Nathan the Wise (1922)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Nathan the wise |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1922 |
| length | 123 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Manfred Noa |
| script | Hans Kyser |
| production |
Erich Wagowski for Filmhaus Bavaria GmbH |
| music |
Willy Schmidt-Gentner (Original), Aljoscha Zimmermann (DVD 2006), Rabih Abou-Khalil (2009) |
| camera |
Gustave Preiss , Hans Karl Gottschalk |
| occupation | |
| |
Nathan the Wise is a German literary film adaptation in six acts by Manfred Noa from 1922. It is the only cinema production of the play Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing to date . The TV premiere of the long considered lost applicable silent film was made on the transmitter 1 June 2010 arte .
action
foreplay
Assad von Filneck, the brother of Sultan Saladin , has fallen away from the Islamic faith and is currently fighting as a Knight Templar in the holy war against the men of Saladin. His son Leu von Filneck is in the care of Duke Konrad von Schwaben. When Assad's wife dies shortly after the birth of their daughter, Assad gives instructions that his son should grow up with the Duke of Swabia under the name Curd von Stauffen. He then faces the men of Saladin, tired of life and unarmed, and is killed. At his last exclamation, a Knight Templar rescues his little daughter, who, according to Assad's will, will be named Blanda after being baptized, and flees with her from the enemies. They, in turn, know that Assad had two children, as they found a small souvenir plaque with both of the children's names. Saladin is now looking for his brother's children.
Meanwhile, a small village is haunted by looters and highwaymen who have armed themselves with the weapons and armor of the Knights Templar. They mistreat the Jew Nathan, who wants to save a boy from the pack and has come out of the synagogue in the village, and set the house on fire. Nathan's wife and seven children die in the flames. He had been lamenting her death for several days when the Knight Templar rode into the village with the baby and laid the girl in his arms. Nathan thanks God for his kindness.
1st act
Years later, the baby has become a young woman who Nathan thinks is her father. He gave her the name Recha. She is brought up by a Christian. The family lives in Jerusalem . Meanwhile the religious war has arrived and after a long siege the city is taken by Saladin's army. All crusaders are sentenced to death, all other Christians have to buy themselves out and, if they do not have the money, are enslaved. When the enslaved people pass by Nathan's house, he buys everyone free at Recha's request.
Shortly before his execution, the Knight Templar rebukes Curd von Stauffen because he wants to die like a man and not blindfolded in chains. Saladin has the unusual man shown to him and releases him - later it becomes clear that his appearance reminded him of his brother Assad. All other Knights Templar are thrown into jail, but not killed. A short time later, Curd saves Recha from her burning house. Nathan is on his way at this time.
2nd act
Nathan returns home, learns of what has happened and sees that Recha raves about the unknown savior. He organizes a festival to which he invites all the poor and hopes to meet the stranger too. However, he refuses to celebrate with Jews. Only Nathan's personal request to him allows him to realize that his behavior was wrong. Nathan's festival, however, comes to the ears of the Sultan, who thinks he is a rich man. He has Nathan brought to him so that he can fill his coffers.
3rd act
Nathan is arrested and taken to the Sultan's palace. When Saladin asks which of the three religions is the real one, Nathan tells him the ring parable . Meanwhile, the poor have gathered in front of the palace to demand Nathan's release. They give Saladin's sister Sittah a ring as a replacement. The Sultan, converted by Nathan's story, keeps the ring in order to always be reminded of the necessary wisdom of the ruler.
4th act
Shortly before the acquitted Nathan leaves the palace, he asks Saladin to leave all of his money in safekeeping with him. Among other things, he justified it by saying that he wanted to thank him for the acquittal of the Knight Templar. Saladin shows Nathan the souvenir plaque with the names of the two children and says that Curd reminded him of Assad. Nathan in turn recognizes his Recha in the name of the daughter - she wore a cross with the name "Blanda von Filneck" around her neck as a baby.
