Night Watch (1949)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Night watch |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1949 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harald Braun |
| script | Harald Braun Paul Alverdes |
| production |
ndF , Munich (Harald Braun) Film construction GmbH, Göttingen ( Hans Abich ) |
| music | Mark Lothar |
| camera | Franz Koch |
| cut | Fritz Stapenhorst |
| occupation | |
| |
Nachtwache is a German feature film by director Harald Braun from 1949 . The main roles are cast with Luise Ullrich , Hans Nielsen , René Deltgen and Dieter Borsche . The nine-year-old Angelika Voelkner makes her debut in this film.
action
Johannes Heger comes to the small town of Burgdorf with his ten-year-old daughter Lotte to take up the vacant position as a Protestant pastor. In a hospital he made the acquaintance of the doctor Cornelie Badenhausen. Both are immediately sympathetic. During mutual conversations it turns out that Cornelie has a very reserved relationship with God and the church in general. He only finds out later that this is due to the fact that Cornelie cannot get over the loss of her little daughter and quarrels with God. Cornelie, on the other hand, realizes during the conversations with Johannes Heger that something is missing in her life, that there is a void that she is unable to fill.
Heger quickly found access to his Catholic brother-in-law, Kaplan von Imhoff. Both men share a similar view of how they can help people in this difficult post-war period. They don't yet know that a special night will come for them too.
Now it happens that the actor Stefan Gorgas comes to Burgdorf because he has taken on the role of Jedermann in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play. He is also a friend of Chaplain Imhoff; both were fighter pilots in one unit during the war. He was also happy to accept the commitment in Burgdorf to see his old friend again . At this point in time he does not know that he will meet Cornelie Badenhausen, the mother of his child who died during the nights of bombing during the last days of the war.
Things come to a head when Cornelie and Gorgas meet. Their ways had separated during the war, now Gorgas wants to revive the relationship, but Cornelie doesn't want to know anything about it. In his disappointment, Gorgas provokes a scandal and Cornelie is advised to quit her job. Pastor Heger tries in vain to find a solution that is acceptable to all. Cornelie just wants to leave and goes to the train station.
A tragic event thwarts your plans and everything turns out differently. Heger's daughter Lotte is swinging with Gorgas in a boat swing when she sees Cornelie drive past in her car. The girl wants to wave to her, loses her balance and falls from the swing. Not only does Cornelie try in vain in the hospital to save Lotte's life. “Mückchen”, as Pastor Heger always affectionately called his little daughter, closes her eyes forever.
On this fateful night, Kaplan von Imhoff is at Heger's side and tries to stand by him. But all supplication to God was in vain. Pastor Heger questions his faith and despair over the death of his beloved child hits him. Now it is Gorgas who shows him the way back to God. Gorgas, who blames himself for Lotte's death, wants to jump into suicide out of desperation . Pastor Heger is there to help the desperate man and thus find his way back to faith himself.
And Heger also manages to get through the first children's service without his "mosquito". Cornelie, who accompanied him there, is impressed by his inner strength and realizes that being rooted in faith is more than an empty phrase and thus finds her faith in God again.
Liberated, she joins the children's hymn of praise: Lift up your hearts - we lift them up to the Lord .
background
The premiere of the film took place on October 21, 1949 in Hanover in the world games . Night Watch became a huge hit with audiences in the late 1940s / early 1950s. It was the first German film after 1945 in whose realization the Protestant Church contributed financially and ideologically.
The film title should actually be “The Night Watch”, but the article was deleted, presumably to make it sound a bit more general. It is a West German production, shortly after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany. A film company from Göttingen, Film Aufbau GmbH, cooperated with a Munich company, Neue Deutsche Filmgesellschaft, with the idea for this film being based in Göttingen.
The shooting took place in the film studio in Göttingen as well as in Einbeck and in Göttingen . The film structures were in the hands of Walter Haag .
Nachtwache was Angelika Voelkner's first film , which made her a child star (she also played "Dick" in the Immenhof trilogy from 1955 to 1957 ).
Reviews
“The first religious German post-war film was also a great success with audiences and critics because it satisfied a need for moral security in the bosom of the church. From the temporal and emotional distance, the sentimentality, spiritual half-heartedness and loquacity of the ecumenical drama can be seen more clearly. Even the cinematic implementation is not entirely convincing, despite visible efforts by the director. "
“A Protestant and a Catholic clergyman, both of whom, despite everything that divides denominationally, are united in the common idea of Christianity, have little influence with their words on those who doubt or who mock. Only what happens shakes these people's lack of faith. The evangelical clergyman's only child has an accident while standing at the altar. He too is challenged, but he becomes unshakably secure in his faith again when he realizes the task of helping others, of keeping vigil in the dark. The film closes with the chanting of Hosanna. "
“The overly sentimental and pathetic film, overloaded with problems, is not without significance for the development of German film. The vigil then seemed to many critics exemplary; and it also had a sensational success with the audience. This is probably not least because a private solution to the time problems was promised here. "
Awards
In 1949, the film received the ratings "artistically valuable" and "culturally valuable". In 1950 and 1951 he was awarded a Bambi for “Best Artistic German Film 1949” and “Most Business Successful German Film 1950”. In 1952 he received the rating "valuable" from the Wiesbaden film evaluation agency .
At the Venice Biennale , Nachtwache was voted the best German film.
Web links
- Vigil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Night watch at filmportal.de
- Night watch - “Angelika Voelkner's first film” at Immenhof Forum.
- Night Watch Illustrated Film Stage No. 447
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Göttingen film posters night watch at Stadtarchiv Göttingen.de. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
- ↑ a b Night Watch " Watch in the Dark - Bishop's Hat and Beret ". In: Der Spiegel issue 44/1949 of October 27, 1949, p. 34. Retrieved on April 7, 2012.
- ↑ Night watch. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Reclam's film guide. By Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 428. Stuttgart 1973.
- ↑ a b c Night watch at filmportal.de