Soloist Anna Alt

Movie
Original title	Soloist Anna Alt
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1944
length	94 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Werner Klingler
script	Harald G. Petersson
production	Tobis-Filmkunst GmbH (Berlin), production group Conrad Flockner
music	Herbert Windt
camera	Georg Bruckbauer
cut	Ella Ensink
occupation
	Anneliese Uhlig : Anna Alt; Will Quadflieg : Joachim Alt; Emil Lohkamp : General Music Director Westberg; Eugen Klöpfer : Prof. Burghardt; Georg Thomalla : Heinz Wichert; Ursula Grabley : Ida Wichert;

Soloist Anna Alt is a feature film by Werner Klingler from 1944.

content

Anna and Joachim Alt get to know each other at the music college. Both are highly talented musicians: she is a pianist and he is a composer. After graduating as a master class student with Professor Burghardt, they married and both were initially successful in their field. Joachim receives the Mozart Prize for one of his compositions, Anna is a successful concert pianist. Over time, however, Joachim fell into depression , as he was unable to put his creative ideas on paper for a great symphony. When Anna is invited to a concert tour, Joachim reacts with mad jealousy and lets himself go in the following time. When Anna returns from the tour, she realizes her husband's condition is close to suicide . She wants to give up her own career for him, but her former teacher Burghardt advises her to keep working. Joachim had to find his way out of the crisis himself and only through her work could he become artistically active.

Anna Alt goes on tour again, although her doctor forbids any exertion because of her weak heart. And indeed her health is compromised after the many appearances and Anna Alt suffers a fit of weakness during one of the performances. With the last of her strength Anna completes the concert and collapses on stage during the final applause. She is taken to the hospital, where they are reconciled with Joachim. It was only through her breakdown that he found his way back to music and completed his symphony, which he took his wife to bed. Anna Alt, on the other hand, is now ready to give up her life as a musician.

production

The film was shot under the working title Career from March to June 1944. In December 1944, the censors gave the film a youth ban . The world premiere of soloist Anna Alt took place on January 22, 1945 in the Marble House in Berlin . It was the first German film premiere in 1945; by the end of the Second World War only eleven other films were released in German cinemas. After the end of the war, the film was released in 1950 under the distribution title If the music weren't ... or also under the title Symphony of three hearts .

criticism

The Marble House in Berlin, location of the premiere of soloist Anna Alt

The contemporary criticism praised the action, "which has little external process and nothing in common with the conventional mechanics of the event". The plot would have an "almost makeshift character", rather the central struggle of the musical genius with himself is central:

“Among the many attempts at a musician's film, this is finally one from the spirit of music. ... Here the sounding treasure of the classics does not become a sound film add-on for a private, more or less important fate, but here, for the sake of music, the passion, the hardship and the happiness of artistic creation are taken seriously. "

- Richard Biedrzynski, 1945

Anneliese Uhlig's play was particularly praised, having succeeded in “a complete change”: “incredibly haunting in her facial expression that made her eyes mirror ... she achieved an achievement, the most beautiful perfection of which was based on the harmonious fusion of her acting and pianistic playing. "Her partner Will Quadflieg, who played a musician again after playing a violinist in the films Kora Terry , Die Zaubergeige and Philharmoniker , shows" the unbridled temperament of the ingenious person ", but" here and there still gets into ... challenging Beethoven proximity . "

The lexicon of international film criticism in 1990, the "sentimental plot cliché", but which wins "little musical quality and the clear presentation of the everyday environment of people."

Web links

Soloist Anna Old in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Data on the film on murnau-stiftung.de
Soloist Anna Alt on filmportal.de

Individual evidence

↑ Eric Rentschler: The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi cinema and its afterlife . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1996, p. 267.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Dr. Richard Biedrzynski: Musical Passion. “Soloist Anna Alt” - a Tobis film in the marble house . Article in a Berlin newspaper on the occasion of the film's premiere at the end of January 1945.
↑ ^a ^b Cornelia Herstatt: This is how a work is born. “Soloist Anna Alt”, a new Tobis film in the marble house . Article in a Berlin newspaper on the occasion of the film's premiere at the end of January 1945.
^ The Lexicon of International Films . Volume 7. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 3512.

[1] Eric Rentschler: The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi cinema and its afterlife . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1996, p. 267.

[Biedrzynski-2] Dr. Richard Biedrzynski: Musical Passion. “Soloist Anna Alt” - a Tobis film in the marble house . Article in a Berlin newspaper on the occasion of the film's premiere at the end of January 1945.

[Herstatt-3] Cornelia Herstatt: This is how a work is born. “Soloist Anna Alt”, a new Tobis film in the marble house . Article in a Berlin newspaper on the occasion of the film's premiere at the end of January 1945.

[4] The Lexicon of International Films . Volume 7. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 3512.