Mazurka of love

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Movie
Original title Mazurka of love
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1957
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Hans Müller
script A. Artur Kuhnert
production DEFA
music Carl Millöcker
Gerd Natschinski editing
camera Karl Plintzner
cut Helga Emmrich
occupation

Mazurka der Liebe is a German operetta film adaptation of DEFA by Hans Müller from 1957. It is based on Carl Millöcker's operetta Der Bettelstudent .

action

Poland in 1704: The student Simon is making music through the country with his guitar when he stops a carriage on a dirt road, the horses of which had run over from shots that were not far away. Soon the Polish freedom fighters in January is on the run from the Saxon king's soldiers ran to the coach and Simon hid him in the coach box . Countess Kowalska is in the carriage with her daughters Laura and Bronislawa - both men fall in love with their daughters, kiss the young women who have passed out due to the excitement and allow themselves to be taken to Krakow in the carriage box . Here the countess and her daughters are supposed to attend a reception given by the aristocrat Ollendorf, the governor of Poland appointed by August the Strong . Laura and Simon as well as Bronislawa and Jan dance together at the festival. Laura is asked to dance by Ollendorf, at the end of which Ollendorf kisses Laura on the shoulder. Countess Kowalska is horrified and hits Ollendorf with her fan - her daughter is only allowed to kiss a noble Pole and not a Saxon. As Simon and Jan start to laugh and soon the whole hall is laughing at the governor, he throws the two men into prison.

The next day the governor has still not got over the disgrace of the fanatic and is seeking revenge on the countess. He has a plan: Simon should introduce himself to the countess as a prince and get her to marry him within 24 hours. If he manages it, he'll be set free. If he doesn't manage it, he and Jan will be executed. Reluctantly, Simon agrees to the plan, knowing that Jan's men have long had a plan to chase the governor out of the country. Since all prisoners are supposed to be present at the false wedding as equally false subjects of Simon, Jan's men now commit minor crimes in order to get to prison quickly. Meanwhile, Simon successfully advertises the Countess, but then devotes himself to his future "daughters" with Jan, who acts as his scribe. Both couples take a boat trip to a lonely island on a lake, and the countess who follows them ultimately remains alone on the island, where she also spends the night. The wedding is supposed to take place the next morning, but there is no trace of the countess. Laura and Bronislawa, who have long been initiated into the governor's machinations by Simon and Jan, save the situation. Instead of the Countess, Simon leads his lover Laura veiled in front of the altar and is married to her. Before the governor can triumph, the countess, who has meanwhile been fetched from the island by her servant, appears in the church. The chaos is perfect when, at a signal, all of Simon's “subjects” get rid of their disguise and now fight as Polish freedom fighters against the Electoral Saxon army. They defeat the Electorate of Saxony and the governor, who are now being driven out of the country. The wedding celebration, however, continues into the night with music and dancing.

production

The Colosseum at the reopening with the movie poster and the reference to Mazurka .

Mazurka of Love was the first DEFA film to be shot and shown using the Totalvision method. In order to adequately bring the film onto the premiere screen, the Berlin Colosseum was specially converted. The premiere finally took place on the occasion of the reopening of the Colosseum on May 2, 1957.

The original plan was to cast Countess Kowalska with Marika Rökk . However, the plans failed, so that instead Jarmila Kšírová took over the role. The working title Der Bettelstudent was given up during the shooting in 1956 because the FRG had already released its own film adaptation of the Millöcker operetta under the title Der Bettelstudent in 1956 . " Mazurka " refers to the folk dance that is danced in the film at the beginning of the governor's celebration.

criticism

Contemporary critics noted that screenwriter Kuhnert, composer Natschinski and director Müller Millöcker's operetta “probably took the basic attitude and its melodies, but condensed the fable for the film and interpreted the melodies in a more modern way. Which Millöcker would certainly not be angry about in his muse heaven, because music, dance, swing and rhythm also merge into a coherent whole in Karl Plintzner's composition. "

The lexicon of international films found that “the staging, which is not very imaginative in terms of psychological details […] focuses on equipment, colorful mass scenes and lively dances.” Ralf Schenk called the film a bumpy, “almost fragmentary operetta adaptation”. The evangelical film observer drew the conclusion that the film offered “light entertainment” that lived “mainly from effort, music, dance and color”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The DEFA film Spielbank Affair , also made in 1956, was shot in total vision, but only shown in normal format.
  2. ↑ The beggar student. Mazurka of love . Supplement to the DVD. Icestorm 2004.
  3. ↑ See defa.de
  4. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 392 .
  5. ^ Günter Stahnke in: Junge Welt , May 7, 1957.
  6. ↑ Mazurka of love. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 3, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Ralf Schenk: In the middle of the Cold War 1950 to 1960 . In: Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 100.
  8. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 330/1958