Tragedy of love
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Tragedy of love |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1923 |
| length | approx. 270 (all four parts) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joe May |
| script |
Leo Birinski Adolf Lantz |
| production | Joe May for May-Film, Berlin |
| music | Wilhelm Loewitt |
| camera |
Sophus Wangøe Karl Puth |
| occupation | |
and Paul Biensfeldt , Fritz Richard , Paul Graetz , Rudolf Lettinger , Albert Patry , Ferry Sikla , Hans Wassmann , Lena Amsel , Karl Gerhardt , Hans Kuhnert , Ernst Gronau | |
Tragedy of Love is a four-part, German silent film drama from 1922/23 by Joe May with Mia May and Emil Jannings in the lead roles.
action
1st and 2nd part
Countess Manon Moreau's husband is found murdered. A certain André Rabatin, who belongs to the same club as Count Moreau, is suspected of having committed the bloody act. Rabatin, a gentleman of the old school, protests his innocence to the widow and claims that the death of the count must have been a tragic accident. Over time, Manon begins to fall in love with the suspect Rabatin, as he does not seem capable of such a brutal act of violence. But this emerging relationship with Rabatin puts her under suspicion of murdering her husband. One begins to investigate against them too.
Another murder happens; this time Count Moreau's servant Jean was forcibly killed. Is there a connection? The culprit is quickly found: it is the wrestler Ombrade, a beefy, mentally not too bright character. Jean had been in the wrong place at the wrong time because he was caught between the front lines when Ombrade tried to prevent his mistress Musette from having a tete-a-tete with the Count. Musette is a real bitch who plays with men and knows exactly how to use them for your own goals. André Rabatin and Ombrade are found guilty and sentenced to forced labor in the following two murder trials. Countess Moreau leaves the courtroom a free woman.
3rd and 4th part
Ten years later. Countess Manon Moreau returns after a long time to Paris, where the tragedy once began. After the murder of her husband and the conviction of her new lover Rabatin, she had left town. Manon had a baby daughter named Kitty; however, she lives with her grandmother. Manon travels to Paris to fetch the child, but the grandmother wants to prevent this. One day there is a surprising family reunification: Manon, Kitty and André Rabatin, who has been released from prison, meet. Manon is horrified to find that André and Kitty have fallen in love.
Manon seeks out Rabatin in his apartment and pleads with him to keep Kitty's hands off, as she fears that he could also drag the young woman into the maelstrom of both unhappy lives. The brutal Ombrade has also been released from prison. He is still under the ominous influence of the manipulative musette. This makes him jealous of Rabatin. Beside himself with anger, Ombrade enters his apartment and kills André in a scuffle. Countess Manon is suspected of murder again, and the police investigation reveals her innocence again. Manon and Kitty can finally plan their mother and daughter lives together.
Production notes
The film was shot from the second half of 1922 until the beginning of 1923. The first two parts passed the German film censorship on March 6, 1923 and were banned from young people. The world premiere of Part 1 (71 minutes) took place on September 21, 1923 in May's hometown of Vienna , and that of Part 2 (65 minutes) in the same location on September 15. The German premiere of the first two parts was on October 8, 1923 in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo . Parts 3 and 4 passed the German censorship on May 8, 1923 and were also banned from young people. The third part (63 minutes) was premiered on September 28, 1923 in Vienna. For the first time in Germany you could see this part in Berlin on November 7th, 1923. The fourth and last part (72 minutes) of Tragedy of Love had its premiere in Vienna on October 2, 1923, while this conclusion of the tetralogy in Germany, like the previous part, first took place again on November 7, 1923 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo was seen.
The costumes are by Ali Hubert , the film structures were designed by Paul Leni and carried out by Erich Kettelhut and Erich Zander . Robert Wuellner served director May as his assistant.
