Svengali (1927)

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Movie
Original title Svengali
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1927
length 104 minutes
Rod
Director Gennaro Righelli
script Max Glass based
on the novel Trilby by George du Maurier
production Max Glass
for Terra-Film AG, Berlin
music Walter Ulfig
camera Arpad Viragh
occupation

Svengali is a German feature film from 1927. Paul Wegener plays the title role, directed by Gennaro Righelli .

action

The petty bourgeois girl Trilby, who would have loved to become a model, but for which her talent is obviously not enough, lives and works in her mother's laundry. Many up-and-coming artists live and study here in the student quarter - an environment Trilby is magically drawn to. She likes to move around in artistic circles and has become the friend of the up-and-coming painter Billy. The encounter with the piano virtuoso Svengali in the student café changed her life from the ground up. The man exerts a hypnotic effect on her and soon he succeeds in captivating her completely. Svengali kidnaps Trilby, puts her under hypnosis and makes her a talented singer. In this condition, in which she is exposed to Svengali's will for better or for worse, she can play entire concerts around the globe.

One day Svengali and Trilby return to their hometown. Billy still hasn't forgotten his love. Then there is a tangible argument between Svengali and his hunchbacked violinist Gecko, a strange figure. When Gecko realizes that Svengali's power over Trilby is not good for her, he asks his lord and master to let the girl go. Svengali coolly rejects him, and Gecko then stabs him. Svengali is so badly injured that he loses consciousness during a concert by Trilby and ultimately dies. Svengali's power over the girl is broken, but at the moment of Svengali's death, Trilby faints and becomes seriously ill a little later. In a sanatorium she is led back into (hypnosis-free) life. When Trilby has recovered and the shadow of Svengali's power over her is gone, she can start a new life at Billy's side.

Production notes

The film was shot in May 1927 in the Terra Glass House. The premiere of the seven-act film, which was censored on August 4, 1927, took place on September 7, 1927 in the Berlin Beba-Palast atrium.

The Filmbauten come from Hans Jacoby , Hermann reason was manager .

Reviews

The Austrian Film Newspaper ruled: "The manuscript author Max Glass had the honest will to make artistic films and, apart from the“ happy ending ”, carried it out. Gorilla beautiful in its terribility and terrible in its beauty. "

Oskar Kalbus ' Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst wrote about Wegener's interpretation of Svengali: His eerie face did not need to be reshaped by a make-up artist, but it wasn't classic either. In the most famous actors of Svengali, the smooth face of the actor was always framed by a black full beard to give the figure an eerie expression. Anita Dorris was particularly captivating in the portrayal of the hypnotized.

In Heinrich Fraenkel's “Immortal Film” it was said: “Brutal violence, as shown here as“ Svengali ”, is what Paul Wegener is believed to be. In the role of the famous hypnotist, however, he is just as convincing of the hypnotic compulsion that that mysterious villain of horror literature exerts on his victims. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Svengali". In:  Österreichische Film-Zeitung , September 24, 1927, p. 21 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / fil
  2. ↑ On the Development of German Film Art, p. 95.
  3. ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Munich 1956, p. 283

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