Shards (film)

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Movie
Original title shards
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1921
length 62 minutes
Rod
Director Lupu pick
script Carl Mayer
production Lupu Pick for Rex-Film GmbH
music Giuseppe Becce
camera Friedrich Weinmann
occupation

Shards is a German fiction film by Lupu Pick from 1921. The expressionist- style film based on the script by Carl Mayer is considered the first of the German chamber fiction films .

action

It is winter. The family of a railroad attendant lives a monotonous and poor life next to a railway line. A telegram announces the arrival of an inspector who also wants to live with the family.

As soon as this has arrived, the trainman's daughter succumbs to his seductions. After hearing noises, the mother uses an ax to gain access to the inspector's locked room and discovers her daughter. Shocked, she seeks consolation in faith and runs to a cross with a saint at the edge of the forest, where she freezes to death while praying. The station attendant notices her absence the next morning, finds her dead and broken.

The daughter pleads with the inspector for a promise to marry, but he coldly rejects her. She then tells her father what happened. He politely knocks on the inspector's room, but when the inspector isn't ready to give in, he strangles him.

The station attendant stoically does his duty the next day. He stops a train and confesses to the driver: "I'm a murderer!" The daughter wanders confusedly through the snow-covered area and sees the train driving away.

Remarks

The film premiered on May 27, 1921 in Berlin.

Shards is conceived as a 'drama in five days'. The film established the 'German chamber fiction film', the plot of which is limited to just a few people and takes place in the everyday petty bourgeoisie. There is a unity of place, time and action. Apart from the confession “I am a murderer!”, The plot is told without subtitles .

Symbolic imagery is used: before the inspector arrives, a storm breaks the window glass, a ominous scarecrow stands in front of the house, the inspector's bare boots suggest his authority.

literature

  • Horst Claus: Shards on the back stairs. In: Michael Omasta, Brigitte Mayr, Christian Cargnelli (eds.): Carl Mayer, Scenar [t] is. A script by him was already a film - "A script by Carl Mayer was already a film". Synema, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-901644-10-5
  • Fred Gehler: Shards . In Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. Henschel Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 54 f.

swell

  1. ↑ Fred Gehler in German Feature Films from the Beginnings to 1933 , p. 54 f.

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