Symphony of a life

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Movie
Original title Symphony of a life
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1943
length 87 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Hans Bertram
script Hans Bertram
Kurt E. Walter
production Hans Bertram (production group) for Tobis-Filmkunst GmbH, (Berlin)
music Norbert Schultze
camera Erich Nitzschmann
Carl Hoffmann (picture-technical director)
cut Ella Ensink
occupation

as well as the Vienna Boys' Choir

Symphony of a Life is a German feature film from 1943 by Hans Bertram . Harry Baur and Henny Porten play the leading roles .

action

Like a piece of music, the film is divided into four movements:

At the beginning, the cantor Melchior and his family are introduced. He loves his wife and their two children more than anything. His life, however, is music, working with the choir children. One day the young, beautiful Countess Ilka stops in the small village because a wheel on her broken carriage has to be replaced. When the old man sees Ilka, he's done for. He falls in love with her and follows her abroad. After four years of courtship, the young noblewoman finally agrees to become his wife. Stefan, not entirely incapable, gives Ilka the once auctioned Ilkas family estate for the upcoming wedding. At the celebration Melchior met Ilka's cousin Martin, who had been keeping an eye on the young countess for a long time. At Stefan's request, Martin dances with his newly wedded wife. The jealousy increases in Stefan from dance to dance, and it increases so much that Melchior finally tears down a chandelier from the wall and kills his rival with it.

Stefan Melchior is arrested and sent to prison for twelve years. After his release, he is a broken man. What counts for him now is exclusively music, and so the first thing he does after his release is to go to the House of Music to listen to young talent. Finally he returns to his home village and has to find out that his former wife Maria is seriously ill and is struggling with death. Before she dies, both can speak to each other. However, Maria does not want his two children to see their father again. Let them remember him as he was before he left them all. After Maria's death, all that remains for Stefan Melchior is the music, and he sets about composing the “symphony of his life”.

Production and Political Background

The film had a very unusual story of its origins, which was accompanied by countless incidents:
filming began on February 19, 1942 with the exterior shots near Berlin . The studio recordings were made between mid-March and early April 1942, and the outdoor photos were taken in the Wachau ( Dürnstein castle ruins and the surrounding area) from mid-April to mid-May 1942 . Due to the political irritations and racial disputes between Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels on the one hand and a leading SS officer stationed in Paris on the other hand, the film was released by the censors on November 17, 1942 after much back and forth. April 1943 in the Berlin Marble House . At the time, lead actor Harry Baur had been dead for thirteen days.

Regarding the background to this tragedy, Ulrich J. Klaus' Deutsche Tonfilme, 12th year 1942/43 says:

"The director Hans Bertram was able to use the famous French artist for the main role of the film. Goebbels was not particularly pleased about this, because Baur, who was originally regarded as a Jew, was meanwhile considered an Aryan and was then "disreputable" again. However, there was reassuring information from the German embassy in Paris and Goebbels was proud that the "French Jannings" worked for the German Tobis. The film was a great success. Goebbels invited the Baurs to Berlin and gave the couple the best of courtesy. A few days later, on their return to Paris, the Baurs were arrested on behalf of the Higher SS and Police Leader because they were of Jewish descent. Goebbels was outraged that Baur's descent from Paris had not been carefully examined. He sent a protest letter to the SS leader. The letter was answered coolly to the effect that new facts are now available. [...] The investigations against the Baur couple showed that both were of Aryan descent. Goebbels triumphed that he did not appoint a Jew and that the SS officer in Paris was wrong. "

- Quoted from Ulrich J. Klaus 2001

For Baur, the tussle over his "Aryan" or presumably Jewish origin had dramatic consequences. After his arrest, he was in Gestapo custody for months. The pain and abuse he suffered there had severely affected him and led to his premature death.

Even for the director Bertram (“Feuertaufe”, “Kampfgeschwader Lützow”), who was previously considered extremely loyal to the regime, the film turned into a personal setback. As can be read in Kay Weniger's Between Stage and Barracks, he was dismissed during the heyday of the debate regarding Baur's presumed Jewish origin: “On September 25, 1942, the director was removed from the Reich Chamber of Culture because of allegedly“ serious misconducts such as the levy false declarations on honor "excluded - in fact equivalent to a film ban."

The entire, adverse circumstances of the production as well as the fact that Baur's “racial” origin was considered unexplained for a long time, his film partner Henny Porten was married to a Jew ( Wilhelm von Kaufmann ) and director Bertram had meanwhile been shot, led to Goebbels 'Instructions for an opening credits with names of those involved in the film were completely omitted. Only the film title is mentioned as a fade-in before the start of the action.

The production costs were around 1,784,000 RM.

Robert Wuellner took over the production management. The film structures were designed by Otto Erdmann and executed by Franz F. Fürst . The lyrics to the music by Norbert Schultze come from Willy Dehmel .

In the same year of the German premiere, Symphony of a Life also started in Sweden and Finland . The German television premiere was on December 2, 1955 on ARD .

criticism

Bertram's entry in Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films reads: “With the ambitious, poetic artist biography“ Symphony of a Life ”, Bertram presented his most interesting work. For this work, in which the spoken word was pushed into the background by the music, he was able to win a remarkable old star combination (the French Harry Baur and Henny Porten). "

The Lexicon of International Films wrote (in the wrong title entry “Symphony of Life”): “Pathetic artist drama that escapes embarrassment through the art of characterization of the French Harry Baur [...].”

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. after Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme 12th year 1942/43, page 218 f., Berlin 2001.
  2. ↑ cf. on this by Kay Less: Between the stage and the barracks , p. 52 f. Berlin 2008
  3. ↑ ibid., P. 427
  4. ↑ ibid. P. 53
  5. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 373.
  6. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 7, P. 3681. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987.