Under the lantern
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Under the lantern |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1928 |
| length | 9 acts, 3154 meters, at 21 fps approx. 132 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gerhard Lamprecht |
| script |
Luise Heilborn-Körbitz Gerhard Lamprecht |
| production | Gerhard Lamprecht |
| music |
Hansheinrich Dransmann (1928) Bernd Schultheis (2009) |
| camera | Karl Hasselmann |
| occupation | |
also Walter Ladengast , Alexandra Schmitt , Nico Turoff | |
Under the lantern is a silent social drama that Gerhard Lamprecht realized in his own production company in 1928 based on a script that he wrote together with his long-time colleague Luise Heilborn-Körbitz . The subtitle of the film was also called “Drink, drink, drink your brother” after the refrain of the popular song that Wilhelm Lindemann composed and Harry Steier sang on record.
action
“Under the lantern” is told in 9 acts:
- 1st act
Else is the daughter of the widowed petty bourgeois Riedel (Gerhard Dammann), who uses her as a housemaid. She is friends with young Hans, who is currently unemployed waiting for a vacancy at Borsig and who keeps himself afloat with a mobile tobacco stand. When she agrees to meet him on a local visit, her father refuses her permission and locks her in the living room at home. Else manages to free herself with Hans' help and she sets off with him. In a pub they sway to the tune of “drink, drink, brother drink”, which a mood singer performs with a lute.
- 2nd act
When she returns, the father puts the necklace in front of her and doesn't let her into the apartment. Waiting in the stairwell, she is molested by a drunk. She escapes the house and has to spend a night on the street. She seeks refuge with Hans and his roommate Max (Paul Heidemann). Max sells winding birds, but has come up with an artist number with a horse costume. Else takes pleasure in it and persuades her Hans, who is still skeptical, to take part. After all, that is how you can make money, more than with the cigarettes that Hans sells.
- 3rd act
The three of them introduce themselves with their horse act to the seedy vaudeville impresario Nevin, who, with a curious look at Else, also deals with them. You get an appearance in the specialty theater “Elysium”. But only if Else can be dressed up as a groom and becomes part of the show. They succeed in winning over the audience in the variety show. Father Riedel has the underage Else looked for by the police on the advice of a bitchy and medium-parted regulars' table brother.
- 4th act
Else, Hans and Max celebrate their success and toast “good camaraderie”. Hans had introduced Else to his comrade Max as his sister. But when he shows himself in love with her and even proposes to her, Hans has to show his true colors. Now he asks Else to become his wife; he wanted to get the papers first thing tomorrow. But Else is not yet of age and her father would never give his consent. They spend this night together for the first time.
The next morning a criminal appears at Hans and Max's, who is looking for Else. Max can still warn her in the stairwell when she comes back from shopping; she again flees onto the street to avoid arrest. She turns to Nevin, who offers to take her to his apartment: she doesn't want to go back to the streets, does she?
Hans seeks a conversation with Else's father. He claims that she cannot get work anywhere as long as the police are looking for her. But old Riedel wants to hand her over to care, "that would teach her to work".
- 5th act
Hans and Max wonder where Else has gone and whether she has any money. She is in Nevin's apartment, where he tries to seduce the inexperienced with champagne and luxury. Without their partner, the two are left alone with their horse number. The variety director threatens them: If Else doesn't appear again, he'll take the number out of the program.
Nevin's former companion Zora is jealous of the new rival. When Nevin cancels an appointment on a note, Nevin's office manager tells her who his boss is with now. Thereupon Zora "informs" Hans and Max, who are looking for Else, scornfully, that they now have "a better commitment" and slips Hans the key to Nevin's apartment. Hans sneaks into the apartment and finds Else in Nevin's arms. He misunderstands the situation and believes that Else has been unfaithful to him and got involved with Nevin. When he - in anger (and in the subtitle) - says that he is now happy that she has not become “his wife”, she desperately flees again onto the street.
