Madame does not want children (1926)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Madame doesn't want children |
| Country of production | German Empire |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1926 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alexander Korda |
| script |
Adolf Lantz Béla Balázs |
| production | Karl friend |
| music | Willy Schmidt-Gentner |
| camera |
Theodor Sparkuhl Robert Baberske |
| occupation | |
| |
Madame wishes no children is a German silent film comedy by Alexander Korda with Maria Corda and Harry Liedtke in the leading roles. The until then largely unknown Marlene Dietrich had a short dance scene here with her British film partner John Loder . The film is based on the novel Madame ne veut pas d'enfants (1924) by the Frenchman Clément Vautel .
action
Paul Le Barroy is a young lawyer, spoiled by life and its house servants, and spoiled by a very lovable friend named Louise Bonvin - in short, he lacks nothing to be truly happy. In a fit of high spirits, the die-hard bachelor gets the idea that now is the time to finally get married. His servant is just as amazed at this change of heart as Paul's friends. Paul actually has everything, so why does he want to turn his life upside down? A young woman from the best company with whom he could carry out his plan is quickly found: her name is Elyane Parizot, is fun-loving and loves to dance. She's great at spending too; she spends huge sums on her clothes and furs. Elyane also has a very young sister, Lulu, and her mother is an enthusiastic and enduring Charleston dancer. It doesn't take long before Paul and Elyane are engaged to each other. His previous girlfriend Louise, who is a middle-class artist and would no longer have fit into Paul's idea of a glamorous life, remains abandoned. She, who is an extraordinarily nice and decent but also a little too good girl, makes Paul his departure from their previous lives as easy as possible on his farewell visit.
Paul quickly felt the downside of his turbulent connection with his future wife. Elyane's idea of life is an existence in the fast lane: partying is always in. You visit bars and dance like unleashed Charleston to the jazz band, the champagne flows freely, and even on the honeymoon, which takes the young couple to Venice, Rome, the pyramids in Egypt and the Swiss mountains, is around the clock Elyane's addiction to pleasure sets the tone and beat. Her sister Lulu, who is no less dynamic, and her mother, who is addicted to dancing, even fuel Elyane's party rage, while the good Paul slowly longs for the cozy togetherness with Louise. In order not to hinder Elyane's irrepressible view of life, her mother even demands that her son-in-law swear never to make a good housemaid out of his bride. She should keep her line as well as her informality. Or in other words, as the film title suggests: “Madame doesn't want children”.
But one evening Paul is fed up with everything. When some guy from the province hits on all three women in a nightspot and pretends the little girls are "buyers", Paul confronts the man. He is quite astonished at Paul's intervention, for him the heavily made-up and deeply decollated Elyane, Lulu and both mother with their ultra-short skirts are clearly easy-going women, so "cocottes" and "sluts", who deserve such treatment. That's where the penny drops with Paul. The stranger is right! The constant nightclub visits, the same jazz music and the endless revelations lead to piled bills, constant lack of sleep and a huge dissatisfaction with his current life. And that Elyane is reluctant to motherhood gives him pause too. Paul now button his wife and gives her a solid moral sermon. It couldn't go on like this, he says. Angry, Paul leaves his apartment ... and goes to Louise's apartment.
Elyane does not suspect any of this and assumes that her husband, from whom she is not used to such flashes of anger, will certainly calm down and has already gone to bed. But the following morning the marriage bed is empty and Elyane assumes that her Paul is cheating on her. She searches his desk looking for clues. Then a business card from Louise Bonvin falls into her hand with a loving farewell greeting. Elyane is furious with jealousy. She takes a pistol from the desk and rushes to Louise's apartment. Paul did not meet Louise there because she is currently away. So he had spent the night thinking about his marriage and went to court in the morning, as the lawyer always does. When Elyane arrives, Louise is just returning home. Elyane aims at her with the gun, but is, figuratively speaking, calmed down by Louise again, because her kindness is literally "disarming". Elyane's maid has meanwhile informed Paul about the dramatic events. He rushes to Louise's apartment, but instead of a corpse he finds two cheerful women who are chatting peacefully over a bowl of sweets about the dernier cri in the fashion world. Louise has succeeded in convincing Elyane that there is no danger to Elyane and Paul's marriage from her side, as she herself intends to marry. Louise Elyane can even talk her dislike for offspring. And so it says nine months later: Madame gave birth to a baby!
