Peer Gynt (1934)
Peer Gynt is a German feature film in 1934, loosely based on the same template of Henrik Ibsen from 1867. Directed by Fritz Wendhausen played Hans Albers in the title role.
action
Peer is a young, powerful Norwegian farm boy and womanizer, often cocky and full of nonsense in the head. One day he meets Solveig at a wedding party. The young girl is exactly the opposite of him: quiet, reserved and gentle. Opposites attract, and the young do-not-good, who lets his father's court fall into disrepair, is immediately on fire with Solveig. When one day Peer's mother Aase dies in his arms, Solveig is at his side and comforts him. But now nothing keeps him in this secluded, lonely place. The opportunity to finally escape the confines of the peasantry and get to know the wide world is now here: Peer Gynt is drawn to America, always his dream. Even Solveig's affection cannot hold him back. But the faithful soul lets Peer go and promises to wait for him.
A little later Gynt found a ship ready to take him in as a young seaman. The owner is the noble Baroness Agga, who wants to raise a treasure with her companion Parker. Not averse to any adventure, Peer ensnares the baroness and soon dives for the treasure herself. Much to Parker's delight, Peer Gynt will soon be accepted as a third business partner. The baroness not only gave him power and money, but also soon introduced him to the so-called “better circles”. A little later, the Norwegian Parvenu owns its own Peer Gynt Company and a number of ships that transport goods across the seven seas. The time has come for Peer Gynt to get rid of his increasingly annoying partners.
Peer Gynt's character begins to change; the pursuit of money, fame and power determines his actions. And he still can't help running after every woman's skirt. Affairs determine his private life, while he soon becomes active in other economic fields as well: for example, he is digging for copper in Africa and founding entire cities. He put down an Arab rebellion that threatened his property there with his own hands. Soon he controlled large parts of the black continent economically. Only after Peer Gynt saves the life of an Arab girl named Anitra, who was doomed in a sandstorm, does he come to his senses. Real feelings that have been buried since leaving Solveig are exposed. Peer notices this at the latest when, during a celebration held in his honor, his house is destroyed by angry locals who do not like Arabs or an Arab girl. Then the vandals kidnap Anitra.
Immediately beforehand, Peer Gynt had made a decision that was to mean a total turnaround in his life: in the face of a far-reaching realization - "I have conquered the world and lost myself in the process" - he wanted to give away all of his belongings to his employees. Now he's standing with nothing - but completely different than planned. To save his new love, Peer wanders through the desert at night, always looking for Anitra. He gets lost and is robbed. Torn down and on the ground, he finally reaches a harbor pub. There he meets sailors from his home country, and Peer realizes that nothing can hold him back here in Africa. The seafarers take him on their ship - destination: Norway. When Gynt returned to his parents' farm, he was old and tired, a broken man. But contrary to expectations, the farm is not completely ruined - the fields are tilled, the house is in good shape. A woman is sitting in front of it: it's Solveig. She recognizes him immediately. As once promised, she was waiting for him. Only now does Peer Gynt really appreciate true happiness and loyalty and the unconditional love for the local plaice.
Production notes
In Peer Gynt is a particularly popular in Germany, literary material. For racial and ideological reasons, the National Socialists forced their great affection for "Nordic" materials and filmed a number of other Ibsen models until shortly before the end of the war ( Harald Braun's Nora film from 1943). After Victor Barnowsky's two-part Peer Gynt silent film from 1918, this was already the second German Gynt adaptation. Before that, there had only been one (US) film adaptation from 1915.
Peer Gynt was filmed from the second half of August until the beginning of November 1934. The outdoor shots were taken in Gudbrandstal, Norway, as well as in Cairo , London and the Port of Hamburg . The premiere was on December 7, 1934 in Berlin. In Vienna the film opened in cinemas on December 20, 1934. Until January 1936, Peer Gynt could still be seen in Finland, France, Turkey and Denmark.
The production line had Adolf Essek . Hermann Warm and Karl Vollbrecht created the film structures. Günther Anders served as a simple cameraman for the head cameraman Carl Hoffmann , Heinz Ritter was a still photographer. Wilhelm Sperber was one of two unit managers .
The dark-skinned Zehra Achmed, who appeared in the African film section, was an acting dancer. The role of Tatjana was written especially for the Austrian singer Lizzi Waldmüller . For Richard Révy , the role of Gunarson was the last film appearance in Hitler's Germany; then he emigrated to the USA.
