Voice in the Wind
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Voice in the Wind |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Arthur Ripley |
| script | Friedrich Torberg |
| production |
Rudolf Monter Arthur Ripley |
| music | Michel Michelet |
| camera | Richard Fryer |
| cut | Holbrook N. Todd |
| occupation | |
| |
Voice in the Wind is an American feature film from 1944 with Franz Lederer in the lead role.
action
Prague, late 1930s. The German Nazi rule has now also found its way into the Czechoslovak capital, and the new rulers are starting to persecute Jewish and differently minded fellow citizens. For this reason, the Czech pianist Jan Volny fled because he played a national patriotic song, Bedřich Smetana's “Die Moldau”, which the Nazis had put on the index. He is tortured and he loses all memory. His path leads into exile on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe . With a heavy heart he had to leave his great love Marya behind. Standing under complete amnesia, Jan tries to bring his past back to mind. In the meantime he works with the villainous smuggler Angelo, who earns his living from the misery of political refugees.
When the first scraps of memory come back, Jan remembers that he was subjected to torture among the Germans. From day to day the belief that Marya would no longer live increases in him. But his fiancée was also able to escape the Nazi terror and is, unbeknownst to Jan, in the same place as him. She even stays in a saloon, where he sometimes shows off his piano skills, and gives herself over completely to a serious illness that largely ties her to bed. At a dramatic moment in which Angelo dies, Jan's memory also returns. Now he also recognizes his moribund Marya and hurries to her sick bed. But it's too late, his wife doesn't recognize him anymore. She dies, saddened by the loss of her fiancé and her home, unaware of his presence. At the moment of both reunification, Jan Marya has now lost a second time and will not survive this loss either.
Production notes
Voice in the Wind , conceived as an anti-Nazi emigre drama, was created in the second half of 1943 in a rented film studio for an extremely cheap $ 100,000 and, according to the Austrian writer Friedrich Torberg , who was involved in the film , was wound down in just eleven days. Voice in the Wind premiered on March 3, 1944. This production is a good example of a Hollywood film made with the most economical means by Central European exiles during the Second World War. Like hardly anyone else, he also addresses the survival of European refugees before Hitler's persecution in exile.
With neither the cast nor the theme paying tribute to American mass tastes, the modestly crafted film went largely unnoticed. Like few other war-time US productions, apart from perhaps The Hitler Gang , Ambassador in Moscow or Casablanca , this film is to a large extent supported by refugees from Hitler's sphere of influence. In addition to the main actor Franz Lederer, a native of Bohemia, these are:
- the film producer Rudolf Monter, once a Prague lawyer
- the actor Alexander Granach , a Berliner by choice, who barely escaped being arrested by the Gestapo in 1933
- the actress Olga Fabian , actually Fuchs, a Viennese stage artist
- the actor Martin Berliner , a Viennese stage artist
- the UFA film architect and poster painter Rudi Feld
- the Viennese writer Friedrich Torberg , who wrote the screenplay for this film
- and the German cameraman Eugen Schüfftan , who, because he had been denied membership in the ASC, was listed here only as a “technical advisor”, although as an excellent camera artist he must have done the core work of photography.
The film does not exist in any German dubbing.
Reviews
“A sinister and harrowing movie that they valiantly called“ Voice in the Wind ”deeply regrets the rape of all those beautiful things in this brutal, modern world ... Obviously, Mr. Ripley and Mr. Monter drank deep from the well from which the French cinema impressionists had brought the salt water before 1939. (...) Francis Lederer plays the dejected, tragic pianist rather stiffly in his clear, normal moments and turns him into a wild and pathetic lunatic when he has completely lost his mind. Sigrid Gurie as his wife is consistently gloomy, both sick and healthy, and Alexander Granach and J. Carrol Naish are outstanding as two brothers who have conflicted in history. As mentioned, Mr. Ripley directed the film for biting effects and used the music artfully to set the sad mood in motion. "
“If exile was a political and literary topic for the emigrated writer, it is hardly used as a“ motif ”by the film exile. The exception is “A Voice in the Wind” (director: Arthur Ripley), which depicts homelessness. (...) The shady, nocturnal darkness of the scenery creates a melancholy atmosphere and Smetana's music creates a nostalgic, longing mood for the lost homeland. "
Oscar nominations
The production was nominated for an Oscar in 1945 in the categories of Best Film Music and Best Sound .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Torberg in: Structure of March 24, 1944
Web links
- Voice in the Wind at filmportal.de
- Voice in the Wind in the Internet Movie Database (English)