selection)
- 1973: David di Donatello for best film, best director and best leading actor
- 1974: Nastro d'Argento for the best camera and the best production design
- Academy Awards 1974 : Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design for Piero Tosi
Web links
- Ludwig II. In the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ludwig II in the Lexicon of International Film
- Ludwig II at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c film review : tongues and so on in Der Spiegel , issue 4/1973
- ↑ Ludwig II. | filmportal.de. Retrieved January 15, 2018 .
- ↑ Norne Lola curses the king in Der Spiegel , edition 18/1972
- ^ The Twilight of the Gods according to Luchino Visconti in the daily newspaper of September 4, 2003
- ↑ Visconti's German trilogy: The Trieb is the German trade secret in Berliner Zeitung of August 21, 2003
- ↑ Upper Bavaria: Holiday idyll ready for film in Stern from September 29, 2009
- ↑ Hubert Rank, The Münsing community in old views , 978-90-288-4698-2, Fig. 55 (explanatory text online at www.europese-bibliotheek.nl )
- ↑ Ludwig (1973). Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Visconti Biography ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Arte.tv from May 11, 2002
- ↑ a b c Herren der Schere in Der Spiegel , edition 14/1993
- ↑ a b Ludwig II ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Arte.tv from August 29, 2008
