Violantha

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Movie
Original title Violantha
Country of production Germany , Switzerland
original language German
Publishing year 1927
length approx. 92 minutes
Rod
Director Carl Froelich
script Walter Supper
Hans Wilhelm
Ernst Zahn based
on the novella Der Schatten (1904) by Ernst Zahn
production Henny Porten
Carl Froelich
Wilhelm von Kaufmann
music Walter Winnig
camera Axel Graatkjær
Gustave Preiss
occupation

Violantha is a German silent film directed in Switzerland in 1926 by Carl Froelich with Henny Porten in the title role.

action

Ms. Zureich is the owner of a hostel in the Swiss Val Tremola ( Ticino Alps), which has a pretty bad reputation. In order to generate additional income, she pressures her employees and even her own daughter to be sexually available to the hostel guests. Only her niece Violantha can evade such demands. One day a company of soldiers set up quarters nearby in preparation for an ongoing maneuver. Since soldiers are often sexually starved due to their many years of service, Violantha wisely avoids these people. Nevertheless, a lieutenant manages to seduce the young woman and drag her to her bed. Unfortunately for him, his immediate superior, the commandant of the troops, is on a general inspection tour and notices the unauthorized absence of his officer. When he returned to the company in the camp, he was immediately arrested for unauthorized removal by the troops. Violantha, who doesn't know why her lieutenant has suddenly been swallowed up by the earth, thinks her part and sets off from her Ticino valley to the city, hoping to find work there. She finally gets it from the old innkeeper Hofer.

Meanwhile, years are going by, the municipal clerk Alderich Renner woos Violantha, who has become quite shy since the unpleasant encounter with the soldier. Eventually she gives in to his urge to marry him. Shortly before the wedding, Violantha learns from her future husband about his dark family secret. He has a brother named Marianus, and he is the “black sheep” of the family. One day he emigrated to America by night and fog, and nothing has been heard from him since. When one day Marianus appears out of nowhere in Alderich's hometown, Violantha, now the mother of two children, is shocked to discover that this man is her soldierly seducer of yore. Not that Marianus is now asking for forgiveness for his act of sexual surprise, no: rather, he tries to make Violantha submissive again by threatening her otherwise to exchange a word with his brother about her past life. However, Violantha is not ready to be blackmailed by Marianus and flees alone into the mountains. Marianus follows her and this time even wants to rape her. A fight ensues in which the villain finds death falling from a cliff. Freed from all the shadows of the past, the faithful wife returns to her husband Alderich.

Production notes

Violantha was shot from August to October 1926 in the Efa studio in Berlin-Halensee (studio recordings) and in Switzerland (outdoor recordings on the Gotthard massif, in Flüelen, Airolo, Andermatt, Hospental, Schöllenen and in Val Treola). The six-act act with a length of 2319 meters passed the German film censorship on March 9, 1927, but was premiered on January 19, 1927 in the Zurich Capitol cinema. On April 1, 1927, it was premiered in French-speaking Switzerland (Geneva). In Germany, Violantha could be seen for the first time in Munich's Phoebia-Kino on November 25, 1927, while the Austrian premiere took place in Vienna on December 9, 1927. The first performance in Berlin followed on January 9, 1928 in the Mozart Hall.

Inge Landgut , not even four years old , made her film debut here as Porten's daughter. The buildings were designed by Franz Schroedter , the costumes by Ali Hubert , the still photographer was Alexander Schmoll . The title "artistic" was given by the German censors.

The film happy ending differs from the more tragic one in the novel. With Zahn, Violantha knows the identity of her seducer from the start, and she also ends up deliberately killing him in the mountains and then poisoning herself.

In 1942 another version of this film material was released in German cinemas under the slightly different title "Violanta". Peter Ostermayr directed it.

assessment

In Hervé Dumont's The History of Swiss Film it says: “The actress and producer Porten was the greatest German cinema star at the time and embodied in the eyes of the audience all of the national virtues; the simple and natural “anti-vamp” shines as a peasant “mater dolorosa”, as a woman from the people with a noble and tragic character. Wilhelm Dieterle, the new heartbreaker, moves as a gentle giant by her side. This film is a typical product of the artist duo Henny Porten & Carl Froelich. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hervé Dumont: The history of Swiss film. Feature films 1896-1965. Lausanne 1987. p. 102

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