Game at Dawn (film)

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Movie
Original title Game at dawn
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 2001
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Götz Spielmann
script Götz Spielmann
production Lotus movie
music Walter W. Cikan ,
Eddi Siblik
camera Martin Gschlacht
cut Niki Mossböck
occupation

Game at Dawn is an Austrian TV film from 2001 . Directed by Götz Spielmann , who also wrote the screenplay based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Schnitzler .

action

Film history in Austria takes place in the last years of the monarchy , in a time shortly before the outbreak of the First World War . Many long years of peace lie behind the flourishing monarchy. But tensions are growing in society and politics, and the signs that peace is deceptive are mounting. The signs that nobody wants to see are for war. The young lieutenant of the infantry , Wilhelm Kasda (Fritz Karl), lived the life of a young officer of his time. Small, often unimportant affairs like those with Steffi (Birgit Minichmayr), a simple young woman, are part of this life. After a night with her in the hotel, he no longer plans to see her again. He puts a note on the bedside table for her and disappears.

But only a few years later he is facing financial ruin. He gambled away all of his fortune in a card game, which he did not have, in order to help his former regimental comrade Lieutenant Otto von Bogner. He had to say goodbye to the military years ago due to gambling debts. He is now married and works as a cashier in an office and embezzled money. Before an upcoming business inventory, he urgently needs 1000 crowns. Now his friend Wilhelm is his last hope. But he has little himself since his uncle Robert (Peter Matic) no longer supports him financially.

Like every Sunday, Lieutenant Kasda goes to Reichenau to spend the day in better company. In a coffee house he sits down at the gaming table and at first wins handsomely, then he visits a family of industrialists. After a pleasant afternoon in the Kessner family's house, he leaves them and goes back to the coffee house to play. He is now gradually beginning to lose in the card game and not only gamble away his previously won fortune, but also owes himself to his opponent Consul Schnabel (Karlheinz Hackl). When the morning dawned, he was in debt with an amount of 11,000 kroner . But his creditor insists on payment within 24 hours. According to the code of honor of that time, the game ceases to be a mere vice - it becomes a fraud. His only hope now is his wealthy uncle Robert and his wife Steffi, his former love. But Steffi, meanwhile a rich woman, is turning the tables now that Lieutenant Wilhelm Kasda is suffocating in gambling debts. After a long hesitation, she agrees to meet Kasda for dinner, at which she wants to let him know whether she can grant him a loan of 11,000 kroner. In the evening she comes into the lieutenant's room, lets herself be entertained and seduced, but does not speak a single word about the money. Kasda doesn't dare to ask her, but believes her behavior will lead to a happy ending. She was favored by fate and now determines the game herself.

Kasda wakes up at dawn and sees Steffi about to leave. When he wants to ask about the money, she leaves him 1,000 kroner as payment for the night they spent together. He realizes that this is vengeance for the night three years earlier. He realizes that he was ready to sell himself. Kasda has his boyfriend (Florian Teichmeister) deliver the 1000 kroner bill to Mr. von Bogner, praises him for his services and orders him not to be disturbed. When, after asking several times, he does not open the door of his room, his comrades break open the door and see Kasda lying on a sofa. Out of desperation, he killed himself with a shot in the head with his service weapon. At the same moment his uncle Robert arrives with the money he needs, but he is too late. In the end credits comes the message about the outbreak of the First World War .

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