Girls in Uniform (1958)

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Movie
Original title Girl in uniform
Country of production Germany , France
original language German
Publishing year 1958
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Géza from Radványi
script Friedrich Dammann
Franz Höllering
production Artur Brauner
music Peter Sandloff
camera Werner Krien
cut Ira Oberberg
occupation

Girls in Uniform is a German feature film from 1958. Romy Schneider embodies the boarding school student Manuela von Meinhardis, who develops strong feelings for her teacher Miss von Bernburg, played by Lilli Palmer . Therese Giehse and Blandine Ebinger can be seen in supporting roles .

The film is a moderated remake of the film of the same name from 1931. Like this one, it is based on the play Ritter Nérestan by Christa Winsloe , but also on the novel Das Mädchen Manuela, which he developed himself .

action

Potsdam , Prussia , in 1910. Strict morals prevail in an authoritarian boarding school for noble girls. In preparation for a life in the traditional female role with children, kitchen, church , the pupils are trained to discipline and obedience, symbolized by school uniforms . A young, committed teacher, Fräulein von Bernburg, places greater emphasis on individuality and humanity in class. She accuses the director of the school of merciless and intolerant educational methods and shows better ways - "reach out a hand".

A hard-hearted competitor in the college, the director's right-hand man, encourages the girls to rehearse Romeo and Juliet in order to incite two pupils to be in love with Fräulein von Bernburg and the potential for conflict. One of these two pupils, Manuela von Meinhardis, who has just entered the boarding school after her mother's death, plays Romeo, while the other pupil, Alexandra von Treskow, feels as if she was offside. The committed teacher from Bernburg, who tries to treat all students with kindness, is particularly friendly to Manuela, as she has sympathy for her situation and her grief for her mother.

In the rehearsal for the play, she helps Manuela to truly portray Romeo as an actor in a romantic scene, with a kiss between the two. Manuela finds solace in her affection for her teacher and develops an enthusiastic love. Elisabeth von Bernburg, however, doesn't really know how to deal with Manuela's feelings and tries to ignore her love. As a result, both students competing for Bernburg's love interpret Bernburg's behavior as a "turn to Romeo". After Alexandra von Treskow, who believes she has been spurned, behind the scenes, Manuela's rapturous love in the context of severe punishment leads to a suicide attempt .

This suicide attempt is preceded by a conversation between Manuela and the teacher, in which Manuela informs about her plan to leave school forever. After this conversation, Manuela climbs the staircase to the top floor, where she plunges over the railing into the depths. Meanwhile, students and teachers are looking for Manuela and find her standing in front of the railing. They pull her back onto the stairs, where Manuela collapses.

Miss von Bernburg and the director meet after Manuela's suicide attempt at her sick bed. The headmistress extends her hand to Manuela, who is restless in her sleep, and asks the committed teacher, who has already resigned, to stay. However, von Bernburg makes it clear that Manuela has to "find her way" and that the director must be responsible for a new, better upbringing herself. Von Bernburg, who had long wanted to return to her old, less repressive place of work, allowed herself to follow this wish.

production

template

The plot of the film is based on the play Ritter Nérestan (first performance in Leipzig in 1930, second production in Berlin in 1931 under the title Yesterday and Today ) by Christa Winsloe, but also on the novel Das Mädchen Manuela (1933, later editions under the title Girls in Uniform ).

Filming

Since the West Berlin film production could not take place at the original locations in Potsdam in the GDR , the park of the Glienicke hunting lodge in Berlin-Wannsee near Potsdam was used as the location for the outdoor shots ; The panorama visible in the film over the Glienicker Lake to the Babelsberg Palace and the Villa Kampffmeyer was significantly changed three years after the shooting by the barrier systems, which were also significantly strengthened on the Potsdam border with West Berlin during the course of the construction of the Berlin Wall , and was only changed after the fall of the wall and the dismantling of the border fortifications in their old state.

Pre-war motifs from the garrison church were used in the opening credits , and its glockenspiel Üb 'Always Faithful and Honesty sounds , the theme of which is also taken up by the film music and spans the curve until the end of the film.

Emil Hasler and Walter Kutz were responsible for the film construction.

reception

publication

The film was shown for the first time on August 28, 1958 in the Lichtburg in Essen , after it had previously been presented on July 8, 1958 at the Berlinale , where it took part in the competition for the Golden Bear .

It was also published in Finland and France in 1958, in Sweden in 1959 and in Mexico in 1961. It was presented in New York in 1965 and in Madrid in 1977. In 1985 he contributed to the New England Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in New England and in 2010 to the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival and the Outfest Film Festival in the USA. In August it was shown at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. The film was also released in Belgium, Brazil, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the Soviet Union.

