Moscow - Shanghai
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Moscow - Shanghai |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | TV version 67 (originally 85) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Wegener |
| script |
Kurt Heynicke , Max W. Kimmich |
| production | Vasgen Badal |
| music | Hans-Otto Borgmann |
| camera | Franz Weihmayr |
| cut | Munni Obal |
| occupation | |
| |
Moscow - Shanghai (alternatively Between Moscow and Shanghai , The Road to Shanghai or Encounter in Shanghai ) is a German fiction film from 1936 by Paul Wegener . The film is one of the few sound films with Pola Negri .
action
The widowed Olga Petrovna was on a journey when the tsarist empire collapsed in 1917/1918. Due to the October Revolution , she no longer has the opportunity to return to her little daughter Maria. The attempt to send a message to at least Maria's nanny also fails. When she is desperately looking for her daughter on one of the trains that made it out of the revolutionary area, she happens to meet Alexander Repin, an acquaintance of her old friend and admirer Sergei Smirnov. Because of this mutual acquaintance, Repin is immediately ready to help her, especially since he has also fallen in love with Olga. Both try to escape with the help of a clergyman. But Alexander is arrested and Olga only remains at liberty because the Pope pretends to be his niece. Meanwhile, Alexander and Sergei meet again in prison. Sergej first reveals the identity of his friend, who then insults him as a traitor.
To make amends for this betrayal, Smirnov then helps his friend to escape by pretending to have executed him and to have thrown his body into the river. A little later Smirnov is released and flees to Shanghai with Olga, with whom he has long been in love. In the following years he also took care of the now completely single Olga, who had to stay afloat as a singer during this time. Despite all adversities, she still hopes to see Alexander and her daughter Maria again one day. However, the opportunity to do so only arises ten years after her escape: when she visits the Russian Easter festival, Olga, to her surprise, recognizes Alexander Repin in a member of the Don Cossack Choir performing there . She is so happy about this unexpected reunion that at first she doesn’t even notice Alexander’s distant attitude towards her. But Sergej, who accompanied Olga to Easter, learns from Alexander that he is now engaged and that his fiancée Maria is expecting the next day. He gets his boyfriend to tell his fiancée the truth about his relationship with Olga and to ask her to end the engagement. But Maria refuses to release Alexander and instead seeks out Olga to talk to her from woman to woman. In the course of this conversation, they both discover that they are mother and daughter. In order to spare her daughter grief, Olga finally renounces Alexander. She has now found her inner peace, although she has lost Maria and Alexander, her two dearest people. Only Sergej confides in her that Maria is her long-missing daughter. Ultimately, Olga and Sergej decide to start a new life together.
background
The film, which was based on a true story, was produced between the beginning of July and mid-August 1936 in the UFA studios in Neubabelsberg, approved by the censors on October 5, 1936 and premiered three days later in the Berlin Capitol cinema . It could also be performed on Good Friday, Day of Repentance and Heroes' Remembrance Day. In Austria it was broadcast in 1937 under the title Mein Herz has Heimweh . After the end of the war it was initially banned by the Allies, but in 1949 it was reopened for demonstration in a revised version and under the changed title The Way to Shanghai . The version broadcast on TV in the 1990s was only 67 minutes. In the film, Pola Negri sings the song My Heart Has Homesickness , the melody of which is characteristic of the entire film.
Reviews
The Protestant film observer judged 31 years after the making of the film on the occasion of the re-release: “Sappy kitsch and dialogues like from cheap novels alternate [...]. Downright embarrassing, at least in the form shown here, the amalgamation of the Easter ritual of the Russian Orthodox Church with the appearance of the Don Cossack Choir. […] With the best will in the world, you can only say that it is a bad film, even if you have to assume different taste requirements for the mid-thirties. The director knew how to direct the camera best. The old Wegener found himself in some realistic sequences of images about the Russian Revolution and in the beauty of individual photos. ”The lexicon of the international film doesn't think much of the film either:“ The tearful colportage extends from the year of the revolution from 1917 to 1930. The only thing worth mentioning about the pre-war film directed by Paul Wegener are a few crowd scenes and the rites of the Orthodox Easter festival. "
See also
literature
- Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films. Film lexicon of full-length German and German-language sound films after their German premieres / Ulrich J. Klaus. - Berlin [u. a.]: Klaus Archive, 1936.
Web links
- Moscow - Shanghai in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Moscow - Shanghai at filmportal.de