And the woods sing forever

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Movie
Original title And the woods sing forever
And the forests sing forever (filmposter) .jpg
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1959
length 92 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Paul May
script Kurt Heuser
production Alfred Stöger
music Rolf Wilhelm
camera Elio Carniel
cut Renate Jelinek
occupation

And the forests sing forever is a German-Austrian feature film by director Paul May based on a novel by Norwegian writer Trygve Gulbranssen . It was shown in German cinemas on September 15, 1959 and recorded seven million visitors there.

After the great success of And Eternally Sing the Forests , the film found a sequel in the adaptation of the novel, The Legacy of Björndal, made by Gustav Ucicky a little later .

action

The stubborn large farmer Dag and his two sons have been in a dispute with the neighboring noble von Gall family, who own the Borgland estate, for many years. When Dag's spirited son Tore approaches Gall's daughter Elisabeth at a village festival in Björndal, the unarmed Tore is killed by her jealous friend, Lieutenant Margas, in a fight with a sword and falls into a waterfall. Tores disappearance cannot be clarified at first because his body cannot be found.

Adelheid Barre, the sensitive daughter of Major a. D. Barre overhears a conversation between Elisabeth von Gall and Lieutenant Margas and learns about the murder of Tores. She and her father leave Borgland early because she no longer wants to live under one roof with Elisabeth.

On the drive home from Borgland, Adelheid Barre finds old Dag's younger son, Dag junior, who was seriously injured in a bear hunt. She decides to stay in Björndal for a while to take care of young Dag. In doing so, she falls in love with the gentle, profound young man.

When old Dag learns from Adelheid Barre of the death of his favorite son Tore, he swears bitter revenge on the noble family.

In the further course, situations repeat themselves in which the old Dag regrets that his beloved daring son Tore is dead, and all he has left is his sensitive son, the young Dag ("If Tore were still there").

When Dag invited Adelheid and her father to Björndal for Christmas, she married him at his father's instigation. Old Dag takes his daughter-in-law for himself and shows her how the estate is managed. As a result, father and son become estranged. The young couple withdraws from him temporarily in order to be able to lead a normal married life.

Old Dag guarantees a loan from the bank to Colonel von Gall, to whom no one wants to lend money anymore because he is economically at an end. In return, old Dag pledged the Borgland estate so that Gall could get hold of it in this way. He obliged his brother-in-law, the businessman Holder, whom he entrusted with this business, to maintain strict secrecy with regard to the von Gall family.

When the bank informed Elisabeth von Gall about this, they wanted to block the rafting of Björndal logs across the river on their territory and enforced this with the threat of armed violence. So the old Dag has the tree trunks with bark and branches, with great effort of his subordinates, transported over the mountain and slide down over a waterfall. In this way, he can have them transported further downstream in good time and avoid a contractual penalty.

When a man even dies in the process, young Dag is outraged by the ruthlessness and severity of his father, who under no circumstances wants to negotiate with Colonel von Gall in order to obtain permission to pass through von Gallsche's territory. So the young Dag leaves Björndal and goes to sea.

In the meantime, old Dag has an auction of Gut Borgland scheduled to take revenge for Elisabeth von Gall's behavior. Elisabeth, who does not want to leave the country estate to her hated neighbors, sets the manor house on fire before the auction and, as she intended, dies in the flames.

Adelheid also leaves old Dag because he was sardonically pleased about the death of the old witch Elisabeth von Gall and moves back to her father in town.

Dag senior is now lonely and cannot be happy about his triumph over the von Gall family, for which he had to pay a high price. In his loneliness and grief over the loss of his family members, he even reconciles with Colonel von Gall and lets him continue to live on Borgland.

Later, old Dag learns from his housekeeper, Jungfer Kruse, that his son, Dag junior, and his daughter-in-law have returned so that their child can be born in Björndal. You are in a mountain hut. The old Dag, with poor health, dares to climb to the mountain hut despite the cold and deep snow. He is found dying by his son at the door of the mountain hut. With the last of his strength, old Dag asks for the name of his grandson, who has since been born. And although the "young Dag" was humiliated all his life by his father, the "old Dag", as an unloved son, in view of the foreseeable death of his father he selflessly names his newborn son with the name of the old Dag at all times preferred, deceased brother: "Tore".

"That's good," says old Dag - and dies.

Cast and location

The film featured many well-known actors of the time, including Gert Fröbe , Hansjörg Felmy and Joachim Hansen . The outdoor shots were filmed in the side valleys of Gudbrandsdalen in south-eastern Norway. The fictional farm stands as Gut Bjølstad (Norwegian: Bjølstad gård ) in Heidal, Sel municipality , in Fylke Oppland , Norway .

Reviews

The lexicon of international films sees a “ melodramatic film adaptation of a novel in a visually effective design that offers cultivated entertainment” and attests Gert Fröbe an outstanding performance “as initially tyrannical, then because of his blind arrogance defeated by fate”. The Evangelical Film-Observer comes to the following conclusion: "Somewhat differently successful, on the whole probably good average film adaptation of the well-known novel."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Longing for Thule . In: Der Spiegel . No. 40 , 1960, pp. 95 ( online ).
  2. ↑ And the woods sing forever. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 648/1959