Before God and man
Before God and the People is a German feature film (marriage drama, problem film) premiered in 1955 , which Erich Engel directed for the West Berlin Capitol Film.
action
The lawyers Maria and Martin Lenz - he lost his sight as a soldier - got married immediately after the end of the Second World War . Maria has a bit of a suspicion of marrying Martin just out of pity. They didn't have the money they needed for a honeymoon to Italy until a few years later. Because Martin has to take on the defense of a supposed child murderer at short notice, nothing comes of the trip.
Maria believes that her first husband Georg died in Russia. She and Georg were very much in love and even had a daughter who was killed in a bomb attack. In fact, Georg survived the war, was in Russia for ten years and now lives in Leipzig, where a relative he lives with accidentally discovers a photo of Maria and Martin in a western newspaper. Georg, who also thought Maria was dead, goes immediately to the west. Maria is happy to see that Georg is still alive, but also confused because he expects her to go to Leipzig with him. Maria's friend Katharina, with whom Georg is temporarily quartered, a doctor, tries to deprive Georg of any hope of a future together with Maria. Georg senses that the last word has not yet been spoken and follows Maria to a local appointment in Erlenbach, where they finally spend the night together in a hotel. For Martin it is obvious that Maria is under heavy strain, but he only learns the full truth when Georg visits him and tells him that Maria wants to go to Leipzig with him. Martin doesn't know how to go on living without Maria, but lets her go. But then Maria speaks to Martin and explains to him that she wants to stay with him. It wasn't until she came to terms with her past that she realized how much she loves Martin.
At the same time, the story of the woman Mechala is told, who is accused of having poisoned her child while attempting an extended suicide . Although she made a full confession, Martin, who is her defense attorney, does not believe she committed the crime. Maria can convict the real perpetrator: the accused's husband, who wanted to get the wife and child out of the way so that he could be with his beloved.
Production and world premiere
Before God and Man was Engels first directorial work for the Capitol film, which only existed from 1953 to 1956. Through works like The Man of My Life , You are the Right One and Love Without Illusion, he recommended himself as the director of pleasing films in which women and men are confronted with existential personal problems in a contemporary setting. He had already worked with Antje Weisgerber in You are the right one. The 33-year-old Weisgerber, who actually had her artistic base on the stage, was at the height of her film career and appeared in four other films in the same year. Viktor De Kowa was 18 years older than her, his film career had already begun in the early sound film era, Engel had staged his film Old Heart Is Young Again with him in 1942 . The age gap between Weisgerber and Hans Söhnker, with whom Engel had directed the musical film Nanette in 1939, was even greater .
In 1955, Hans Werner Richter wrote a satirical radio play Pipapo about the story of the screenplay, which was repeatedly rewritten by a large number of people in the course of the production of the film due to special requests from the production, distribution, stars and other influential participants .
The film was shot from June 13th to July 1955. The film was recorded in the Ufa film studio in Berlin-Tempelhof. The title music contains motifs from Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde . Emil Hasler designed the film structures ; they were carried out by Walter Kutz . Trude Ulrich designed the costumes.
It premiered on September 27, 1955. The film was first broadcast on television on September 22, 1962 (ARD).
criticism
"A neat 'factual report' which, due to a lack of artistic and intellectual depth, never does justice to its topic." (Filmdienst)
Web links
- Before God and man in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Before God and the people at filmportal.de
literature
- Illustrated film stage No. 2940 - Before God and man.
Individual evidence
- ^ Judge's pipapo. In: Spiegel Online. February 29, 1956. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Michael Töteberg: Pipapo - The story of a screenplay. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Before God and man. Retrieved September 25, 2018 .