Production notes
The shooting took place from October to November 1926 in the UFA studios in Berlin-Tempelhof . The premiere was on December 14, 1926 in Berlin's Capitol Cinema.
Karl Hartl took over the production management and was also Korda's assistant director, Dietrich's husband Rudolf Sieber took over the production management. Oskar Friedrich Werndorff designed the film structures.
Reviews
“Béla Balázs didn't give a damn about his literary baggage and went among the successful ones, produced a screenplay based on Clément Vautel with the tried and tested recipe of American social comedy, had it played in a Parisian milieu by German actors: and lo and behold, he created a success for the international audience. If you apply the strictest standards: you have created a film that can stand alongside America's most sophisticated comedies and still entertain and amuse every audience in Germany. (…) Alexander Korda had already created the best social comedy of the season with “ The Dancer of My Wife ” last year , and this season too he legitimizes himself as the director of the funniest comedy we have seen so far. Korda and his colleagues compose the picture of the European “higher” society - (more in the Berlin than Parisian style) with infallible certainty. The trio of a young mother with her daughters is delightfully satirized in the salon of “last night”. The crazy creatures are as lovable as they are ridiculous. Werndorff provides the large frame in tasteful buildings and Theodor Sparkuhl and Robert Baberske record Korda's settings ... in an appealing way. Korda achieves the best effects in the swirling duets of Hesterberg and Dina Gralla. "
“We already referred to this film on the occasion of the interest screening and can now conclude that it is one of the most delightful and delightful comedies that we have seen this season. One of the main assets of this film is its excellent manuscript by Béla Balázs and Karl Freud [sic!], Which in the best American sense does not construct problems, but rather deals with a problem of time. (...) This film is a counterpart to « Woman's Crusade ». While in the "Crusade of Women" the problem had to be seen in a stylized way due to our bourgeois morality, the presentation and direction by Alexander Korda was able to bring the subject of this film to the screen, exaggerated in terms of film, but basically realistically. Even the most die-hard bachelor feels like getting married after this film, and even those who advocate population rationing are converted not intellectually, but purely emotionally. "
“A Parisian Schwank with large toilets, beautiful women, elegant gentlemen and, you will not believe it, with German morals. This lightly cropped comedy with the reckless title ends with a song of praise to the child's blessing. (…) The manuscript that Béla Balázs edited for the film does not have an excessive plot. You can feel that it is a conversational drama, yet so many delightful cinematic episodes have been saved that the flow of events is not disturbed. (...) Alexander Korda staged the film for effective episodes and replaced the lack of dramatic effects with charming excerpts from a crazy, hyper-elegant social life. It is less a film that is handled with great mastery by the director than it is staged with an inexhaustible good mood. And that is unquestionably communicated to the audience. The film is written around Maria Corda, and she doesn't disappoint. (…) Werndorff's film is decorative and extremely tasteful. He didn't have the opportunity to show more. The Parisian fashion company that attracted the women deserves unreserved, double-underlined praise. (…) Sparkuhl and Baberske's photography was excellent. Schmidt-Gentner's music snappy, in a good mood and with emotion. A success with the audience, an enjoyable swing film. "
“Of the German medium films, this swank is the best in a long time, staged with the greatest cinema and entertainment talent. This is not to say that it is somehow already an ideal of its kind. There are unpleasant repetitions, exaggerations, clarifications, mistakes and vulgarities are annoying, but there is also a grip, a grip, and you can clearly feel that someone here understands the effects of films. (...) The dance sphere is very funny. Maria Corda with her sister (Dina Gralla) and mother (Trude Hesterberg) move with a funny, harmless-frivolous grace. The Corda wears the most adorable clothes from Deuillet and it is a pleasure to see how she wears them. Of course, the reversal to the domestic-motherly is not exactly very credible; her special charm and skill lie in the area of elegant and childlike spoiled femininity. (...) Liedtke is really very personable as a domestic husband who loves children. All in all a great success. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Feld in Film-Kurier , Berlin, 8th year, no.293, from December 15, 1926
- ↑ Der Film, Berlin, Berlin, Volume 11, No. 32, Page 84, Christmas 1926
- ↑ Lichtbildbühne, Berlin, Volume 19, No. 298, from December 15, 1926
- ↑ Ernst Blass in the Berliner Tageblatt , Berlin, Volume 55, No. 598, from December 19, 1926