Else gets in front of a tram and is run over. Street whores, who they think are colleagues, take them as sisterly to a pub of the criminal cellar type, where the puddings and whores look after them; one of them even takes them in and lets them spend the night.
Hans and Max consult. Hadn't Else's father been right after all? But Max says: “You can't let the girl down”. Hans replies: “Let you down? She voted herself! " A subheading repeats this sentence.
During the night Else is harassed by the whore's pimp, who is returning home, with whom she crawled. She wakes up from the noise and misunderstands the situation; she says that Else has approached her “bridegroom” and throws her out again without further ado.
After returning to the “Elysium”, Else learns from the porter that the horse number has already been canceled.
Nevin, angry that Zora gave Hans the key to his apartment, breaks up with her. Instead of her, he now takes Else with him.
- 6th act
Else, outfitted with classy clothes, a chauffeur, a maid and an ornamental dog, becomes a noble whore with the “stage name” Elena Rosetti, who receives wealthy clients. When she meets her father on the street, she 'cuts' him and walks past him defiantly without a greeting. She's a 'great lady' now! Zora visits her and informs her that Nevin is on charges of fraud. "You are now where I was when you outsmarted me!" she complains to her and points out bitterly mockingly that all the beautiful things Nevin has surrounded her with are “only on credit”.
Nevin buys a pistol from a gun store. Else's father lets the police stop looking for her and resignedly tears up the wanted information sheet. The wind blows the shredded paper behind him.
During a visit, Nevin admits to Else that he was in trouble, on trial, and shoots herself when she briefly leaves the room.
Hans finally gets the expected position at the Borsig works. Max shows him the newspaper with the news of Nevin's end. Both think of Else and come to the decision: "Now we have to take care of her, otherwise she will go to the dogs!"
They go to the apartment where Nevin put them. It is being disbanded and the facility is being shut down. The concierge says laconically: “Now the glory is over up there… now it's towered!”
Else sinks from one level of social decline to the next, has to hire herself out as a dance girl in the “Apollo Halls”. For “2 RM and dinner”, as an intertitle announces, she should be “nice” to the guests.
- 7th act
In the “Apollo Halls” you meet two old friends again. One is the pimp of the prostitute she took in at the time. He approaches her as a “fine gentleman”, forces her to dance with him, and treats her to dinner, which the other dancing girls suspect: she has a gentleman who “spends something”. The other is Zora from the “Elysium”, who performs the song “Drink, drink ...” as a dance soubrette.
When the pimp gets intrusive and Else struggles, the landlord throws her out. In the toilet room she meets Zora, but she walks past without greeting. Zora explains to the attendant (Alexandra Schmitt) about Else: “I know she ... she ran away from her brother”. The attendant feels sorry for Else and thinks that “her brother” should be informed of her current whereabouts.
Else is harassed by a passerby on the way home, but the pimp has followed her and drives the drunk away. He takes Else with him and says "Now don't run away from me!"
Hans has started his job at Borsig and meets Max in front of the factory gate. He received a note from the toilet attendant informing them of Else's stay. "Tonight" they want to go to the bar. You do it and find out about Elses being thrown out. After weeks of searching, they find Else in another restaurant. There she is a guest with the pimp. When he gets up from the table, Hans and Max sit down with her.
They meet a disillusioned and desperate Else, who has obviously come to an end with her bourgeois existence. She misunderstood Hans' offer to support her financially: everyone else here wants to give her money. She accuses him: “Who made me what I am now? You!" Then the pimp comes back and she puts her arm around him. Hans turns away from her in disgust. Max looks back at her as he walks. When the next dance number, “Nacht auf dem Montmartre”, rises by lantern light, Else pulls herself up in a surge of longing and wants to go after them, but the pimp catches her on the dance floor and forcibly pushes her across the parquet. "You belong here ..." he says, "... under the lantern!" Now she has to work for him 'under the lantern' as a prostitute.
