Playful life

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Movie
Original title Playful life
Country of production Federal Republic of Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1949
length 85 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Kurt Meisel
script Gerd Ammeis
production Camera-Film GmbH, Hamburg-Munich
music Mark Lothar
camera Constantine Cheet
cut Adolph Schlyssleder
occupation

Verspieltes Leben (subtitle Ulyssa ) is a German film drama from 1949 by and with Kurt Meisel . The main role is occupied by Brigitte Horney . Axel von Ambesser , like Kurt Meisel, plays one of the main male roles.

action

Ulyssa, a vibrant young woman, is married to District Administrator Friedrich von Siebenmühlen. In 1914 the couple lived in a small town in northern Germany. Ulyssa, who became Siebenmühlen's wife according to the conventions, can basically just as little begin with her husband as he can with her. The young, extremely charming and seductive woman seeks confirmation from other men of her class, flirts and flirts with them, but no longer. Stefan Marbach is one of the friends of the Siebenmühlen. Ulyssa has been drawn to him since she knew him and Marbach is also extremely fond of her. Both have the feeling that they recognize someone in the other who fits perfectly.

During a party at the Siebenmühlen family, Ulyssa Marbach confesses that she is worried because her father tends to do stupid things sometimes. At the same time, Ulyssa's father asks his son-in-law for his help once again because he is involved in a bankruptcy . Indirectly, he is advised to shoot himself, which Siebenmühlen underscores by removing a pistol from his desk drawer and placing it on the tabletop. Not much later, Ulyssa is standing at her father's grave. Another stroke of fate hits her when Kurt von Ellmer, with whom she has often flirted with pleasure, shoots a supposed rival at the end of a summer party out of disappointed love for her.

When Ulyssa and Stefan were enjoying a walk through nature in a cheerful mood one day, laughing children told them that there was no school because from today on they were at war . In a small chapel they both hold a silent prayer and Stefan recites the poem War and Peace by Detlev von Liliencron . In this situation, they also let each other understand how deep their affection is for one another.

Both Ulyssa's husband and Stefan are drafted. Friedrich von Siebenmühlen fell in December 1914. Shortly before the end of the war, Ulyssa wanted to persuade Stefan to desert , since the war was lost anyway and he shouldn't take the risk of falling in the last days of the war. She speaks of a future together, although Stefan finds it incredibly difficult, he rejects Ulyssa's request and says that he will then no longer be able to look himself in the eye. And then comes the news that Ulyssa had feared so much, and that says that Stefan had also fallen.

After a period of desperation, Ulyssa only wants one thing: she wants to leave the small town, she wants to live. Shortly afterwards she met Karli Reindl, a charming and wealthy merchant from Vienna who was immediately infatuated with her and wanted to marry her. He lays everything at her feet, including her own palace, which had previously been owned by the von Wittelsberg family for over 300 years. Ulyssa doesn't ask and doesn't want to know where all the money her husband earns comes from. All she knows is that he deals in weapons .

And then it just happened that Ulyssa met Stefan again one day on the street in Vienna. He was lucky, he said, and when she asked, he was now the head of a boys' institute in Switzerland. It's a bittersweet reunion. Stefan believes that Ulyssa preferred a glamorous life by the side of a rich man to waiting for him. But Ulyssa, who knows that her husband Karli would like to get rid of her son Ferdinand from his first marriage, decides to entrust Ferdinand Stefan and bring him to Switzerland himself. She hopes that this will help Stefan recognize what and how much she is telling him. Stefan finds access to Ferdinand immediately, but otherwise feels confirmed in his opinion about Ulyssa.

Time goes by and then comes the day when Reindl takes his own life during a magnificent mask festival in his palace because he is financially ruined. Ulyssa is left penniless. She doesn't want her son to suffer from it and definitely keep him the expensive Swiss boarding school and Stefan's paternal affection until he leaves school. So she gives piano lessons and struggles to stay afloat.

More than 1 ½ years have passed and Ferdinand has graduated when Ulyssa managed, with great effort, to raise the money for a trip to Switzerland. Once there, however, she has to realize that her son no longer wants to know about her and turns away from her. Ulyssa sees no more meaning in her life and writes farewell letters to Ferdinand and Stefan. Immediately they both rush to their sickbed. And now Stefan is finally saying how much Ulyssa has always meant to him and that she is the only woman he has always loved. And Ferdinand is also deeply affected, he didn't know what the real reason was why his mother never came to see him. When Ulyssa's eyes close forever, her thoughts wander back to the summer day in 1914, when she first felt the deep bond between herself and Stefan and felt that she had gambled away her life.

Production and Background

The production company was Camera-Filmproduktion GmbH (Hamburg). Georg Richter was in charge of production, Rudolf Fichtner and Kurt Paetz were the production managers. The shooting took place from June to July 11, 1949 in the Munich-Geiselgasteig studio and in Munich and the surrounding area. Robert Herlth and Ludwig Reiber were responsible for the buildings, Hans Wunschel for the sound and Charlotte Flemming for the costumes .

The first distribution took place through the North German Film Distribution Adolf Bejöhr (Hamburg + Düsseldorf), Anton E. Dietz Filmverleih GmbH (Berlin / West + Munich + Frankfurt am Main). The film length was 10 acts = 2,316 m = 85 minutes. On September 13, 1949, the film was subjected to an FSK test under the number 00153 and was found to be suitable for minors aged 16 and over with the addition of “no public holidays”. It was premiered on September 27, 1949 in the Hahnentor in Cologne. On January 25, 1964, the film ran for the first time on television in the ARD program .

Brigitte Horney sings the song Life is there for loving and too good to be wasted ... , Text: Ruth Conrad, Music: Mark Lothar , Kurt Meisel sings the song: Happy is who forgets . Horney was married to Konstantin Tschet, who was in charge of the camera, at the time the film was made.

criticism

The lexicon of international film gave the following verdict: “The much-discussed film drama in the post-war years asks about the binding nature of religion for private and public life. A film that is looking for a binding answer, even if it is not always confident in terms of style and argumentation. "

For Zeit Online , EM judged that the film has a “big topic” that can be “outlined in one sentence”, which is “always a good sign”: “How people waste their lives through carelessness and thoughtlessness.” But the topic was “wasted, with friendly banalities, empty dialogues, insensitivity, loud scenes played out for too long. There is a lack of conciseness, charm, taste, oh, a lot is missing ”. It also said: “A few original cross-fades of cinematic quality are not enough, not even a selected cast down to the batch roles. Brigitte Horney would have wished for a more convincing start for her first recurrence in a German post-war film. "

In Spiegel 41/1949 it was read that the film was “a success with the public” […] and the story of Ulyssa's playful life contained many “effective effects”: “The marriage with the unloved royal Prussian district administrator, flirting out of boredom, War, farewell, death of the man, tumult of inflation, brief happiness at the side of a slider. Despair and, in the end, voluntary death ”. Axel von Ambesser is “very noble and restrained” on the screen. Brigitte Horney, back in German film for the first time in many years, [be] the loving Ulyssa, always photogenic in happiness and despair. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Playful life. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Verspieltes Leben In: Zeit Online, February 9, 1950. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  3. Jump up ↑ Old Gods on top - Like a soap bubble In: Der Spiegel 41/1949, October 6, 1949.