Mayerling (1936)
Mayerling is a historical and costume film made in Austria and France in 1935 about the tragic lovers Rudolf von Habsburg and Mary Vetsera with Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux in the leading roles. Directed by Anatole Litvak .
action
It tells the well-known, tragic love story between Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary and the 17-year-old Mary Vetsera in imperial Vienna from 1888/1889: The future regent of the dual monarchy is in constant conflict with his stubborn father, Emperor Franz Joseph, who is averse to any progress . Rudolf is for comprehensive, political reforms, the father relies solely on the language of bayonets and rifles. His secret police are omnipresent. Rudolf's private life is also bad, his arranged marriage with Stephanie is more than unhappy.
Everything seems to be turning for the better when Rudolf meets the still underage Mary Vetsera. The bourgeois embodies everything that is important to the Crown Prince: carefree and innocence, simplicity and seemingly limitless freedom. The young people soon fall in love with each other, but the emperor's informers are omnipresent and tell their clients about the looming liaison, which threatens to quickly develop into a mesalliance and state affair. During a ballet performance, Rudolf discovers Mary in a box and watches her with fascination, although his father is sitting next door. Rudolf's cousin Countess Larisch then arranges a secret meeting between the two.
While their tender love begins to mature and deepen, Rudolf's powerful opponents at the emperor's court have long since formed a dangerous phalanx. Only Rudolf's mother Elisabeth , trapped in an unhappy marriage and crushed by the rigid court ceremony, understands the couple. There is a scandal when Rudolf asks Mary to dance in front of his wife at the court ball. When the pressure on the unhappy couple became too great, Rudolf made a lonely and tragic decision in January 1889: he had Mary from Leibfiaker Bratfisch drive to his hunting lodge in Mayerling and finally shot her and then himself.
Production notes
The film, which was shot in late summer and early autumn 1935 in France (atelier) and (from mid-October 1935) on external locations in Vienna and Mayerling , premiered on January 31, 1936 in Paris . Financed or produced by the exiles Seymour Nebenzahl and Joseph Auerbach , Mayerling quickly became a great international success; since its performance there in 1937 also in the USA. For Danielle Darrieux, who was just 18 years old at the time of shooting, the film was the breakthrough and in 1937 also led to an offer from Hollywood ( Die brisk Pariserin ).
Director Litvak also benefited from this popular success. He traveled to the USA for the first time for film talks in March 1936, but did not finally settle there until October of the same year. The future theater star Jean-Louis Barrault can be seen in a tiny role, one of his first in film .
Joseph Kessel wrote the dialogues . The film structures were designed by Serge Piménoff and executed by Andrej Andrejew and Robert Hubert . The costumes come from the hand of Georges Annenkov . Maurice Jaubert was the musical director .
Major Karl Zitterhofer (1874–1939), who was present during the shooting, was hired as a military advisor from Austria. Zitterhofer already had cinematic experience; in the winter of 1932/1933 he was employed as a military advisor in Gerhard Lamprecht's world war drama Spione am Werk .
In Germany, Mayerling was only performed half a century after its creation: as the original with German subtitles on May 15, 1985 on West 3.
In 1967/68 a large-scale, British-French remake was created under the same title .
Reviews
The Österreichische Film-Zeitung dealt with the film while it was being shot. There in the edition of October 4, 1935, on page 3, you can read: “The problematic nature of the unhappy Crown Prince is presented with particular care, while the clear-thinking, purposeful imperial father is presented to him. The Crown Princess Stephanie is portrayed as the woman who loves and suffers up to the last moment, the Countess Larisch as the woman without a conscience, all of course with a certain poetic freedom, which is necessary to achieve dramatic effects. "
Frank S. Nugent wrote in the New York Times on September 14, 1937 : “ Mayerling , the French film version of the same puzzling affair, which moved into the reopened Filmarte Theater last night, simplifies the tragedy by stating it in purely romantic terms. There is a suggestion of intrigue, of political maneuvering, of Rudolph's restless ambition to be something more than a court wastrel. But from the moment he meets the lovely Vetsera […] completely and beautifully a love story. They are the only people in their world; the rest are shadows. "
The Movie & Video Guide wrote: “Touching, well-made romantic tragedy based on true story of Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph, who dared to fall in love wich a commoner. Good Performances spark international hit; miles ahead of 1969 remake. "
The film magazine Variety judged as follows: "As good a picture Hollywood could produce, plus some local touches that are inaccessable to Hollywood" and voted Mayerling as the best French film of all time in its September 25, 1937 issue .
Christopher Horak said: “ Mayerling (1936) tells a tragic love story, with lots of romance in a nostalgic fin-de-siècle atmosphere. [...] The story could have been staged as a political allegory, but the film focuses on the tragically ending love, the historical truth only functions as a backdrop for a melodrama. "
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: “A bittersweet love and life story against the background of political intrigue; the end is historically controversial, but forms the dramaturgically effective final point for a hopeless love in a morally narrow-minded world. "
Web links
- Mayerling in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Mayerling". In: Österreichische Film-Zeitung , October 4, 1935, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Mayerling in the New York Times
- ↑ Translation: “ Mayerling , the French film adaptation of the eponymous enigmatic affair, which was staged yesterday evening in the reopened Filmarte Theater, simplifies the tragedy by restricting it to the romantic aspects. There are only hints of intrigues, political maneuvers, of Rudolph's restless ambition to be more than a courtly uselessness. But from the moment he meets the enchanting Vetsera [...] it's just a wonderful love story. They are the only people in their world; all others are shadows. "
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide . 1996, p. 840 f. Translation: “Touching, well-made romantic tragedy, based on the true story of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolph, who dared to fall in love with a commoner. An international success due to the acting achievements, miles ahead of the 1969 remake. "
- ↑ Quoted from Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide . Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 664. Translation: "A film of Hollywood quality, but with a local color unattainable for Hollywood."
- ^ Mayerling in filmportal.de
- ^ Mayerling. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 7, 2014 .