- 8th act
Hans now has a blonde wife and a child and lives “in happiness and contentment”, Max sells magic items at a street stall. He recognizes Else among the spectators who surround him and follows her to her quarters. When he tells her that Hans is married, she bursts into tears. Your landlady (Käthe Haack) reveals to Max “He's ain't no good ... she leads a dog's life!” Back to Hans, they both decide to visit her. You will find her in the dark at her “workplace”. Hans approaches her masked as a supposed customer; when she recognizes him, she cries. He advises her to go to the country in order to get well and gives her money, which she rejects. He leaves it in an envelope on the table. They kiss one last time. Then Hans goes away with Max.
- 9th act
Else is enthusiastic about the idea of going to the country and asks her landlady for a suitcase. The pimp finds the envelope with the money on the table and takes it. “That used to be a classy customer!” he says satisfied. When Else demands the money back, he brutally knocks her down and leaves her lying there. The landlady finds her and puts her to bed. Else finally dies in misery from her injuries. In the criminal cellar, an old whore accuses the pimp: “You have a conscience!” When the news of Else's death arrives there, the whores and fools are dancing to gramophone music. Now a more suitable, a sad record is put on: the “parents' grave”. In front of Hans' house, however, the barrel organ man plays “Drink, drink…”.
reception
The film was reviewed by:
- Catalog of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival:
- "Under the lantern" describes an exemplary path to prostitution. Set in the Berlin of the "little people", the film puts the "Kiez" of the dim beer and entertainment bars with their cheap tinsel and their neon advertising in a very attractive light. But at the same time he throws spotlights on the darker side - on backyards and street prostitutes, on pimps and dancing girls, on the gray world of the furnished rooms and dormitories - and thus reveals the superficial generational drama and heart drama as a social core. "
- Michael Fox at Silent Film Festival:
- “Under the Lantern extended the writer-director's fascination with Berlin's powerless, preyed-upon, and feverishly scrambling citizens. Released in 1928, the film's use of nonprofessional actors and commitment to shooting on location evoke a documentary-style immediacy that presages neorealism. Although remaining emotionally detached from the plight of his characters proves impossible, Lamprecht lays on the sentiment with a trowel just to be sure. "
- 'Marco' at molodezhnaja October 19, 2014:
- What is supposed to be an exemplary drama about slipping into prostitution is more like a soap opera. Too many developments require more credibility, too many coincidences pile up, too much sentimentality is interspersed. Since the film is quite long with a running time of over two hours, these shortcomings are even more significant.
- Jörg Gerle in FILM-DIENST 16/2014:
- "Under the lantern" is a moral picture, but also a solid melodrama. And Lamprecht does justice to this genre not only through the visual implementation of the tragic events, but also through the subtle use of a single, inconspicuous song. Unusual for a silent film from 1928, the musical effect of which is entirely in the hands of those who set the tone at the piano or within an orchestra in the respective cinema hall. [...] The wet and happy entertainment hit, which is omnipresent throughout the film via barrel organ, dance band or gramophone in the corner pub and is hummed and sung by several protagonists - "... leave your worries at home ..." - counteracts the action: What At first it sounds like an amusing casualness, but it increasingly turns into barking mockery in this portrait of a lonely woman who vegetates between drunkenness and repression.
Re-performance
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Deutsche Kinemathek, films by the Kinemathek founder Gerhard Lamprecht were digitally restored. In cooperation with ZDF / arte, two of these films were presented with live music on June 30, 2013 in the Great Hall of the Volksbühne Berlin : People among each other and under the lantern . The composer Bernd Schultheis produced the music for both films.
The cultural channel Arte broadcast the restored version of “Unter der Laterne” with the young composer's new soundtrack on Monday, November 3rd, 2014, five minutes before midnight on German television. His composition for nine instruments quotes the record with the singer Harry Steier and combines basic chamber music with elements from rock and pop music.
