Matto rules (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | § 51 - Soul doctor Dr. Laduner |
| Original title | Matto rules |
| Country of production | Switzerland |
| original language | Swiss German |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 113 (Switzerland 1947), 101 (Germany 1952) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Leopold Lindtberg |
| script |
Alfred Neumann Leopold Lindtberg based on the novel of the same name (1936) by Friedrich Glauser |
| production | Lazar Wechsler for Praesens-Film, Zurich |
| music | Robert Blum |
| camera | Emil Berna |
| cut | Hermann Haller |
| occupation | |
| |
Matto rules , in Germany under the title § 51 - Soul Doctor Dr. Laduner awarded, is a Swiss crime fiction film from 1947 with Heinrich Gretler , who takes up the role of police investigator Studer, which he played for the first time in Wachtmeister Studer in 1939 . The film adaptation of Friedrich Glauser 's novel of the same name was again directed by Leopold Lindtberg .
action
The central setting is the Randlingen mental hospital. Head physician Dr. Borstli and the deputy director Dr. Laduner in conflict. Laduner rejects the conventional treatment methods that he regards as outdated. During Borstli's absence for several months, Laduner seized the opportunity and cured the patient Herbert Caplaun, who felt tormented by his tyrannical father, using his own modern methods. When Borstli returns, he refuses to acknowledge Laduner and instead claims that no success is visible. So Caplaun has to stay in the clinic. During a dance that the prison inmates have put on their feet, there is an open dispute between the two nerve specialists. Herbert Caplaun, who overhears the argument, reacts disturbed and seeks consolation from the very young nurse Irma Wasem. That same night he was able to escape the watchful eyes of the nurse Gilgen and Dr. Catch Borstli. Excited, Caplaun makes it clear to the director that he considers himself cured, but the chief doctor lets him drain and explains from above that he can hardly judge this. A little later, Herbert is found unconscious, while Dr. Borstli as if swallowed by the ground.
The police are called in, and Sergeant Studer, a sedate and deeply calm officer, starts the investigation into this missing person case. Through Laduner, Studer is introduced to the completely alien world of mental illness, in “Matto's realm”, the land of the mad, as they say. Studer first begins to search every corner of the large Asylum area until he finally finds Borstli's body in the shaft of the in-house elevator. Herbert Caplaun has suffered from permanent insomnia since his ominous encounter with the dead man. He is convinced that he murdered the director. Then he does something stupid and persuades the nurse Irma to escape these ominous walls with him. Studer can track down the two of them in a remote chalet owned by nurse Gilgen. Herbert tries to kill himself because he is now firmly convinced that he committed the bloody act. Studer sees it differently; the slender boy could not possibly have pushed the weighty Borstli into the shaft. Rather, according to the investigation, the perpetrator must have manipulated the elevator door in such a way that the unsuspecting Borstli took the first step into the presumed elevator space and fell into the abyss.
After further investigations, Sergeant Studer comes across Dreyer, the doorman, who is deeply in debt. There are reasons that make him credible as a perpetrator. Detected by the police, the man flees over the roofs of the institution and tries to escape. There is a brief chase, but Dreyer is taken into custody by the police. For Caplaun, however, the solution to this case also means the freedom he longed for. It turns out that he was never really insane, but that Borstli only insisted on further treatment because Herbert's father, Georg Caplaun, paid the prison director to keep the rebellious son in the insane asylum. While Dr. Laduner now exchanges a serious word with old Caplaun, the young lovers Herbert and Irma decide to turn their backs on the gloomy place of Randlingen forever.
Production notes
Shooting of Matto governed began on December 7, 1946 and ended on March 21, 1947. The interior shots were taken in the Bellerive and Rosenhof film studios in Zurich, the exterior shots were made in the cantonal psychiatric clinic in Königsfelden as well as in Brugg and Limmatufer. The premiere took place on April 17, 1947 in the Zurich Rex cinema. In Germany the film ran under the title § 51 - Seelenarzt Dr. Laduner on August 22, 1952.
Production management was in the hands of Oscar Düby , the film structures were designed by Robert Furrer .
The 20-year-old Elisabeth Müller made her debut here in front of the camera. This was the last film appearance for the two actors Fritz Delius and Hugo Döblin , who fled from Hitler's Germany to Switzerland and who played very small roles here.
The film cost around 395,000 Swiss francs and was, in view of the fact that after the global success of Lazar Wechsler's production The Last Chance, another big artistic hit instead of a return to a regional-Swiss theme, was a major financial failure.
“Matto” is the Italian word for “crazy”.
To the history of origin
Originally a script for this film was written by Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler as early as 1942/43 , but both of them lacked a feel for the subject, as Hervé Dumont reports. In March 1943, filming began on the first “Matto” film attempt. Gretler and the theater artist Wolfgang Langhoff , who lives in exile in Switzerland, in the role of Dr. Laduner were the main actors. The director had to take over the artistically visibly overwhelmed editor and Swiss citizen Hermann Haller , because the Swiss immigration police were not willing to give the foreigner Lindtberg another work permit for this film. After only a week, the production had to be stopped, especially since Max Haufler , who had been designated as a substitute director, was unable to stage this complex subject.
Help first came from Hollywood: Wilhelm Dieterle then suggested that Wechsler let the German playwright Alfred Neumann, who lived in exile in California, rewrite the existing manuscript so that it could be made into a film. When filming finally began at the end of 1946, the intended Laduner actor Langhoff had already returned to Berlin to take over the management of the Deutsches Theater , whereupon the cinematically unpopular Zurich theater artist Heinz Woester was given the second leading role. At least the originally planned Lindtberg, whom the Swiss immigration police wanted to expel from the country as undesirable foreigners in July of the same year, could now be entrusted with taking over the direction. Lindtberg came before his expulsion and traveled with producer Wechsler and screenwriter Schweizer to make film contacts in Hollywood. There he completed the final draft of the script for Matto governed with Neumann .
Reviews
The contemporary critics (1947) reacted with disappointment to the film, which in no way corresponded to the high international expectations for Lindtberg's phenomenal world success “ The Last Chance ”. Hardly awarded internationally (until 1952 in Austria, France, Belgium and the Federal Republic), it was even booed at the 1947 Biennale.
“Still, Matto rules an interesting film in which Lindtberg shows a narrative skill that was hardly known to him. The images fit together naturally, with a wide variety of angles and camera movements; the changes in position obey a sophisticated spatial geometry. The supporting actors ... are also managed by a master, their performances are solidly integrated into the dramatic structure. Visually, the film joins the contemporary trend of "film noir", with its preference for shadows, nocturnal arguments, symbolic image details ... but without ever slipping into purely decorative stylization. Lindberg ... creates a kind of "chamber film" ... The psychological density prevails over tension and plot ... "
"Excitingly staged crime film in a world between madness and reality, in which" Matto "(that is, the spirit of collective guilt of society and the demon of social injustice) rules."
Web links
- Matto rules on artfilm.ch
- Matto ruled in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Matto rules at filmportal.de
- Matto rules film portrait on cyranos.ch in 1946
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Hervé Dumont: The history of Swiss film. Feature films 1896–1965. Lausanne 1987. p. 402
- ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 314.