Final Chord (1960)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Final chord |
| Country of production |
Germany Italy France |
| original language |
German Italian French |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wolfgang Liebeneiner |
| script | John H. Kafka |
| production | Carl Szokoll |
| music | Georges Auric |
| camera | Georg Bruckbauer |
| cut | Use Wilken |
| occupation | |
| |
Schlußakkord is a German-French-Italian melodrama from 1960 by Wolfgang Liebeneiner with the tenor Mario del Monaco in the leading role. Other leading roles play Eleonora Rossi-Drago , Christian Marquand , Viktor de Kowa and Christian Wolff .
action
Love and jealousy, singing and great emotion at the time of the Salzburg Festival .
The journalist and librettist Linda Valore wants the music project she wrote, promoted and initiated under the name “Peon Messias” to become a sensational experience at this year's (1960) Salzburg Festival. The preparatory work is also in full swing, rehearsals have just started. Suddenly something completely unexpected happens: the intended tenor cancels his participation, and the festival director distances himself from the performance. Private as well as artistic reservations have shaken the project: the composer of the work, Frank Leroux, is the main culprit for the constant irritation and delays. Sometimes the creator of the work complains about the tenor, which he castigates as incompetent and provincial, then he doesn't get his feet up and is constantly rewriting passages in his work. To make matters worse, he not only regularly attacks the bottle, but also attacks the respected conductor Alexander von Berkin with his attacks of jealousy. He, in turn, has an old love affair with Linda, which he would love to refresh again.
In order not to let her “favorite child” go down without a hitch, Linda now takes matters into her hands. It becomes the driving force and encourages those involved to rehearse around the clock in Schloss Kleßheim . The much criticized tenor is replaced and his colleague, the star tenor Carlo del Monti, is signed in his place. In order to avoid the interference of the “prima donna” among the authors, Laroux is persuaded to seek treatment in a sanatorium because of his now obvious alcohol problem. The world premiere of “Peon Messias” is imminent, but further dramatic events endanger the premiere. Leroux continues to cause disruptions, but this time it is not the others who he considers incapable cultivators. This time he thinks that his own masterpiece is just "garbage". Now he absolutely wants to rewrite the entire score. After some back and forth, the premiere comes after all, and when the final chord has faded away, the self-doubting person experiences thunderous applause and the conductor experiences a new love in the theater secretary Josefine Wendelin.
Production notes
The final chord was shot in the city of Salzburg and the surrounding area and premiered on December 23, 1960.
The film was based on an idea by Walter Forster and the producer Carl Szokoll . Wolfgang Birk was in charge of production, Helga Billian created the costumes. The buildings came from the hands of Otto Pischinger and Herta Hareiter and Wolf Witzemann . Hans Hagen conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra .
The collaboration between director Liebeneiner, protégé of film minister Joseph Goebbels until 1945 , and the emigrant Hans Kafka , who had returned from the USA and who wrote the screenplay - his last cinema script ever - for Liebeneiner's production, was not without piquancy. Only a decade and a half earlier, Kafka, in his capacity as a construction author, had rioted heavily on loved ones. In addition, Kay Weniger said, 'In life more is taken from you than is given ...': “About this former Goebbels favorite (and some of his colleagues from directing, producing and acting) Kafka - once merciless in judging everyone under the NS - Dominance working film colleagues - 15 years earlier in the 'construction' (issue 39 of September 28, 1945, p. 14) poured out wild abuse. In the article "Nazi Business With a Future" he wrote among other things: "But instead of jailing the Goebbels stooges in the German movie industry ... the Harlans, Liebeneiners, Forsts who directed the pictures ... they are 'wooed with fat contracts'" . "
Reviews
“Love and five couples ready for weddings in a Salzburg festival film. It's about the world premiere of a short opera and its jealous composer: he beats up the first tenor and almost shoots the second. In between, Mario Monaco, Italy's star tenor, Leoncavallo, Verdi and Auric sings. Liebeneiner staged the pompous cramp expansively and seriously. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: "With a non-binding action, roles appropriate to their ability for the sympathetic participants and ... serious and light music for the star, a well-groomed singer film that ... wins thanks to the Salzburg milieu."
On the occasion of a television broadcast in 1982, Der Spiegel called the strip a "conventional German-French-Italian cinema hoot"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 272.
- ^ Final chord in the Lexicon of International Film
- ↑ Final chord in Paimann's film lists
- ↑ Der Spiegel 8/1982 of February 22, 1982, p. 232
Web links
- Final chord in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Final chord at filmportal.de