Morituri (1948)

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Movie
Original title Morituri
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1948
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Eugene York
script Gustav Kampendonk based
on an idea by Artur Brauner
production Artur Brauner for CCC
music Wolfgang Zeller
camera Werner Krien
cut Walter Wischniewsky
occupation

Morituri is a German feature film directed by Eugen York that was shot in the winter of 1947/1948 . In addition to Herbert B. Fredersdorf's production Lang ist der Weg , it is considered to be the first German feature film to deal with the Holocaust . In Austria the film was shown under the title Freiwild .

action

Eastern Europe, in the late phase of the Second World War : a Polish doctor, whose wife was once murdered by the SS , is doing his job in a National Socialist concentration camp . Its task is to determine the ability of the camp inmates to work. When the prisoners once again had to go to roll call in the warehouse, he examined the emaciated figures from all over the world and declared a number of them unable to work. However, these have become “doomed” and must fear being gassed a little later . The doctor then decides to help the five prisoners escape together.

In fact, the small troop breaks out and you reach a piece of forest in which you can hide. There the ragged and exhausted prisoners meet several families who have also gone into hiding to hide from the German soldiers. One wants to wait here for the approaching Soviet Red Army soldiers as liberators. The front is gradually getting closer, but the hope changes again and again with the fear of being discovered and shot by the SS or soldiers of the Wehrmacht . Food will soon be scarce. Other refugees, including Polish families on the run from the SS and Gestapo , gather in the forest. Some of them have brought food with them and make the extremely tense situation a little easier.

The rumors that people are hiding from the Germans in the forest finally reach the German side. The SS then began to systematically comb through the forest. The doctor who has just blown up a bridge tries to warn those who have gone underground and to help them find an escape route. He is shot in the process. When a Wehrmacht soldier falls into the hands of the Jews and Poles, they don't know what to do with him. Some want to kill the soldier right away. A former Jewish defense attorney opens a tribunal; he advocates letting the Germans live, since nothing is known about their guilt. Finally one of the former concentration camp inmates lets him go.

When it became known that the Germans wanted to comb the forest area because of an attack on the railway, desperation broke out. You open a captured German wooden box in the hope of getting food, but you only find spirits. When you are intoxicated you begin to dance wildly, only to finally taste your full life. The eponymous saying " morituri te salutant " is also used. Suddenly the German soldier appears and thanks his survival by calling out to the desperate while fleeing from the Russians that the front has fallen. The “Morituri” have been saved and are heading towards a bright future as a group.

Production and background

Morituri is Latin for “those doomed” and is reminiscent of the gladiatorial saying Ave Caesar, morituri te salutant in ancient Rome .

The genesis of this film, which was originally supposed to have the title The Nameless , is as complicated as it is complex. Producer Artur Brauner , who had survived the war underground, wanted to start his career with Morituri as the owner of the CCC , which was founded in autumn 1946 . In Curt Riess ' collection of memories Das ist only once it says: “In order to get this film off the ground, Brauner has to found a film company, the Central Cinema Company, and he needs a license for that. He goes to the Americans. They say no. He goes to the English, who say neither yes nor no. Months go by. No notification comes. Then he goes to the Russians. They say yes and no. On the one hand it is very praiseworthy to make such a film, but on the other hand it is also very dangerous. Brauner goes to the French. They ask for the script and send it to Paris. [...] Why the rejection? How is it that a man like Erich Pommer opposes this film project? How is it that the English can't decide? That even the French are hesitant - although they finally give him the license? ”Even after receiving the license, Brauner had to face numerous problems, especially of a financial and organizational nature, but also those of material procurement in a country completely devastated by war. Since the effort was immense and the financing was not secured, the realization of Morituri could only be started after the production and the performance of the inconsequential comedy Herzkönig in August 1947 , which Brauner raised the necessary starting capital.

The shooting took place from September 1947 to January 1948. The premiere was on August 28, 1948 as part of the Venice Film Festival . The German premiere took place on September 24, 1948 in Hamburg . Morituri was shown for the first time in Berlin on November 16, 1948 . The film was shown on ZDF on April 7, 1991, and for the first time on German television.

The outdoor shots were taken at Schildow in the Mark Brandenburg , the studio shots in the CCC studio in Berlin-Tempelhof . The film bears the autobiographical traits of the producer Brauner. In Austria Morituri ran under the title Freiwild in 1949 .

