Victoria (1979)

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Movie
Original title Victoria
Country of production Sweden
Germany
original language Swedish , German
Publishing year 1979
length 106 minutes
Rod
Director Bo Widerberg
script Bo Widerberg
production Bo Widerberg
Alexander Grueter
music Giuseppe Verdi (“La Traviata”)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
camera Hanno-Heinz Fuchs
Anders Cederlund
cut Bo Widerberg
occupation

Victoria is a Swedish-German social drama written in 1977/78 by Bo Widerberg . The Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun created the story of the same name (1898) as a template .

action

It tells of the ultimately impossible love of the young miller's son Johannes for the young noblewoman Victoria in Norway at the end of the 19th century. The enthusiastic and nature-loving young man's wish is to one day become a great writer. When he met his daughter from well-to-do parents at the age of 14, the girl was only ten years old. Victoria is close to him and yet so inaccessible, because the professional code is a barely surmountable hurdle and the social status of a miller's son is extremely low. Both young people grow up in their respective surroundings and John's desire for Victoria is getting stronger. The young man does everything to impress the girl, who has matured into a pretty young lady, in the vague hope of still being able to win her heart. But he fails, as does his desperate attempts to climb the social ladder.

Even as Johannes becomes a successful writer, the obstacles between him and Victoria still seem enormous. It is true that there are always encounters between the two, and one discusses the mutual feelings. But the social norms and barriers, combined with the expectations of Victoria's parents that Victoria will one day marry the dashing officer Otto, ruin everything. The young lieutenant is financially a brilliant match that Victoria's parents are striving for because they need his money a lot: the marriage of their daughter to Otto is the last glimmer of hope for them to get out of their own financial malaise. One day, however, all hope is dashed when Victoria becomes seriously ill and eventually dies of tuberculosis . Johannes remains only a letter from Victoria in which she declares her rejection of him: namely because of her parents wanted and forced marriage to Otto.

Production notes

Victoria was shot from July 1977 with several interruptions in various locations in Norway and Sweden, the 87-day filming was completed in the spring of 1978. The film was completed at the beginning of 1979. Victoria was first presented during the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 1979, where the film was nominated for the Palme d' Or.

The German premiere took place on September 7th of the same year in four German cities (Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich and Frankfurt am Main). The film received the rating “valuable”.

The buildings are designed by Ulf Axén . Martin Büttner was responsible as editor of the co-producing ZDF .

Reviews

“Bo Widerberg as 'total filmmaker' in the film adaptation of Nobel Prize winner Knut Hamsun. Conclusion from the novel and film: The great love remains an unfulfilled dream. "

- CINEMA , 9/1979 (issue 16), p. 53

“Uninspired, poorly imagined literary film adaptation. Possible approaches to social criticism are neglected in favor of a superficially romanticized triangle problem. "

"Opinions divided on the film by Swedish director Bo Widerberg in Cannes in 1979."

- Der Spiegel , issue 42/1981 on the occasion of the television broadcast

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German Institute for Film Studies (Ed.): German Films 1979, compiled by Rüdiger Koschnitzki. P. 265
  2. Victoria. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 4, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used