When Curd von Stauffen appears at Nathan and asks for Recha's hand, Nathan does not agree, but cannot give the reason. Curd suspects religious reasons and turns away from him with contempt. The educator Rechas reveals to Curd that Recha was only adopted and is actually a Christian. Curd takes revenge on Nathan by reporting him to the Patriarch of Jerusalem for having forcibly converted a Christian to the Jewish faith. According to the patriarch's decision, Nathan is to be arrested and Saladin - who informs Curd that Nathan has given him all of his fortune in gratitude for his salvation - decides that Curd should carry out the arrest of Nathan himself. Now deeply ashamed, he has Nathan arrested. In prison, however, Nathan forgives him.
5th act
The patriarch pronounces the verdict on Nathan: He should be burned and Recha go to a monastery as a nun . Curd is horrified. He learns from a brother in the monastery that his real name is Leu and registers as this with the sultan. He recognizes his nephew, who, however, has no idea of the connection to the Sultan. When Curd pleads for Nathan's life, Saladin has him locked up in prison with the rest of the Knights Templar. Saladin also recognizes Recha, who comes to see him about Nathan, as his niece. As requested, she is allowed into Nathan’s cell.
When the Patriarch of Saladin demands that the verdict against Recha and Nathan be signed, Saladin declares that he will publicly announce the verdict the next day.
6th act
The day of the verdict is here: Since the patriarch suspects that Saladin will challenge him to convict criminals against Christianity, he has the Knights Templar gathered to fight. Another war threatens.
Saladin tells Nathan when the verdict is announced that if he does not condemn it as requested by the patriarch, war will break out. Nathan then explains that he would rather die than have the blood flow from many. Only now does Saladin dissolve everything: Recha is not a Christian because she was never baptized. She and Curd are siblings and his brother's children. Nathan is therefore no longer a defendant, since the patriarch's judgment is now unfounded. Saladin, on the other hand, allows Christians eternal access to the tomb of the Savior, thus preventing future religious wars.
production
Nathan the Wise was created as a major project by Erich Wagowski's Bavaria-Filmkunst , which belonged to the Münchner Lichtspielkunst (MLK, also Emelka) group. In contrast to democratic Berlin , where numerous Ufa films were made in the early 1920s , the political situation in Munich had worsened after the Soviet republic was crushed - the anti-Semitic mood was felt not least by Jewish cultural workers such as Wagowski and his discovery as a director, Manfred Noa. However, it is not known to what extent the film adaptation of Lessing's Nathan the Wise can be seen as a reaction by Wagowski and Noas to the anti-Semitic attacks.
The shooting was finished in September 1922 so far that the film could be submitted to the Munich film testing agency. This spoke out against the approval of the film:
“The content of the film [is]: The Jew is everything, the others, whether Christian or Turkish, are nothing. […] The film will […] immediately challenge opinion and counter-opinion in the cinema: this will in all likelihood lead to heated arguments and, as experience has shown, also to assault, so that the film strip appears extraordinarily suitable for endangering public order and security. "
The Chamber II of the Munich Film Inspectorate approved the film, however, stating that anti-Semitic failures when watching the film were not due to the film itself, but to “the wrong attitudes of the people” - a ban on the film would not be the opposite Counteract anti-Semitism. Right-wing extremists tried to destroy the negative as early as November 1922, but this was foiled.