The film was released by Universum Film GmbH on October 23, 2009 and again on June 22, 2012 on DVD. It has also appeared on DVD as part of the Romy Schneider Classic Edition series.

criticism

The Heyne Filmlexikon (1996) described girls in uniform as “a slightly too smooth color remake of the film by Leontine Sagan”.

The lexicon of international films judged the remake similarly, because it was "psychologically superficial and, despite good actors and effective staging, only offers non-binding entertainment".

In the New Berlin Week of October 10, 1958, one could read: “The lovely bitter Romy Schneider and the sovereign womanly Lilli Palmer did not disappoint even a demanding parquet: The lesbian game comes through discreetly and tastefully. All in all, a clean job that cannot be denied recognition. "

The Spandauer Volksblatt of October 16, 1958 stated: "The new version of girls in uniform is a lot tamer and smoother than its black and white predecessor from 1931. The carillon of the Potsdam garrison church 'Practice always faithful and honest' is no longer a worldview, but only parable. The distance from the Hohenzollern era is already too great. Geza Radvanyi defuses the problem in pretty, audience-safe decor. Actually, the film goes to Romy Schneider and Lilli Palmer in roughly equal shares. Romy is happily coming out of herself. She turns the higher daughter, who needs to be supported, into a round character. Lilli Palmer creates her teacher intelligently and with a sure feeling for the delicacies of her role. "

The Berlin daily Der Tag of October 16, 1958, assessed the achievements of Schneider and Palmer positively and wrote: “There are two positive performances in this film: Lilli Palmer as the enthusiastic teacher and Romy Schneider as the girl who follows herself turns the death of the mother in her orphaned need for love to this educator and in the exuberance of feelings almost causes a catastrophe. Ms. Palmer, on the other hand, develops a really classy, ​​cultivated game, and Romy Schneider surprises us here (after the many roles in which she had to develop childlike-sweet charm) with an impressive representational urgency. She looks real in her initial shyness and her emotional blockage, but also in her later emotional outbursts. The rough description of the milieu is to be judged negatively. What we see there is more of a penitentiary than a noble girls' boarding school. The headmistress (Therese Giehse) is not a superior, more of a knotty sergeant. Summary: The old film with Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele, which once tackled the intellectual drill and the hardship that grew out of rigid prejudices, was far more shocking and exciting. The director Geza Radvanyi records the atmosphere, he becomes lengthy and arouses less sympathy than mistrust in the honesty of the testimony and the legitimacy of the accusation. Only Lilli Palmer and Romy Schneider manage to address us humanely. Thank you both for that. "

In the Tagesspiegel of October 26, 1958, it was said: "It is no longer the original - the fate of a young noblewoman in a girls' boarding school, which is like a military academy - that makes this remake worth seeing, but this time, alongside Lilli Palmer, it really is Romy Schneider's game."

The Ciné-Revue praised in its November 1958 review : “The film for which Geza Radvanyi is responsible has solid qualities. You follow the action with great attention, because the drama of the topic is skillfully worked out. Lilli Palmer's and Romy Schneider's impressive performance gives the film its true meaning. "

Awards

literature

  • Christa Winsloe : Yesterday and Today (Knight Nérestan). Play in 3 acts and 12 pictures . [Not for sale stage manuscript.] G. Marton and A. Marton, Vienna, Berlin and Budapest 1930, 122 pp.
  • Christa Winsloe: girl in uniform . With an afterword by Susanne Amrain . Daphne-Verlag, Göttingen 1999, 281 pages, ISBN 3-89137-033-4
  • Klaus Johann: Limit and stop: The individual in the “House of Rules”. To German-language boarding school literature. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2003. (= contributions to recent literary history. 201.) ISBN 3-8253-1599-1 . Especially pp. 492–495.
  • Friedrich Koch : School in the cinema. Authority and education. From the “Blue Angel” to the “Feuerzangenbowle”. Weinheim and Basel 1987. ISBN 9783407340092

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for girls in uniform . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2009 (PDF; test number: 17 414 V).
  2. ↑ a b The dates of the various arrangements and performances according to: Klaus Johann: Limit and Halt: The individual in the "House of Rules". To German-language boarding school literature. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2003. (= contributions to recent literary history. 201.) P. 492.
  3. ↑ Girls in Uniform Fig. DVD case
  4. ↑ Girls in Uniform Fig. DVD case Romy Schneider Classic Edition
  5. ↑ Girls in Uniform. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used