Pestalozzis Mountain
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Pestalozzis Mountain |
| Country of production | Switzerland , GDR , Federal Republic of Germany , Italy |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 119 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter von Gunten |
| script |
Peter Schneider Peter von Gunten Lukas Hartmann |
| production | Praesens Film AG, Zurich Stella-Film, Munich Ellepi Films SrI, Rome DEFA, KAG "Babelsberg" |
| music | Heinz Reber |
| camera | Jürgen Lenz |
| cut | Lotti Mehnert |
| occupation | |
| |
Pestalozzis Berg is a feature film by Peter von Gunten from 1989 . It was co-produced by Switzerland, the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy.
action
The Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi arrives at the Gurnigelbad sanatorium on Pass Gurnigel , where the head of Zehender wants to give him a big reception. Pestalozzi refuses any consideration and retires to his room. He is in a deep life crisis. He keeps thinking back to the last six months: six months ago in December 1798 he opened a home for the orphans of the war in the St. Clara monastery in Stans . It is a state institution and Pestalozzi was appointed to manage it. He brought the first children into the home by knocking on an empty food bowl and making them understand that food was waiting for them. Many of the children who came to him in time could not even speak. He gave them food and a bed for the night, taking them off the streets of the area. Parents also increasingly brought children to him, but wanted payment for Pestalozzi to take care of them. He refused payment, so that the parents' anger turned increasingly against Pestalozzi. Zschokke from the ministry visited the home after a few months and was of the opinion that the children had not learned enough in the past time. Since Pestalozzi's attempts to finance the home by growing and later selling madder and flax failed, the home was dependent on government support. Pestalozzi financed additional expenses with his wife's fortune, which was used up after a few months. Pestalozzi's home was evacuated because the government needed a hospital because of the war against France. The children were taken away and "taken away" from him, as he bitterly sums up after six months. His wife Anna also separated from him, as he always gave more to others than to his own family. He could not even raise his son, asked too much of him and was helpless in the face of his early epileptic seizures .
In the sanatorium, Pestalozzi was soon seen as a strange loner. He appears rude and rude to the sanatorium guests, but soon finds access to the maid, Mädi. Although she is suspicious of him, she accepts his offer to teach her to read and write. Mädi only learns slowly, but does not give up, even if Pestalozzi occasionally loses patience. Zehender takes care of Pestalozzi, since he is an admirer of the humanist. He gets him a new skirt to make the guests more comfortable and goes hiking with him on a mountain plateau. Pestalozzi rarely appreciates these efforts on behalf of him. When Pestalozzi climbed the mountain himself one day after he had received a letter from his wife in which she reported that their son was in poor health, Pestalozzi had an epileptic fit and remained helpless on the mountain slope. It is Zehender who initiates a great search for him and then has him cared for. Pestalozzi now has more understanding for his son. He also continues to take care of Mädi, who is making great strides. At a presentation of the "Madi sensation" organized by the active Zehender in his house, Pestalozzi explains that he has no teaching method that he can explain to others. He refers to the children who were once taken away from him and falls silent. In turn, Mädi reads a text from a book that she wrote down herself. The assembled audience applauds while Pestalozzi leaves the room unnoticed. He goes up the mountain by himself and starts knocking on an empty bowl as he once did.
production
Pestalozzis Berg is based on the novel of the same name by Lukas Hartmann , who was also involved in the script. The costumes created Werner Bergemann and Greti Kläy , the production design is by Harry Leupold . According to historical documents, some of Pestalozzi's whereabouts in the DEFA studio for feature films in Potsdam-Babelsberg have been reconstructed (e.g. the Gurnigelbad ). All outdoor shots took place in Switzerland. For some locations, extensive historical additions were made, for example the silhouette of a village. The film premiered on February 15, 1989 at the Berlin International Film Festival , where it was screened in the competition for the Golden Bear . The first performance in the GDR was on March 16, 1989 at the Berlin Kino International ; the film was released in GDR cinemas the following day. The film was released on DVD in 2010.
criticism
"The outwardly brittle film creates the image of a man who tries almost obsessively to put his revolutionary upbringing theories into practice against strong opposition and who almost breaks physically and mentally", summarized the film-dienst . Other critics complained that the film offers nothing new about Pestalozzi and does not suggest that Pestalozzi had another high point of life after the crisis with his time at the boarding school in Yverdon. The film is also "rather comfortable". The Neue Zürcher Zeitung called the film a “considerable attempt at a resurrection” by Pestalozzi, but emphasized that the film was not made of one piece. The film mirror criticized that director von Gunten did not succeed in making Pestalozzi's inner world comprehensible for the audience: Actor Volonté would "wander through the Alps [...] motionless, uninvolved and uninvolved".
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 451-452 .
- D. Felini: "Tutto per i miei bambini". L'orfanotrofio di Stans nel film Pestalozzis Berg . In: Rassegna di Pedagogia LXXV (2017), No. 3-4, pp. 31-47. [1]
Web links
- Pestalozzis Berg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Pestalozzis Berg at filmportal.de
- Pestalozzis Berg at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ^ Pestalozzis Mountain. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Brigitte Jeremias: GDR films. Ambivalent fates . In: epd Film, Cologne, No. 4, 1989.
- ↑ -che: A clumsy, tortured "child friend" . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , March 2, 1989.
- ^ Henryk Goldberg: The air is pretty thin . In: Filmspiegel , No. 8. 1989, p. 14.