Michel's iron fist
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Michel's iron fist |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1914 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers |
| production | Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers |
| camera | Heinrich Gärtner |
| occupation | |
| |
Michel's iron fist is a humorous propaganda silent film from 1914 by Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers .
action
The action takes place at the beginning of the First World War and is kept as an allegory throughout . Michel, that's a good-natured, firm, thoroughly honest pipe smoker with a pointed cap. He has a nice little house with a garden, but he is surrounded by nasty neighbors. For example, there is the brutal Ivan who sullenly swings his knuckle. As soon as he's gone, Marianne's envious face appears. Wherever Marianne is, there is also the malicious Tommy Atkins, a blasé parade soldier, not far away, the epitome of the “perfidious Albion”. While the German Michel doesn't let any of the three disturb him, the seductive Marianne flirts with her two admirers Iwan and Tommy on a bench. She doesn't yet know who to bestow her favor with, even if her two suitors give her a big hug. Michel doesn't care about any of this, he goes back to his house and prefers to wreath his three emperors (Wilhelm I, Friedrich III, Wilhelm II) with oak leaves. Then he sits down and reads from the picture book about German heroic deeds, sees Moltke, Bismarck and the victor over Napoleon III, Wilhelm I, pass by. He falls asleep satisfied with the course of history.
In his dream, Michel is a wanderer who one day comes to a tavern. There the pretty landlord's daughter Austria pours him wine in a jug. When a cheeky Serb wants to ravage her wine, he takes a strong beating from Austria. The Serb runs crying to Father Nicholas and complains of his suffering. The first thing he does is call the perky Marianne on the phone. Marianne and Nikolaus plan no less than to attack Austria's loyal friend Michel, but Austria warns Michel. Then Nikolaus and Marianne call in Tommy Atkins, who is driving a Japanese gnome in a pram. But Michel doesn’t worry about anything, and he takes the (iron) broom and sweeps everyone out of the tavern. When he wakes up the next morning, the German Michel thinks: "It would be the truth!"
Production notes
Michel's iron fist is a typical example of a cinematic snap shot as an immediate reaction to the outbreak of the First World War . The two-act film produced in the BB-Film-Atelier in Berlin-Steglitz passed the film censorship in September 1914 and was probably premiered that same month. Immediately afterwards, Bolten-Baeckers produced a sequel under the title Michel's Christmas 1914 .
Contemporary history
In 1935, from a National Socialist point of view, Oskar Kalbus tried to classify this film genre under the chapter heading “Feldgrauer Filmkitsch”, which experienced a real boom in the German Reich in 1914 and 1915 in particular. He writes:
“A certain trunk of experienced film manufacturers could not be frightened, however. First of all, they let their manifold relationships play out in order to be exempted from military service, because they felt called to offer the German people sensational hits "panem et circensis" in their quieter homeland, bearing in mind an ancient Roman experience : Relaxation and distraction, encouragement and encouragement. The cinema should now offer all of this. It was hoped that the general joy in the victories of our army would give rise to the desire for communication, for distracting experiences and, above all, for people to be gathered together in the “little man's theater”. In addition to the current film recordings from the theaters of war, the field-gray film kitsch - or the so-called "patriotic" film of 1914/15. "