Nora (1944)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Nora |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harald Braun |
| script | Harald Braun Jacob Geis based on motifs from the play "Et dukkehjem" by Henrik Ibsen |
| production | Fritz Thiery (production group) for UFA , Berlin |
| music | Mark Lothar |
| camera | Franz Weihmayr |
| cut | Walter Wischniewsky |
| occupation | |
| |
Nora is a German movie from 1943, free after the same stage play of Ibsen of 1879. Directed by Harald Braun played Luise Ullrich the title role.
action
Nora and Robert Helmer are a happy couple. The lawyer has set up his own practice in the small town of Aalsen, but dreams of one day getting into the banking business. After an excursion on which they are surprised by the flood, the Helmers come home completely drenched. The house friend Dr. Rank with good news: Robert is to be appointed bank director in the district town of Oldenförde. But suddenly he becomes seriously ill. Plagued by violent attacks of fever, he has to stay in bed for a long time. Despite the gradual recovery, he is assured by a competent party that the danger is far from over. Robert is advised to go on a recreational trip to the south. But the finances at Helmer are currently pretty tight. Then Nora remembers the offer made several times by her aristocratic, wealthy father to give her financial support should she ever suffer from financial difficulties. Now is the moment. While Nora drives home to her parents' house, Robert travels up to the house and they both arrange to meet in Hamburg the next day.
Once at her parents' house, Nora's father is away from home. His asset manager Brack regulates the matter in such a way that he issues a promissory note to Nora, which her soon-to-be-expected father only has to sign. But he doesn't come the next day either and Nora's time is running out. Her husband is waiting for her in Hamburg. Thereupon Nora forges her father's signature and leaves. Little does she know that her father was killed in a hunting accident shortly before. She puts aside a written apology to Brack. On the recovery trip Robert finally recovered and can finally take up the new job. When asset manager Brack applies to him for a board position one day, Robert rejects him because of a dubious act in his past. Brack, who covered up her forgery when Nora's departure and is keeping the letter of apology she wrote about it in a safe place, now sees the opportunity to put Nora under pressure so that she can influence her stubborn husband. In desperation, Nora, who hadn't told her husband about her fake because of lack of time, turns to family friend Dr. Rank.
He advises her to confess everything to Robert as soon as possible. However, since her husband is a man of firm principles and rigid principles, and he would deeply disapprove of her behavior, she refrains from doing so. Instead she tries to get Robert to hire Brack after all. Helmer is very puzzled about Nora's increasing nervousness lately. At an evening party, Brack appears as suddenly as he is uninvited. To his great surprise, he met Robert's mother Helene, who was once his lover and whom he had shamefully abandoned. Thereupon Brack left the festival in a hurry. Nora now decides to tell Robert the whole truth. A serious argument ensues in which Robert feels just as disappointed as Nora is deeply offended. Completely dissolved, she drives to Dr. Rank. He has always had more feelings for his best friend's wife than is good. He asks her to accompany him on a planned trip around the world. He is seriously ill and only has half a year to live. Nora refuses, her feelings for her husband are still too strong. She returns to Alsen, while Robert learns from Rank that Nora's misconduct always happened out of love for him. Robert goes after Nora and seeks reconciliation, since maintaining his marriage seems more important to him than anything. In the meantime, Helene has visited Brack and successfully speaks to his conscience. Plagued by his old guilt towards her, he lets go of his leverage against Nora and leaves town.
Production notes
Nora was shot from April 5th to the end of May 1943 (studio shots) and from the beginning of June to mid-July 1943 (outdoor shots). The latter were created in Glienicker Park (Berlin), in the Potsdam Forest, in the Wadden Sea on the North Sea and in Husum and the surrounding area. The world premiere took place on February 14, 1944 in a festive setting in the Salzburg Festival Hall. In Berlin, Nora started exactly one month later. In the same year Nora could be seen in Denmark and Sweden.
Ufa paid 30,000 RM for the filming rights .
In addition to the production group management, Fritz Thiery also took over the production and production management. Emil Hasler and Walter Kutz created the film structures. The costume designs come from Manon Hahn .
The production costs amounted to RM 1,109,000; by May 1944 the gross profit was RM 426,000.
This film is the second German version of Nora . As early as 1922, theater director Berthold Viertel staged a silent film version in which Olga Chekhova played the title role.
Reviews
The contemporary reviews came to completely different assessments than the post-war criticism, which often saw this very free Ibsen adaptation only as a sign of the “inner emigration” of the cultural workers involved. Three examples from three decades:
In the Illustrierte Film-Kurier it is said: ... the great emotional novel of the work has been preserved in all its substance, with all essential dramatic accents - even if the details often have a different face than Ibsen's drama.
In Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film you can read: “One of the fascinating female characters from the Norwegian poet's stage works is Nora , in whose nature so many“ misunderstood ”women sought their justification. In the film adaptation, Harald Braun was able to “modernize” the always valid material without further ado and relocate it to the milieu of a north German small town. "
The Lexicon of International Films wrote: Gross falsification of the socially critical drama of the same name by Henrik Ibsen into a happily touching piece staged by the cultivated Ufa style. Considerable acting performances.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Bogusław Drewniak: 'The German Film 1938–1945', An overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 564
- ↑ cf. Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films, 13th year 1944/45. P. 88 f. (047.44), Berlin 2002
- ↑ Drewniak, p. 564
- ↑ Film-Kurier No. 3348 of February 25, 1944
- ↑ Immortal Film. The great chronicle. From the first sound to the colored widescreen Immortal Film, p. 276, Munich 1957
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 6, S. 2795. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
Web links
- Nora in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Nora at filmportal.de