Mayerling (1968)
Mayerling is a French - British period film from 1968, which tells the love story of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf and his lover Maria Vetsera . Directed by Terence Young , it stars Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve . Claude Anet 's novel of the same name and Michel Arnold's novel L'Archiduc served as literary models .
action
Vienna 1888: The future regent of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy , Crown Prince Rudolf , gets into an argument with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph . Franz Joseph is against progressive social reforms and has student revolts put down by hussars . Rudolf, who regards reforms as urgently necessary for the multi-ethnic state and sympathizes with the rebels, has the feeling that he was born into the wrong time and into the wrong country. He also suffers from his arranged marriage to Crown Princess Stephanie . Frustrated, he increasingly succumbs to his addiction to morphine and throws himself from one love affair into the next.
In Wurstelprater Rudolf learns one day bourgeois Maria Vetsera front of a puppet theater know. They visit a café and dance together. When Maria sees her mother, she abruptly stops the dance and leaves. Rudolf then meets a group of men and Count Károlyi, who is striving for Hungary's independence. Rudolf then greets his mother Elisabeth in the winter garden of Schönbrunn Palace and expresses his regret that she has been away so often and that they rarely see each other. When Elisabeth speaks of the Habsburg family inheriting depression and madness, Rudolf gets angry and leaves her. At the train station he receives the British heir to the throne, Prince Edward , who confides in him that he was once in love with Elisabeth. During a performance of the ballet Giselle in the Vienna State Opera , Rudolf discovered Maria in a box and watched her with fascination with his opera glasses. After all, it is Rudolf's cousin, Countess Larisch , who arranges a secret meeting of the two and brings Maria to the Hofburg , where Rudolf is already waiting for her. Since he has truly fallen in love for the first time, Rudolf believes that with Maria he can finally leave his bleak life behind.
After an attempted assassination attempt on Franz Joseph, he instructs his son to inspect the military. Rudolf fulfills the task and meets with Maria on the side. When their affair threatens to spark a scandal, Maria's mother, Baroness Vetsera , causes Maria to leave Vienna. When Rudolf found out about Maria's departure, he got drunk and shot randomly at objects with his pistol. His long-time lover Mizzi Kaspar puts him to bed and lies with him. However, he does not want to sleep and leaves her. In Venice , Rudolf found Maria painting on St. Mark's Square . Back in Vienna, Franz Joseph is angry that Rudolph traveled to Venice without his permission. He speaks out against a connection with Maria and the illegitimate children that result from it. Rudolf and Maria then take part in a hunt at Mayerling Castle with Prince Edward . Rudolf meets Count Károlyi again, who informs him about an upcoming demonstration in Budapest . In order to prevent a civil war, Rudolf should become King of Hungary.
Maria and Rudolf's mother Elisabeth meet at Schönbrunn Palace. Elisabeth feels sympathy for Maria and advises her to leave Vienna so as not to be unhappy like her. When Rudolf asked Maria to dance at a ball in front of the assembled court society, his wife, Crown Princess Stephanie, was outraged. Your father-in-law grudges his teeth. After the ball, even Elisabeth reproached her son for risking his family's reputation. But Rudolf is tired of having to hide his love for Maria. He is determined to marry her and have children with her. However, when Count Károlyi is arrested and Rudolf is discovered as a sympathizer of the rebels, Rudolf and Maria no longer have any hope of a future together. Rudolf and Maria do not want to go on living without each other and without any prospect of social progress. They sign a suicide pact, which they put into practice at Schloss Mayerling: Rudolf first shoots Maria, who is sleeping in her bed, briefly opens the door for his worried valet Loschek, and then shoots himself in the head while holding Maria's hand.
background
The filming took place from December 1967 to February 1968 in the film studios of Boulogne-Billancourt as well as in original locations in Venice and Vienna. James Bond director Terence Young tried it on a remake of Anatole Litvak 's film of the same name from 1936. Originally, the married couple Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn were to play the leading roles after they had stood in front of the camera for a TV adaptation of the material in 1957. For the production design of Mayerling ensured Georges Wakhévitch , Maurice Colasson and Tony Roman . Marcel Escoffier designed the costumes . The film premiered in London on October 22, 1968 . In Germany it was released in cinemas on December 20, 1968.
The story of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne Rudolf (1858-1889), whose death at Mayerling Castle could never be fully clarified, was also filmed in 1956 under the title Crown Prince Rudolf's Last Love and was made in 2006 by the Austrian director Robert Dornhelm under the same name Title filmed one more time.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films was of the opinion that with the "tragedy of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf and his lover , Mayerling had turned into a gorgeous film adaptation à la Sissi " and, as such, had tried to "defend the heir to the throne as a failing fighter against the 'establishment'. and to represent authority blindness ”. However, the film is "[un] critically glorifying". "Greetings from Charles and Camilla," said Cinema . Bond director Terence Young "crushed his characters with pomp and clichés". In short, it is a "[p] lüschiges spectacle" that is "clumsily staged".
The Protestant film observer came to the conclusion that the film was “naturally more soulful and splendid cinema spectacle” than a “sober report”. He is, "despite the narrow field of vision", nevertheless "beautiful" like all love stories ". The cast is remarkable.
Awards
At the award ceremony of the Golden Globes in 1970, Mayerling was nominated in the category of Best Foreign Film in English . The historical film was ultimately defeated by Richard Attenborough's film musical Oh! What a lovely war .
German version
The German dubbed version was created in 1968 at Aura Film Synchron in Munich .
Web links
- Mayerling in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mayerling at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Pictures of the film on cinema.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Mayerling. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 19, 2020 .
- ↑ cf. Paul Tatara on tcm.com
- ↑ cf. cinema.de
- ↑ Protestant film observer . No. 1/1969, p. 4.
- ↑ cf. synchrondatenbank.de