The film received the rating "artistically valuable".
Reviews
The reactions to this ambitious film adaptation were extremely divided. Here are a few examples:
In the Österreichische Film-Zeitung of December 22, 1934, it says on page 3: Hans Albers had "found the opportunity to design a very extraordinarily effective role that brings his acting abilities to multiple uses. Whether he is now exuberant to the young Peer Gynt, The fun-loving, boastful peasant boy who longs for the big wide world, or later Peer Gynt as economic dictator and accomplished man of the world, and finally the world-weary, aged man returning home who realizes too late where happiness was waiting for him - Hans Albers will be his many Supporters do not disappoint in any phase of this role. (...) Dr. Fritz Wendhausen staged the film in a very effective, colorful and varied manner, the splendidly photographed recordings of which are accompanied by the music of Grieg. "
The Wiener Zeitung of December 23, 1934 criticized this attempt to artistically combine poetry and celluloid: "In view of this cruel mutilation, fair behavior is difficult. (...) Would have at least once, only once in a scene a breath from the realms of the Poetry blown over. In the tact of a conscious modesty in relation to an original that could hardly be mastered, a form could have been found which, according to the laws of its possibilities, behaved appropriately can read excessive imagination, and now simply thinks that the volatile space of the film is enough to stage the changing happiness of Peer Gynt. The actor, rushed by the object, disappears entirely as a person. Or, as in our case, is in the running Illustration just a recurring photograph, now near, now far. "
In his rating given in the Third Reich, Oskar Kalbus ' Vom Becoming German Film Art emphasized the proximity to this "Nordic" material for racial and ideological reasons and came to different assessments of individual sections of this Gynt film:
“ Does this Nordic blood also pulse in the film“ Peer Gynt ”? Not in the whole film! And that's why the film also falls into several parts: The first part, Peer Gynt's longing for the world in his mother's cramped and poor hut and on the surrounding mountains, meadows and rivers, breathes Ibsen’s Nordic fantasy, and maybe also the end of the film, Peer Gynt's homecoming to Solveig and home. Everything else is so foreign to Ibsen that not much remains of the original Peer Gynt form. The second part, Peer Gynt's struggle for money and power, shows a new " Peter Voss, the millionaire thief " in the style of "Oops, now I'm coming!" And is therefore far from serious, deep art; the African part, too, which brings resignation, is weak and pale, as it is in the original work. (...) So Hans Albers only in the first part and at the end of the film has grown wonderfully and overwhelmingly, almost never before, beyond himself. A great guy his young Gynt, unspoilt in his strength and in his humor, and as a shipwrecked man of life haunting and unforgettable, as well as the art of Lucie Höflich in her famous dying scene (Ases death). (…) Even if one faces the undertaking of reproducing Ibsen's mighty Nordic Faust in the film with a thousand reservations, long stretches of the film always remain a masterpiece, primarily by the actor Hans Albers and the director Dr. Fritz Wendhausen. "
Bogusław Drewniak analyzed the preference for Scandinavian authors, which was forced during the Third Reich, using the Gynt film from the post-war perspective:
“ In Germany there has traditionally been a great deal of interest in Scandinavian literature. Germany rightly claimed to have made a decisive contribution to the international reputation of Scandinavian literature. Under the sign of the "blood community", the Third Reich sought to exploit this fact for its political and racial goals. For example, Henrik Ibsen was considered a “herald of the Nordic soul” and “glorifier of the ideal of the Führer”. There were five Ibsen films at the time of the Third Reich: a record number. Ibsen's particularly highly esteemed drama “Peer Gynt” - often compared to Faust in Germany - gained a special place at that time because one of the translators, Dietrich Eckart, was Hitler's only intimate friend. It was not uncommon for “Peer Gynt” performances to be part of a direct Nazi propaganda event. To make the essentially undramatic structure of this epic poem rooted in the epic and the abundance of its short individual images compliant with the laws of film (it was similar in theater) required not only strong impulses from the acting and the direction, but also a well-designed film script. [...] The criticism (...) was divided in its statements, the audience was rather reserved. "
The lexicon of international films was short and sweet: ... just a clichéd pale adventure film.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ "Peer Gynt". In: Österreichische Film-Zeitung , December 22, 1934, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ "Peer Gynt". In: Wiener Zeitung , December 23, 1934, p. 14 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 6, S. 2918. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.
Web links
- Peer Gynt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Peer Gynt at filmportal.de