Veritas vincit
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Veritas vincit |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1919 |
| length | 127 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joe May |
| script |
Richard Hutter Ruth Goetz |
| production | Joe May |
| music | Ferdinand Hummel |
| camera | Max Lutze |
| occupation | |
| |
Veritas vincit (also "Veritas vincit (The truth wins!). A film trilogy" ) is a three-part German fictional film by Joe May from 1918. May's wife Mia May plays all three female leading roles . The production is considered to be the first monumental film in German film history.
action
Veritas vincit is an elaborate historical film , especially in terms of the equipment , which tries to illustrate the never-ending victory of truth over lies in three episodes similar to parables. The first part takes place in ancient Rome at the time of Decius . The second, medieval part is located in a small town around the year 1500. The third and last part takes place at a small European princely court shortly before the outbreak of the First World War .
In the first two parts, the characters seal their fate through insincerity, which takes a tragic turn because of these lies. In the last, “modern” episode, the protagonist learns from past mistakes. With her confession to the truth, she saves her love and overcomes all social prejudices. The leitmotifs connecting the three episodes are a magic ring and the theme of the transmigration of souls .
production
The eight-act film was made in the final months of the First World War , from July to September 1918.
The production costs were up to 750,000 marks.
Mia May and Johannes Riemann are the only actors in all three episodes.
The film passed censorship in January 1919 with a ban on children. It had its world premiere on April 4, 1919 in Berlin (UT Kurfürstendamm and Kammerlichtspiele).
Paul Leni designed the extensive and impressive film structures. They were implemented by Siegfried Wroblewsky, who was the site manager. The buildings were created in the Greenbaum film studio in Berlin-Weißensee and on the grounds of the harness racing track in the same district.
Further photos were taken in the National Gallery and the Altes Museum as well as at Solitude Palace .
The costumes were supplied by F. & A. Diringer from Munich .
criticism
The contemporary critics found words of praise for May's first ambitious big film:
In a preliminary discussion, Der Kinematograph says, according to the first scenes: “According to the material available so far, the class scenes, in which up to 1,500 people took part, are particularly successful, the - one might almost say - colorful pictures from ancient Rome“ The Triumphal procession ”,“ The gardens of Dezius ”,“ The Roman Bacchanal ”,“ The medieval cultural images ”,“ The festival on the Freuden-Au ”and the modern large scenes“ In the Indian's house ”,“ At Solitut Castle ”,“ On the Wildkanzel "and" The court session ". The excellent cast of all roles with first actors, first and foremost Mia May and Johannes Riemann, resulted in effects of unprecedented strength, so that the director and the authors (Ruth Goetz and Richard Hutter) are satisfied with the success that their work will achieve could be. Artistic and peculiar like everything else in this film, which also exceeds everything that has gone before in terms of its cost - one speaks of half a million - is also the summary of the piece written by Richard Hutter, which is of interest due to its poetic form. "
Carl Boese , himself a film director, wrote in Der Film : “The German film industry, the German and especially the Berlin audience, waited six months for the moment when the most powerful German film was to reach the public - up to the press and billboard, up to larger-than-life posters and Even planes announced to Berliners the date on which “Veritas vincit” was to be launched. April 4th: a day of thinking for the German film industry. Because on that day we proved to the public that we have the courage and the means, the skills and the minds to imitate “the dreaded foreign country” ... Joe May directed this film for Universum-Film-Aktiengesellschaft. The greatest German film. A work which, like the famous models "Quo vadis", "Cleopatra" and others, will achieve world fame. Joe May probably did the main work and earned the main credit. Both in the brilliantly structured and moving crowd scenes and in the sense of style, both in the finely worked out play of the ensemble scenes and in the thousands of ideas, often the smallest nuances, the sure, purposeful greatness of this director is shown, who probably created his masterpiece with this film and thus a success achieved in ideal values for itself as well as for an entire industry, as it is unprecedented up to now. Paul Leni took care of the equipment for the film. Thanks to the means, which are grandiose for German standards, he was also able to achieve great things. "And summed up at the same point:" The German film is at the height! ".
Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film recalled: May “it was who with Veritas Vincit - cost a quarter of a million - ushered in the period of the“ monumental films ”; because he not only moved into the studio with his Mia, Harry Liedtke (sic!) and other star cast, but also with hundreds of extras and a living lion who let Mia, who is wrapped in flowing robes, scratch his neck. "
In Oskar Kalbus ' Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst it is said: “Ufa provided director Joe May with three quarters of a million marks for the film trilogy“ Veritas vincit ”(1918), which took months of work with a huge amount of equipment and previously unknown masses of actors and extras to create a document of German cinematic art: in three different ages a love story takes place on the background of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. For this purpose, Paul Leni lists the mightiest buildings of ancient Rome in Tempelhof near Berlin, the old city with its triumphal parades, its arena games, its splendid festivities and bloody persecution of Christians, giant pictures of a historical picture book, everything real down to the last details of the historical costume , really even the lions of bloodthirsty Nero. "
Kay Weniger's “In life, more is taken from you than is given…” recalled his pioneering work with Veritas vincit in May's biography : “The epic episode work“ Veritas Vincit ”was the first of a series of massive monumental films in which equipment and Magnificence, crowd scenes and staging ingenuity determined the overall impression. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information according to murnau-stiftung.de ( memento of the original dated November 11, 2004 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. . CineGraph (entry Biography Joe May, Delivery 7, D 2) gives three and a half hours
- ↑ so Veritas vincit was about twice as long as the then popular movies
- ^ According to Spiegel article Kino - the great dream business from September 27, 1950 . Other sources name 250,000 and 500,000 marks.
- ↑ Der Kinematograph, No. 615, October 16, 1918
- ↑ The Film, No. 15, April 12, 1919
- ^ Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Kindler Verlag Munich 1956. p. 76
- ^ Oskar Kalbus: On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Berlin 1935. p. 44
- ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 337.
Web links
- Veritas vincit in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Veritas vincit at filmportal.de