During the shooting, the supporting actress Marlene Dietrich , who was involved in her second film, and the unit manager Rudolf Sieber , who would later become her husband, met. It is also her first collaboration with Emil Jannings, with whom she was able to present the greatest success of her career in 1930: The Blue Angel .
In August 1929 the film was released again in German cinemas.
Reviews
In the film states: "Performing Risch this time Erika Gläßner in the foreground Erika Gläßner as demimondaine, then as a woman of the world, which falls back again and again to their former spheres It is fascinating to see how she knows how her feminine weapons to.. To wage combat, and how in the outbursts of boundless despair she becomes the natural girl who unrestrainedly surrenders to her feelings - an excellent characteristic that is internalized down to the smallest movements and yet never gives the feeling that it is a conscious representation The courtship for her love, the jealousy scene in the Ballhaus, the scene with Ombraden and the clear despair over the unrequited love are moments of the greatest art of representation. Mia May does not put herself in the foreground, but equally strongly She gives tragedy, the tragedy of the mother who has been pronounced dead for her child and who does everything to keep her child from to see it from afar, to be able to speak it unrecognized occasionally. The little scene in the coffee where she celebrates an unrecognized reunion with her daughter, the burning eagerness to approach her, and the damming back of the servant's gaze, the scene in the carriage, the pain over the jealousy of the daughter (Charlotte Ander) are highlights chased humanized representation. Of course, Jannings is unique again as Ombraden. The representation is rich in nuances, nuanced to the sharpest observation, movements, moments of feeling are expressed by small movements of the hands, the mouth, the whole body, you can feel, in the outbursts of wild anger, the animal element that is in ombrades, and the counterpart to it, the good-naturedness in the scenes in which he comforts the weeping musette and tries to please her. "
The cinematographer to the following conclusion: "This is Joe May's curse that he always has to give birth to new parts in his good films. This time there are only four parts that you survive in Berlin on two evenings. As the first ten acts before Weeks passed, one was fascinated by the excellent performance of the actors. For nine and a half acts one sat interested and excited, forgave the end because it was only a transition to the second part. But now one waited for it to be over at last. Including the brilliant performance Jannings', the art of Gläßner, the mature, rounded, sympathetic game of Mia does not help over the tragedy of this remaining manuscript. Mr. Gaidoroff now has a beard that covers all the smooth beauty of the face that made him bearable in the first part which has only one purpose, that you can now clearly see that you are dealing with a useful lover, but never with a great character actor May mothers and fights for her child, plays a sympathetic role that suits her and will win back many friends she lost because she was entrusted with roles that no longer suited her. Erika Gläßner loses compared to the first two parts. She still does an excellent job, showing her fine, versatile art in many scenes, but there were some dead spots, the overall effect is less uniform. Only Emil, the broad, childlike Ombrade, remains the same. He fingers the matter in the penal colony, he falls apart and gets on three times with his musette. It has so many nuances and is so rich in ideas that it would survive two more parts - one shouldn't paint the devil on the wall. Joe May arranged the whole thing well. He gives a lot of nice things in detail. But there was no compelling reason for this continuation. It will be a business because the audience is curious to see the end, but also a disappointment. "
“After this director's Colossal Monstre Gala films, it's not entirely clear whether he actually knows how good this film is. This obsessed man who has no eyes, but apparently two lenses in his head, and who is sweating out celluloid, this fanatic of the film, has come up with such an abundance of funny, witty, colorful and relevant details that one might think he just had them all so thrown out of the box. (...) So much occurred to this May that it never repeats itself - each move very briefly, ten, twenty meters - hurry, away, the next. And you can see almost everything, there is a whole act with no text, everything can be understood with the eyes - everything is: film. (...) None of that would be possible without Emil Jannings. His character has only one flaw: that it doesn't have his name. What does Ombrade mean here! The man's name is Emil. "
