Wozzeck (1947)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Wozzeck |
| Country of production | Germany (East) |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg C. Klaren |
| script | Georg C. Klaren |
| production | DEFA , manufacturing group "Kurt Hahne" |
| music | Herbert Trantow |
| camera | Bruno Mondi |
| cut | Lena Neumann |
| occupation | |
| |
Wozzeck is a German film adaptation of DEFA by Georg C. Klaren from 1947 . It is based on the dramatic fragment Woyzeck by Georg Büchner .
action
In the anatomy room of a university, the students examine the corpse of the fusilier Wozzeck under the direction of the doctor . According to the doctor, it is a good corpse of a murderer. The student Georg Büchner , who was also present, corrected him: Wozzeck was a person whose fate had already been determined before he was born. He recapitulates Wozzeck's story.
Wozzeck is trained as a soldier under inhumane conditions. At the same time, the doctor uses it as a research object: Wozzeck is only allowed to eat peas for weeks and not go out, the doctor has the theory that the urge to urinate can be suppressed by willpower. The doctor pays the simple Wozzeck, who usually shaves the members of the regiment, for his willingness to serve him as a test subject. Wozzeck saves the money for his lover Marie and their illegitimate child.
Marie, however, is courted by the wealthy drum major. Even when Wozzeck invites Marie to the fair, she steals from a performance to give herself to the major. Wozzeck is left alone and confused. The neighbors make hints, especially the idiot sings the soldiers' song. The soldiers also make hints to Wozzeck that Marie might be unfaithful to him. One day she wears earrings that she pretends to have found. A little later Wozzeck sees Marie dancing with the drum major. He buys a knife and gives away his last possessions. Later he stabs Marie and sinks the body in a lake. It is recovered a short time later and the doctor is enthusiastic that after a long time a "real" murder has happened again in the city.
Wozzeck is immediately suspected of being Marie's murderer. He has gone to a pub where he is flirting with the waitress Käthe, but she sees blood on his hand. Wozzeck flees home to his son, with whom the idiot is playing. With the child in his arms, Wozzeck is arrested. The court sentenced him to death by hanging. On the way to the place of execution Wozzeck passes his son and tells him that he should do better one day.
production
As early as 1931, director Georg C. Klaren had planned a film adaptation of Büchner's drama fragment, but was unable to implement it given the political situation. In the early filming of DEFA - it was DEFA's 7th film to be shown in cinemas - numerous artists from the silent film era worked, including scenographer Hermann Warm , costume designer Walter Schulze-Mittendorf and Paul Wegener as artistic advisor. Klarens wanted the film to be “oriented towards the legacy of Expressionism”, so after completion the film was also designated as an “avant-garde film” and, in addition to expressive camera work, shadowy photography and quick editing and montage sequences, also used atonal pieces of music based on the expressionist films of the silent era.
The film was made in the Babelsberg film studios in the Althoff studio with exterior shots of Berlin and the surrounding area and was half shot in May 1947. The shooting ended in the summer of 1947. Bruno Monden and Hermann Warm created the buildings, Kurt Hahne was production manager.
It was the last film by the actress Rotraut Richter , who died shortly after filming and before the premiere as a result of an operation at the age of 32. Wozzeck had its premiere on December 17, 1947 in the Berlin House of Culture of the Soviet Union. In the FRG the film ran on October 10, 1958 under the title The Wozzeck case .
In contrast to the literary model, Klaren integrated a framework story in the film, “in which the young Büchner himself appears and tells various students the story on which his drama is based”. The critics called the framework story or "the poet's imagination" the "'special case' of the Wozzeck film ".
criticism
Shortly after the end of the war, contemporary criticism drew parallels to fascism, for example the doctor portrayed by Paul Henckels could have “carried out his criminal 'research' on concentration camp inmates”, while the captain, the drum major and the sergeant “three sample copies of old Prussian- Hitlerian militarists ”. Other critics praised the camera work, "original and thoroughly exciting images are created" and the fragmentary is experimentally symbolized by oblique shots; "Many pictures [can] be seen from the outside through a steamed-up window pane, a play of hasty light reflections is often busy on the background."
On the occasion of the Federal Republican premiere in 1958, Der Spiegel called the film “a proletarian tragedy commented on like a teacher” and above all criticized the added framework.
For the Lexicon of International Films , Wozzeck was a “DEFA film adaptation of Georg Büchner's drama fragment, to which a Marxist label is affixed by means of an added framework. The director of the native Austrian Klaren impresses with stylistic brilliance and intense moods, Kurt Meisel delivers a rousing interpretation of the main role. "
literature
- Wozzeck . In: F.-B. Habel: The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 699-701.
Web links
- Wozzeck at the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Wozzeck at filmportal.de
- Wozzeck at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Soldier Wutzig as a film hero: Dr. Georg C. Klaren filmed Büchner's “Woyzeck”. Visit to the studio . In: Berliner Zeitung , Berlin / Ost, May 18, 1947
- ^ Georg C. Klaren: Transcendental Film . In: Aufbau , Berlin, No. 9, 1946, p. 965.
- ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 27.
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946–1955 , p. 12 f.
- ↑ Fred Gehler: The place is cursed . In: Film und Fernsehen , Berlin, No. 12, 1982.
- ↑ Peter Kast: "Wozzeck" - drama as a film . In: Vorwärts , December 18, 1947.
- ^ Walter Busse in: Kurier , December 19, 1947.
- ↑ The Othello of Leipzig . In: Der Spiegel , No. 52, 1958, p. 62.
- ↑ Wozzeck. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 14, 2016 .