The 21-year-old Klaus Kinski made his screen debut in Morituri . He played a Dutch prisoner. For Josef Almas , who had just returned from exile in Britain , Morituri was the cinematic swan song . Here he embodied the Jewish lawyer Dr. Simon.

Editor Walter Wischniewsky also served Eugen York as assistant director. The buildings were designed by Hermann Warm , the furnishings were provided by Bruno Monden . Hans Lehmann took over production management .

When looking at the entire film staff, it is noticeable that producer Brauner, who later stated explicitly several times that he would never work with the named filmmakers Wolfgang Staudte and Hildegard Knef because of their behavior in the Third Reich , for this film a considerable number of Had employed filmmakers who had worked massively loyal to the regime in the Nazi state: Director York began his directorial career in 1938 with the short documentary propaganda film Wort und Tat and in 1943 was responsible for a series of Liese and Liese propaganda articles for the German newsreel . Wischniewsky edited the propaganda films Die Rothschilds , Der 5 Juni und Junge Adler , cameraman Werner Krien photographed Über Alles in der Welt und ... rides for Germany until 1945 , and Wolfgang Zeller was the in-house composer for an abundance of trend productions, among others The ruler , people in the storm and especially Jud Suss . The cast list also shows a number of actors and actresses who appeared in numerous National Socialist propaganda films.

The film was a huge box office flop , probably due to the close proximity to the events shown in the film . In addition, numerous yesterday's producer Brauner and director York attacked and accused both of the alleged "nest pollution". In the there's only once Riess wrote about this complex: "Morituri is never performed in the Soviet sector of Berlin and in the Eastern Zone. It is not easy to accommodate the film in the West either. There is not a single premiere theater for him in Berlin. The cinema directors are convinced that “something like that” cannot become a business. [...] No, it won't be a business! People really don't want to see "something like that" or maybe not yet. Director York receives many letters of enthusiastic approval. But the threatening letters are in the majority. Most of them show that the writers did not understand at all what the purpose of the film was. You think the film is anti-German. [...] In some cinemas, the film is canceled after the first screening because the theaters in question have to be renovated. The indignant audience beat up their seats. And Artur Brauner loses the last mark he still has on this film. Nevertheless, he never regrets filming it for a moment and will never regret it later. "

criticism

In the biography of York in Kay Weniger's Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films , the following can be read: “In the autumn of 1947, Eugen York resumed his work. The Berlin producer Artur Brauner brought him in for the dramatic story of a mass exodus of concentration camp inmates. “Morituri”, the title of this film, became York's most committed and most prominent work for the cinema. ”Artur Brauner's entry touches on the complicated story of how the film came about Conditions Brauner's second and at the same time most committed work for decades, with which he tried to come to terms with his own experiences of persecution and hiding. "

Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film called Morituri "a work that pleads for humanity and international understanding"

The lexicon of international films judged: “The film , which is designed with dedication and partly reminiscent of Anna Segher's novel“ The Seventh Cross ”and co-processed by producer Artur Brauner's own experience, is the latter's second production in his Berlin company, which has been licensed since autumn 1946.” The online version describes the Film as "[f] ast documentary developed", "well played" and "brilliantly photographed". It was an "outstanding German production of the first post-war years."

literature

  • Curt Riess: There's only one. The book of German film after 1945. Henri Nannen Verlag, Hamburg 1958. Chapter Morituri: pp. 166–172.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Other versions have lengths of 80 or 88 minutes.
  2. ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , pp. 28 f.
  3. ↑ Riess: There's only one time , p. 125
  4. ↑ Riess: There's only one time , p. 126: "This film is, to put it mildly, operetta slang".
  5. ↑ See: Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film , Volume 2: The great chronicle from the first sound to the colored wide screen . Kindler, Munich, 1957, p. 152 f.
  6. ↑ Staudte played small roles in a plethora of Nazi propaganda films, and until 1945 Knef had a liaison with Tobis' production manager Ewald von Demandowsky .
  7. ↑ Riess: There's only one time , p. 172
  8. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 8: T - Z. David Tomlinson - Theo Zwierski. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 492.
  9. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 537.
  10. ↑ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film , Volume 2: The great chronicle from the first sound to the colored wide screen . Kindler, Munich, 1957, p. 419.
  11. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Films , Volume 5. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987, p. 2668.
  12. ↑ Morituri. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 11, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used