"The sensitive technical restoration and the musical reinterpretation by the composer Bernd Schultheis and the Ensemble Mosaik create a stimulating, because in no way historicizing, bridge between history and the present." (Claus Löser in the BZ from June 26, 2013)
Sound document
Drink, drink, drink your brother (Wilh. Lindemann): Harry Steier, with orchestra [Otto Dobrindt] and Steier-Quartet, on Beka B. 6306 (Matr. 34 529) - aufgen. on January 6, 1928 in the Lindström Studio, Schlesische Strasse 26/27, Berlin
literature
- Herbert Birett: Silent film music. Material collection. Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin 1970.
- Paolo Caneppele, Günter Krenn, editor Francesco Bono: Electric shadows. Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-901932-02-X , p. 170.
- Horst O. Hermanni: The film ABC. From Jean Gabin to Walter Huston. Verlag Books on Demand, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8334-2377-2 , p. 229 (Käthe Haack)
- Horst O. Hermanni: The film ABC. Volume 5: From La Jana to Robert Mulligan. Verlag Books on Demand, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-1154-1 , p. 23 (Walter Ladengast)
- Georges Sadoul, Bernard Eisenschitz: L'art muet: 1919–1929. Volume 6, Verlag Denoel, Paris 1975, p. 407. (French)
- Peter Weiss: Avant-garde film. (= Edition Suhrkamp. Volume 1444). Suhrkamp publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1995.
- Ulrike Weiss: Carl Zuckmayer and the media. Contributions to an international symposium. Part 1 (= Zuckmayer yearbook, publisher Gunther Nickel). Röhrig Universitätsverlag, 2001, ISBN 3-86110-266-8 , p. 216.
- Friedrich von Zglinicki: The way of the film. History of cinematography and its predecessors. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1956.
Web links
- Under the lantern in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Under the lantern at filmportal.de
- Under the lantern at arte.tv
Illustrations
- Movie poster by Slama (1890–1973) pixhst.com , larger pixhst.com
- Stand photo from “Unter der Laterne” at critic.de
- Stand photo from “Under the Lantern” at 4.bp.blogspot.com
- Director Gerhard Lamprecht filmportal.de
items
- Luise Heilborn-Körbitz at GECD # 2568 earlycinema.uni-koeln.de
- Bernd Schultheis at stummfilmmusiktage.de
- Michael Fox: Under The Lantern. Essay. (1928) (online at: silentfilm.org )
- Claus Löser: About the ups and downs of the “Milljöh”. In: Berliner Zeitung. June 26, 2013, (online at: berliner-zeitung.de )
- Jörg Gerle in: Film Service. 16/2014, online at filmdienst.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The text of the "Waltz song for happy circles", which has also become known as "The Eleventh Commandment", was composed by the Berlin humorist Paul Bendix , the son of Martin Bendix , the "hilarious", cf. bam-portal.de ( Memento of the original dated September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , worldcat.org and Hoffmeister, "Musical-literary monthly report (1928)"; Transcript at biersekte.de
- ↑ Kurt Tucholsky , as "Theobald Tiger" in Die Weltbühne of April 8, 1930, no. 15 on p. 548, aptly caricatured this species of entertainer at the end of the Weimar Republic , cf. zeno.org
- ↑ this maudlin, once very popular song ("I know a lonely place in the world / 'S lies quietly and quietly hidden ...") was written by the Saxon folk singer Emil Winter around 1900, who after his successful couplet of the “Dashing Tymian” himself Winter -Tymian called, cf. SLUB Dresden, media library mediathek.slub-dresden.de
- ↑ cf. molodezhnaja.ch
- ↑ cf. Volksbühne Berlin am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz volksbuehne-berlin.de ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ in an unconventional line-up (including voice / recorder, saxophone / bass clarinet, horn, electric guitar / oud and drums)
- ↑ cf. arte.tv ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Drink, drink, brother drink - Harry Steier
