Paganini (1946)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Paganini |
| Original title | The Magic Bow |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1946 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bernard Knowles |
| script | Roland Pertwee |
| production | RJ Minney |
| music | Henry Geehl |
| camera |
Jack Cox Jack Asher |
| cut | Alfred Roome |
| occupation | |
| |
Paganini is a pseudobiographical British costume film melodrama from 1946 directed by Bernard Knowles with Stewart Granger in the title role . The female lead is played by Phyllis Calvert . The story is based on the biographical novel “ The Magic Bow: A Romance of Paganini ” by Manuel Komroff, published in 1941 .
action
The young violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini lives in great poverty in Genoa. When he learns that the composer Fazzini is organizing a competition that prizes a valuable Stradivarius violin for the artist who can play his difficult compositions straight from the sight, Paganini finally sees a chance to escape his misery. Niccolò's talent is so great that he believes he has almost already won the Stradivarius. But his poverty does not even allow him to travel to Fazzini's house in Parma. A solution is looming in the form of the French noblewoman Jeanne de Vermond. The young lady offers him an exchange deal: she would give him the money he needs if he would agree to help her get her father out of prison. Said and done.
On the way to Parma Paganini meets the unsuccessful lawyer Luigi Germi, who becomes Niccolò's manager. Once at the destination, Paganini competes in Fazzini's competition and promptly wins. Jeanne is enthusiastic about him and his talent and invites him to play for her friends. Paganini believes that Jeanne does not really recognize the true greatness of his art and the meaning of music and, since he considers her ignorant and stuffy, angrily rejects her request. The two of them quarrel, and Paganini abandons Jeanne without further ado and turns to his old sweetheart Bianchi, who secretly followed him to Parma. Just as the artist in him is a genius, the normal Paganini man appears unstable and unworldly. Niccolò soon loses the money he recently made gambling. Eventually he is even forced to pawn his hard-won Stradivarius, but he even gambled away this proceeds. This has dramatic consequences, because manager Germi has put on a public concert for his protégé, and Paganini's skills are worthless without a violin. Jeanne appears as a saving angel. She triggers the Stradivarius again at the pawnbroker's. The concert is a great success, and Paganini and Jeanne eventually fall in love.
It is the time of political upheaval, Napoleon Bonaparte's troops invade Italy. The troop leader's name is Paul de la Rochelle and is a high-ranking officer whom Jeanne's parents, for selfish reasons - they hope for a higher social standing - would be only too happy to see her future son-in-law. Bianchi interferes in this delicate constellation by telling Jeanne's mother that she was having an affair with Paganini. With this she hopes to be able to separate Paganini and Jeanne through Jeanne's parents. Jeanne tells Paganini that her parents want her to go to Paris to marry Paul. Paganini doesn't want to lose Jeanne and is ready to run away with her. When Napoleon found out about this, he threatened Paganini, as he too was interested in establishing a connection between his military leader and the Comte de Vermond's family.
Paganini complies and now concentrates entirely on his violin playing, with Bianchi always at his side. During a guest performance in Paris, he meets Jeanne again. When de la Rochelle finds out about this, he challenges his opponent to a duel. Both Jeanne and Bianchi are appalled by this and put their differences aside to prevent the worst. But it is already too late: Paganini was injured on his stroke arm. Although the wound heals, Paganini loses all interest in his music. Jeanne uses her contacts to arrange an audience with the Pope. She wants to get him out of his self-chosen isolation and to release him from his rigidity. The concert in the Vatican was a huge success and Paganini was honored by the Pope. De la Rochelle realizes that Jeanne will never love him as much as she loves Paganini and therefore agrees to break the engagement. Paganini and the aristocratic French woman can now start life together.
Production notes
Paganini premiered in September 1946 as part of the Cannes International Film Festival as an official festival contribution. The British premiere took place in London on November 25, 1946, the German premiere was on September 27, 1947.
Albert Fennell took over the production supervision . John Bryan and Andrew Mazzei designed the film structures, Elizabeth Haffenden designed the costumes. Louis Levy took over the musical direction.
Yehudi Menuhin plays the violin solos .
useful information
In the second half of the Second World War, under the direction of head of production Maurice Ostrer, the producing film company Gainsborough Pictures , starting with The Lord in Gray , developed into the most important company when it came to producing opulent costume dramas and tearful love tugs. Almost all of Gainsborough's films in the 1940s, almost all of which were released on the German market immediately after the end of the war, developed - “although critics wrote of them with contempt”, as Jörg Helbig recalled - to big box office magnets in Europe, occasionally also on the US market and also produced numerous film stars, above all Margaret Lockwood, James Mason, Patricia Roc, Phyllis Calvert and Stewart Granger . Gainsborough's greatest successes include Gaslight and Shadow , Madonna of the Seven Moons , Cornwall Rhapsody , The Woman Without a Heart , Three Marriages , Dangerous Journey , Paganini and, finally, Gypsy Blood .
Reviews
In the mirror it was said: “The picture sheet style predominates. But the film has some noteworthy plus sides: The lovely Phyllis Calvert as Jeanne, Joan Kent as Paganini's childhood friend Bianchi, and Stewart Granger as the devil's violinist. (...) He is the "visible" Paganini of the film, many are more impressed by the "invisible" one: Yehudi Menuhin plays the violin solos. (...) Stewart Granger is skillful with the many violin actions. There is nothing to be found here of the Italian's demoniac, which Conrad Veidt once portrayed and which Heine and E. Th. A. Hoffmann told. "
In the time it was read: “Of course it is nice when the virtuoso Paganini approaches the screen and you can hear Yehudi Menuhin's ingenious playing. Not nice, on the other hand, it is that these highlights have to be paid for with patient acceptance of a film plot that strings together frizzy and plain stitches like a knitted stocking. 'Paganini' is the right set-up film, stylish and soulless, and the actors wade through time and local color. Even an artist as enchanting as Stewart Granger has a hard time opposing it. "
The Lexicon of International Films says: “Historically badly recorded episodes from the life of the Italian violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840), who at the time of Napoleon's reign loved a countess who is supposed to marry a French officer. Particularly implausible: the cast of the main role with the British gentleman actor Stewart Granger. In the musical parts, however, Yehudi Menuhin shines as a soloist "
The Movie & Video Guide found that here, as with such films, “the music overshadows a weak plot”.
Halliwell's Film Guide stated: "Poor costume film, dramatically and historically unconvincing".
Individual evidence
- ^ Jörg Helbig: History of British Film. Verlag KB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999. p. 82
- ^ Paganini criticism in “Der Spiegel” of October 4, 1947
- ^ Paganini criticism in Die Zeit of September 25, 1947
- ↑ Paganini. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2020 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 804
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 634
Web links
- Paganini in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Magic Bow on screenonline.org