Speckbacher (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Speckbacher |
| Country of production | Austria-Hungary |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | approx. 60 (1913), approx. 45 (film available today) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Pierre Paul Gilmans |
| script | Pierre Paul Gilmans |
| production | Jupiter movie |
| music | Gerhard Gruber (re-performance 2009) |
| occupation | |
| |
Speckbacher , also known as The Death Bride , is a 1912 patriotic, Austro-Hungarian silent film historical drama from the time of the liberation struggles in Tyrol in 1809. The actors belonged to the Exl stage , whose boss Ferdinand Exl played the freedom fighter and title hero Josef Speckbacher .
action
The framework or place of action is Tyrol in 1809, harassed and occupied by Napoleonic troops. In Andreas Hofer and Josef Speckbacher , however, two courageous men emerged from among the Tyroleans who stand up to the French by all means and drive the foreigners out of the country want. An episode from this liberation struggle is at the center of the action.
Embedded in this historical setting, the tragic love story of Speckbacher's niece, Katl, and her groom Alois is shown. Together with Josef Speckbacher, Alois wants to recapture Kropfsberg Castle near Brixlegg, which was occupied by the French soldiers. To do this, he sneaks into the castle as a spy. However, he is discovered and imprisoned. Then his Katl disguises herself as a French officer, also penetrates Kropfsberg and frees her husband, who had recently been married to Father Haspinger. The decisive battle ensues at the castle, with the French defeated. But in the general confusion, Alois does not recognize his Katl in the French uniform and accidentally shoots her.
Production notes
Speckbacher was shot from the summer of 1912 until just before the end of the year on location in Tyrol at the original locations of the historically documented events in Tyrol in 1809. a. the Zillertal , Kropfsberg Castle near Brixlegg and the Reitherkogel. With around 2000 extras, Speckbacher was one of the most elaborate films in Austria-Hungary before the First World War. Original weapons from a hundred years earlier were mainly used for the filming; Ferdinand Exl as Speckbacher was allowed to carry Speckbacher's original saber provided by the Andreas Hofer Museum as a prop. The soldier extras were provided by the rifle companies Alpbach, Brixlegg, Hopfgarten, Kramsach, Münster, Schwaz, Wörgl as well as the Landsturm groups Häring, Hopfgarten, Westendorf, Wildschönauer "Sturmlöda" and Voldeser Sensler.
The film had three acts and was 782 meters long. The production total was about 60,000 crowns . It was presented to a mass audience in Vienna on February 28, 1913. However, the enormous costs could no longer be recovered and led to the bankruptcy of the film company founded especially for this project.
How much the memory of the French occupation was in the minds of the Tyrolean population over a hundred years after the events described, the Tyrolean extras in French uniforms got to feel close to the body, as the Nordtiroler Zeitung reported: "Of course there were no corpses, but it was not tightened, because the sight of the French uniforms set the Tyrolean blood so high that the brave men completely forgot that there were compatriots in the French masquerade and so the Tyrolean French got in the heat of the Fighting 'in addition to her free beer and her free lunch table, a pretty good beating. "
The film was considered lost for a long time, but it has been almost completely reconstructed using finds in the Filmarchiv Austria and in the holdings of the National Film and Television Archives in London. The solemn re-performance took place exactly 200 years after the events described, on October 12, 2009 in the Leokino Innsbruck.
reception
The film premiere on February 28, 1913 was a sensational success. The international press praised the film in the highest tones and particularly emphasized the imposing natural scenery and the monumentality of the film.
"This poignant plot is not what is worth seeing, the wondrous thing about this film, but the splendid crowd scene is very strange and peculiar in that it makes things tangible for us that we previously only knew from books and dead pictures: there the Tyroleans walk Heroes to the storm and proudly fluttering the flag with the blood-red eagle in the sunny mountain air, the women walk just behind their husbands and wear their socks just like these. And then stone avalanches roll down again, right into the enemy and tear them down terrible skein of ... "
“We don't need to say any more about the film, the accusation and history of which we have already reported repeatedly. He liked it very much in general. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Speckbacher" on schuetzen.com ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Nordtiroler Zeitung of September 25, 1912
- ↑ "Speckbacher" on oe-journal.at
- ↑ "Speckbacher". In: Neuigkeits-Welt-Blatt , March 1, 1913, p. 10 (online at ANNO ).
Web links
- The death bride in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Bride of Death at The German Early Cinema Database