Mathias Kneißl (film)
Mathias Kneißl is a German television film portrait of the Bavarian robber of the same name, shot in 1970 and set at the turn of the century . Directed by Reinhard Hauff played Hans Brenner the title role.
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Like a socially critical morality , the film tells the life story of Kneißl, who came from a very poor background and was born in 1875. The eldest son of innkeepers becomes a criminal for the first time at the age of 16 with a harmlessness: “going to a public dance music”, as it is called in the indictment. For the first time he has to be behind bars for three days. This is followed by offenses as a five-fold truancy, for which Kneißl has already served 38 days in prison. The path to crime will soon be mapped out. Kneißl, who initially tried several times to lead a regular life beyond delinquency, felt a profound injustice when police officers beat his father, who was convicted of poaching, to death and a pack of angry farmers burned down their parents' "haggling mill".
Now Kneißl's path into serious lawlessness begins: He wants revenge on society and goes underground. His hiding place is in the Bavarian forests. He robbed a village pastor, shoots two gendarmes who succumb to their serious injuries and begins to terrorize wealthy landlords. When he stole two Pfandbriefe from Bayerische Hypothekenbank for 500 marks each, the Royal Police Directorate in Munich offered a reward of 300 marks in a special edition of a newspaper. His compatriots, who are far from rebellion and who do not dare to revolt against “those up there”, sometimes see the robber Kneißl, whose trademark is a large, black hat, a hero against arbitrary state and police arbitrariness and the exploitation by large farmers and landlords. At times he has the reputation of a folk hero, even if, unlike Robin Hood, for example, he keeps the booty to himself.
The women in the form of many a farmer's wife are also very fond of the strong "whole guy". Soon, however, the big hunt for the “robber captain” started, and after the police had called up 60 men to finally capture Kneißl, he went online in March 1901 in the Aumacher estate in Geisenhofen. Mathias Kneißl is seriously injured by a shot. Kneißl was sentenced to death in a trial and beheaded in Augsburg in February 1902. His skull is publicly displayed in the Munich anatomy.
Production notes
Mathias Kneißl was created between November 5th and December 5th, 1970 in Weißenburg in Bavaria . Since it was an ARD commissioned production by WDR implemented by Bavaria Atelier GmbH (Geiselgasteig) , it was first broadcast on television on April 20, 1971 at 9 p.m. The cinema release took place on May 28, 1971. In July of the same year, Hauff's production ran at the Moscow Film Festival.
Lutz Hengst was in charge of production, Michael Bittins was in charge of production. Karl Baumgartner took care of the pyrotechnics , Max Ott Jr. took care of the equipment, and Barbara Baum designed the costumes .
At the time of its premiere, the film was a much-discussed and hotly debated TV project, which tried firstly to produce a kind of alternative (read: socially critical) home film and secondly to make the “new German film” accessible to the masses do. Director Hauff therefore cast numerous roles from the “young filmmaker” area, above all from the entourage of Rainer Werner Fassbinder , who also played a supporting role here. The playwright Martin Sperr ("Hunting scenes from Lower Bavaria"), who wrote the script here, also played a small role in this film. He plays the shepherd Meier.
Hans Brenner and his then life partner Ruth Drexel were nominated for their achievements for the film band in gold .
Reviews
“At the beginning of the 1970s he left the pure entertainment sector, took the lead role in Volker Schlöndorff's film and television production“ The sudden wealth of the poor people of Kombach ”in 1970 and in the same year directed the ARD commissioned production about a Bavarian robber around the turn of the century, the human touching, attentively observing Moritat "Mathias Kneißl" his first important film. "
“The story of a young man at the turn of the century who, forced into an outsider role from childhood by his Italian origins, fights for his livelihood by all means and is ultimately executed as a robber. A critical home film staged in the form of a morality, in which images and milieu studies from the German past were used to illustrate current political concerns. An example of the tendency in young German film at the end of the 1960s to subject the subjects (homeland and provinces) occupied by entertainment cinema to a socially critical reinterpretation; in parts superficial, but moving in details. "
Individual evidence
Web links
- Mathias Kneißl in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mathias Kneißl at filmportal.de