The world premiere of Nathan the Wise took place on December 29, 1922 in the Alhambra in Berlin as part of an event for the benefit of the welfare institutions of free German literature. The critics rated the film positively. Nathan the Wise was to be premiered in Munich on February 9, 1923 in the Regina Lichtspiele . Although no publicity whatsoever was wisely made to prevent attacks on the venue, the cinema operator was threatened on the day of the premiere that they would demolish the Regina-Lichtspiele if the film was shown the following day. After the operator of the cinema turned to Bavaria-Film for advice, its director Hoppe made a daring decision:
“In the knowledge of the danger and also of where it was to be expected, it was decided to get in direct contact with the party leader Hitler . In place of Hitler, his representative [...] Esser received the gentlemen. Director Hoppe agreed to hold a special screening of the film for Herr Esser, so that he might personally be convinced that this film was free of any tendencies that might be expected of him. [...] After the screening, Esser expressed his opinion that the film was a propaganda film and insisted on it, despite attempts by Director Hoppe to refute it. "
The following day, Esser rushed against the film in the Völkischer Beobachter , which was "a genuinely Jewish work of art, oozing with lying and hypocritical humanity." After just 48 hours, Nathan the Wise was taken off the program in Munich and subsequently not played in any other Munich cinema. A demonstration by Nathan the Wise in Munich can only be verified in 1930 . In Warsaw in 1923 the film was banned by the censors for political reasons; In Austria , the censors issued a school ban and the film was shown under the "harmless" title Die Träne Gottes .
Director Noa was recruited by Gloria-Film in 1924 and died in 1930 at the age of 37. Wagowski committed suicide in 1927 due to financial problems with his company Ewe-Film.
Nathan the Wise , who did not see a performance after 1933, was considered lost for a long time. It was not until 1996 that a complete black and white copy of the film was discovered in Moscow's Gosfilmofond , which was stored there under the title The Storming of Jerusalem . The copy experienced its public revival in 1997 with the corrected main title and nudes. In 2006 Nathan the Wise was released on DVD in the Edition Filmmuseum in a viraged version .
The public world premiere of the restored silent film took place on October 24, 2009 in the Philharmonie im Gasteig Munich with live music by the German-Lebanese composer Rabih Abou-Khalil . The project then went on a film tour at home and abroad. Abou-Khalil's music is also used in the television version of the film. In addition to a symphony orchestra and a string trio, Michel Godard , Jarrod Cagwin and Rabih Abou-Khalil themselves are involved in the film music as soloists.
criticism
Even before its completion , Nathan the Wise was regarded by contemporary critics as "one of the most beautiful hits of 1922/23" and even praised by the Völkischer Beobachter as a "skilfully made, technically undoubtedly excellent" film. After the film was shown to the Munich press, the tenor was mostly positive.
After Manfred Noa's untimely death, Nathan the Wise was soon forgotten. Especially against the backdrop of expressionist films, Noa was ultimately regarded by film critic Lotte Eisner as a mediocre director. It was only since the 1990s that director Noa and the film Nathan the Wise received more attention.
The lexicon of international film stated: "The visually powerful, impressively staged and fascinatingly played equipment film, the title character of which through its foresight makes the various faiths conciliatory, is a prime example of a politically wantonly misunderstood work."
Web links
- Nathan the Wise in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Nathan the Wise at filmportal.de
- Nathan the Wise at arte.tv
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from: Stefan Drössler: The case of "Nathan the Wise" . Filmmuseum München, DVD booklet, p. 2.
- ↑ Quoted from: Stefan Drössler: The case of "Nathan the Wise" . Filmmuseum München, DVD booklet, p. 3.
- ↑ In: Lichtbildbühne, No. 9, 1923, pp. 23–24.
- ↑ a b H. E. in: Völkischer Beobachter , February 16, 1923.
- ↑ See Süddeutsche Filmzeitung, No. 46, October 31, 1930.
- ↑ See Claudia Mende in Filmmusikalische Toleranzinitiative "Nathan the Wise" ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at qantara.de, accessed on May 25, 2010
- ↑ Mute "Nathan" with music . In: Sächsische Zeitung, September 30, 2009, p. 10.
- ↑ Der Kinematograph, No. 812, September 10, 1922.
- ↑ See Lotte Eisner: The demonic canvas . Kommunales Kino, Frankfurt am Main 1975, p. 79.
- ↑ Nathan the Wise. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 2, 2017 .
