Luise, Queen of Prussia

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Movie
Original title Luise, Queen of Prussia
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1931
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Carl Froelich
script Fred Hildenbrandt
Friedrich Raff
Julius Urgiß
production Henny Porten
music Hansom Milde-Meissner
camera Friedl Behn-Grund
cut Walter Supper
occupation

Luise, Queen of Prussia is a 1931 historical drama from the time of the Napoleonic Wars with the silent film star Henny Porten in the title role and Gustaf Gründgens in the role of her royal husband. Directed by Carl Froelich based on a novel ( Luise ) by Walter von Molo . The film, classified as adult, had its premiere in Berlin on December 4, 1931.

action

Europe 1806. Napoleon's troops advance further and further east and threaten large parts of Europe. Austria was defeated at Austerlitz , tsarist Russia is preoccupied with internal problems and a conflict with Turkey . Prussia is more weak than it has been for a long time. In Berlin the hapless and weak king Friedrich Wilhelm III rules . who has chosen an unloved alliance with Napoleon Bonaparte .

Unlike the hesitant king, the German patriots Prince Louis Ferdinand , Freiherr vom Stein and other young officers try to oppose the Corsican aggressor and win over the Prussian queen for themselves and their ideals. The king is deaf to the demands written down in a memorandum to finally call the people to arms. He is outraged and reprimands Prince Louis Ferdinand. When the play Wallenstein's camp was to be performed at the court theater one evening , the king stopped his wife from visiting because he suspected that a group of ardent Prussian officers were trying to provoke the French ambassador who was also present. This affront actually takes place when the freedom song 'Wohlauf Kameraden' is heard. This call for freedom soon penetrates from the stage, across the floor to the streets of Berlin and in front of the royal palace.

The war party is now finally trying to win Luise over to her convictions. Even Tsar Alexander tried to pull the Prussian queen on his side. She is supposed to persuade the king to finally join Russia in the war against Napoleon. But Friedrich Wilhelm hesitates further; he does not believe that Russia will come to the aid of his French-besieged nation if it should. The French ambassador in Berlin protests against a parade in honor of the Tsar, and Napoleon crosses the Prussian border with his troops, despite all treaties. The French win battle after battle , Prince Louis Ferdinand is killed in battle near Saalfeld , and Napoleon triumphantly enters Berlin .

Queen Luise and her children flee further and further east to Memel , always with the French troops behind her. In Königsberg she has to leave her son, the sick Prince Karl, behind, as Napoleon is obviously after her personally. Finally, in Tilsit there is a fateful encounter between Luise and Napoleon, in which she asks - in vain - for a mild peace for her country. In poor health, Queen Luise returns to Paretz Palace . She “seeks peace, peace for her people, eternal peace for all humanity, peace for her soul. A calm blue sky peers through the trees. Luise longs for him, feels him close. A German folk song comes from the Havel. Boys sing it in the boat. They are war orphans. A premonition of death covers the landscape. And a queen closes her eyes tiredly. "

Production notes

As with most of Henny Porten's later films before 1933, her husband Wilhelm von Kaufmann was the production manager for this one by Porten's company Henny Porten Film-Produktion GmbH .

The well-known Russian actor Vladimir Gaidarov , who played the Prussian ally, Tsar Alexander, was a star of German silent films. In this film he appeared for the penultimate time in a German production before he returned to the Soviet Union when Adolf Hitler came to power .

14-year-old Christiane Grautoff , who had previously played theater under Max Reinhardt , made her film debut here.

The Austrian costume designer Ali Hubert , who came to Berlin from Hollywood, was responsible for the extensive, detailed and elaborate designs of the historical costumes . It was to remain his only German sound film work.

The film structures were designed by Franz Schroedter . Helmut Schreiber, who later became magician Kalanag , worked here as a manager .

Another film under the title Queen Luise was made in 1956 under the direction of Wolfgang Liebeneiner with Ruth Leuwerik in the title role.

Reviews

The film, which was no longer shown after 1945, met with a complex response before 1933.

The Berliner Tageblatt ruled: “... the film only shows the misfortune of Prussia in a decorative way. Everything is as if painted. First the court life and an obligatory parade, which provoked mighty applause, although shortly afterwards this parade troop failed before the enemy. Luise and her husband, Blücher and Stein are always standing by the ramp; The misfortune of Prussia that stands behind it, and the people who had to bear it, they remain invisible: Prussia's fall - a courtly tragedy. Poor, poor. "

The critic of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung wrote: “One can assume from the outset that it is rather hopeless to come to terms with a legend with the false reality of the film.” And: “Queen Luise was the ideal figure of an entire epoch. This woman's virtues made her suffering sublime, and her suffering made her virtues worthy of reverence. Henny Porten is now the ideal figure of an entire era, albeit ours. And it embodies something that we don't like very much. It is this sentimental twisting of German women, this applied sweetness, this popularly trimmed intimacy that compresses precisely what is to be glorified. "

The film's large lexicon of people called Luise, Queen of Prussia , a “glamorous portrait of a woman” and reminded us that with this film, the long-term, continuous collaboration between Porten and her in-house director Froelich ended for the time being.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Original quote from the program booklet. Illustrated Film-Kurier , No. 1701, 13th year, 1931
  2. ↑ Hermann Sinsheimer. In: Berliner Tageblatt , December 5, 1931, evening edition
  3. ↑ Emmrich. In: Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , December 5, 1931, evening edition
  4. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 124.