Kurt Pinthus writes: "Joe May can be pleased that this film was named the best contemporary film after the first part. This judgment no longer applies to the second part. There is violent cramping in the manuscript here and an exaggerated, extended sentimentality A main effect of the first part, the taming of the murderous Apache by the lustful body parts of the prostitute on display, is repeated twice in the second part. Despite such objections, which could grow into a small catalog, shows Of course, this second part of Joe May's energetic, inventive hand too. Jannings once again unleashed himself wonderfully and with humor as Apache, and the Gleßner, drilled by the theater directors into an eternal swank cocotte, shows that she is an actress of the first order. The pitiable Gaidoroff has to walk passively and beautifully through all ten acts as a melancholy syrup, which a beard is necessary saved from dissolving. "
In the Neue Freie Presse of September 28, 1923, it says: "Technology and direction are brilliant. (...) The presentation is above all praise. Emil Jannings as a basically child-naive burglar unsurpassed. Mia May as the unhappy countess ravishing with her Beauty and her wonderful game, Erika Gläßner as the burglar's lover, who has developed from a little bitch to a grandiose bitch, who appears in a consequent career at the beginning as a simple maid, Musette, in order to appear in the end as the grandcocotus Baroness Musette XY, the most ideal, most beguiling bitch that one can The very fine and discreetly played detective Arnold Korffs is also worthy of the highest praise. Also very conspicuous in the best sense of the word is the Russian Gaidarov, who has been given the great role of a gentleman who has been innocently convicted of murder.
On the occasion of the re-release in 1929, the Film-Kurier reads: "Jannings is acting here in a wonderfully lifelike manner. The natural instinct and the joy of jugglers have seldom been united in one figure as in this classic criminal figure. The film may have a few knocks, in some social scenes, Despite Mia May and Gaidarow the immediate impression of Jannings is as fresh as on the first day. In addition, the crime affair itself remains exciting minute by minute in the reworking of Joe May - you can see what similar American films are like today Immediately, we've owned it all before. Nevertheless, the cinematography is advanced and Joe May's sense of style is no less. In addition to Jannings, a perfect partner: Erika Glässner. Ordinary and healthy. An irresistible duo: the prison scene, in which criminal and prostitute collide dangerously. You have to see that again! "
In Heinrich Fraenkel's “Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film ”could be read about Jannings' achievements:“ As a slave to the female, Jannings filled some roles with pulsating life. Here - in the Joe May film "Tragedy of Love" with Erika Glässner as a partner - he expresses the whole tragedy of unrequited and mocked passion in a shattering way. The fact that he can also embody enjoyable and downright boyish joy in the same role is indicative of the creative power of an artist who knew very well that mischief sits next to tears and that a real image of man is only rounded off by contrasts and apparent contradictions ".
CineGraph writes: "In addition to all the imbalance in the dramaturgical structure, the skilful montage, which May - as with all his films - is responsible for himself, captivates in various sequences, a sure sense of timing and an optimal tension effect. In addition, he lovingly executes episode plot and staging details, like the game of looks between the two public prosecutors (Curt Goetz, Paul Biensfeldt) and a girl who is hungry for love and life (Marlene Dietrich) during a decisive court hearing. "
Web links
- Tragedy of love in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Tragedy of love at filmportal.de
- Tragedy of love, 1st part at filmportal.de
- Tragedy of love, part 2 at filmportal.de
- Tragedy of love, 3rd part at filmportal.de
- Tragedy of Love, 4th part at filmportal.de
- Tragedy of love at marlenedietrich-filme.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Th. In Der Film, No. 45/46 of November 18, 1923
- ↑ Th. In Der Kinematograph, No. 874/75 of November 25, 1923
- ↑ Tucholsky criticism on textlog.de
- ↑ KP in Das Tage-Buch, No. 48 of December 1, 1923
- ↑ "Tragedy of Love". In: Neue Freie Presse , September 28, 1923, p. 16 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ -e- in Film-Kurier No. 185 of August 6, 1929
- ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Munich 1956, p. 320
- ↑ CineGraph, Volume 7, Joe May, D 3