Masquerade (film)

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Movie
Original title Masquerade
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1934
length 90 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Willi Forst
script Walter Reisch , Willi Forst
production Karl Julius Fritzsche
Sascha film
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Franz Planner
occupation

Masquerade , old. Masquerade in Vienna , is an Austrian operetta film and a classic of German-language films. Walter Reisch and Willi Forst , who also directed the film , wrote the excellent screenplay for this figurehead of Viennese film . The main roles are occupied by Paula Wessely (in her first film role), Olga Chekhowa and Adolf Wohlbrück .

action

The film is set in the upper class Viennese society around 1900. Gerda Harrandt, the wife of the surgeon Carl Ludwig Harrandt, can be portrayed by the fashion painter Paul Heidenck wearing only a mask and a muff . This muff is, however, that of Anita Keller, the painter's former lover and fiancé of the court conductor Paul Harrandt. When Paul Harrandt sees the picture and confronts the painter, he inevitably invents the name of a woman whose last name is Dur. A woman of this name really does exist, the reader Leopoldine Dur, who is employed by a princess.

When Leopoldine appears unsuspecting at a social event, the painter has to look after her to keep up appearances and finally falls in love with the young woman. The jealous Anita describes the scandal in such a way that Leopoldine must assume that Heideneck used him as a toy. Despite all the intrigues, he sticks to her, whereupon he is shot by the jealous Anita. Heideneck owes his survival to Carl Ludwig Harrandt, who operated on him, and Leopoldine, who arranged for his rescue and recognized his honest intentions.

background

Paula Wessely has been a theater star since her triumph as Rose Bernd in 1932. This was followed by test shots by various film companies, but it was considered "non-photographable" because it did not correspond to the ideal of beauty of the film companies. In 1933, when the play Liebelei was filmed, the actress Magda Schneider was preferred to her as the leading actress, although Wessely had achieved a great theatrical success in the same role shortly before.

But Willi Forst and his screenwriter Walter Reisch made the decision to draft a plot tailored to Wessely, as Forst reported in his memoirs published posthumously. In a key scene she had the words to say: “An artist like that can have completely different women. Why should I please him? Why me? ”Shortly afterwards she gave herself the answer:“ Why not me? ”

In February 1934, in the middle of the Austrian Civil War , Walter Reisch and Willi Forst finished the screenplay for Masquerade in the Viennese luxury hotel Kranz-Ambassador . Forst wanted to fill the male lead with Rudolf Forster , but when he canceled, he decided on Wohlbrück at the suggestion of the UFA .

production

In the same month, the shooting of the film began in the Rosenhügel film studios for Sascha-Film . It was only the second film that Willi Forst directed, but it was still one of his masterpieces. For the successful theater actress Paula Wessely it was her very first film role.

As theater scholar Marion Linhardt documented, some minor characters are allusions to prominent personalities from the time around the turn of the century: by Anita Keller is meant Alma Mahler-Werfel , with the Hofoperkapellmeister Paul Harrandt Gustav Mahler , with the doctor Carl Ludwig Harrandt Arthur Schnitzler with his Mrs. Gerda Harrandt Adele Sandrock , with the painter Heideneck Ferdinand von Reznicek and with Princess M. Pauline Metternich .

Since the microphones were not very sensitive at that time, they had to be brought as close as possible to the actors. Because of the detail of the image and the shadows that microphones would have cast under spotlights, the microphones in many scenes were hidden behind all kinds of objects such as armchairs, stacks of books and vases. Nevertheless, the actors had to be instructed to speak louder again and again, which caused difficulties not least in the inevitably quiet scenes.

The camera virtuoso of Austria in the 1930s, Franz Planer , contributed significantly to the effect of the film with his lively and beautiful shots. With the architect and teacher of the arts and crafts school Oskar Strnad , a prominent figure in the Viennese art scene was responsible for the furnishings. Emil Stepanek stood by his side. However, Forst did not accept Strnad's costume designs, which is why Gerdago was commissioned to do this . The dress she designed and glued to Paula Wessely's body contributed to the success of the film and Paula Wessely's breakthrough.

The much sought-after Willy Schmidt-Gentner was hired as composer . The stated production costs of the film amounted to exactly 863,539.45 schillings.

reception

The press was full of praise and praised the film as a work of art . In Berlin, the audience stood in line for 71 days to get tickets for Masquerade . After only five weeks the hundred thousandth visitor was counted. Millions of women identified with the leading actress Paula Wessely and imitated her peculiar parting and her clothes. The men also felt great sympathy for the figure she portrayed. However, the name of the Jewish scriptwriter Walter Reisch was not mentioned on film posters, in programs and in the press in National Socialist Germany.

The film was not only a success in all German and Austrian cities, it was also shown with subtitles in Prague, Budapest, Copenhagen, London and Paris. Because of the great success of the film, an English remake called "Escapade" was made in the United States in 1935 . Scene for scene was shot almost identically, the main actors in this version are Luise Rainer and William Powell .

In the late 1970s, Reisch wrote an operetta of the same name based on Masquerade , together with his cousin Georg Kreisler , who composed the music. (Kreisler had already worked with Reisch on the film “Song of Scheherazade” in Hollywood in 1946 ). Actually, Robert Stolz intended to write the music, but in 1975 died at the age of 95 years when he had just begun. The world premiere took place in 1983 at the Wiener Festwochen in the Theater in der Josefstadt under Kreisler's musical direction and ran two seasons to a sold out house. The work has never been played since then. Reisch did not live to see the performance because he fell seriously ill and died on March 28, 1983 in Los Angeles .

Reviews

"Staged gracefully and with a fine sense of humor."

- Lexicon of international film

“The atmosphere-conscious staging, filled with romantic nostalgia and satirical nuances, brought a bygone era back to life. The turn of the century in Vienna became the real topic of Austrian film for the following decades. "

- Reclam's Lexicon of German Films, 1995

Karlheinz Wendtland described Masquerade as a “classic”, which was a “top film”, “an artistic experience!” Wendtland continued: “In this film everything is right, the world around 1905 in Vienna, the characters, the game, the atmosphere and the excellent, sensitive camera. Paula Wessely, who we see in her first film, shows herself as a real person without a film face. She commands respect for this simple size. This film is rightly regarded as a masterpiece from one piece. "

Awards

literature

  • Walter Fritz : In the cinema I experience the world - 100 years of cinema and film in Austria . Vienna 1995. pp. 157-159.
  • Georg Markus : The Hörbigers. Family biography . Vienna: Amalthea Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3-850-02565-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Masquerade. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1933 and 1934, edited by the author Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, Chapter: Films 1934, Film No. 82.