Inge Larsen (1924)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/1. Photo: Henny Porten Filmproduktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Hansen in Inge Larsen (Hans Steinhoff, 1924).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/2. Photo: Henny Porten Filmproduktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Hansen in Inge Larsen (Hans Steinhoff, 1924).
Inge Larsen (Hans Steinhoff, 1924) deals with a fisherwoman who by a marriage to a rich diplomat meets a world she doesn't know. Inge Larsen (Porten), the daughter of a fisherman, falls in love with Baron Kerr (Paul Otto), who is recovering in her parents' house after having problems with a storm at sea. Kerr also takes a liking to the young woman and so after a short time, he asks her for her hand. Inge leaves behind her parents and her boyfriend, the fisherman Jan Olsen (Paul Hansen) when she and Kerr begin a new and completely unfamiliar life. By marrying an influential diplomat, she now belongs to the higher social class, which also includes the high nobility. Inge has an opponent in the capricious Evelyne (Ressel Orla), with whom Kerr was in a relationship before his marriage.
After the young couple has had a child, it is more important for Inge to be with her child than to take on social responsibilities. Evelyne can now be seen more and more at Kerr's side. Inge, who is straightforward and honest, has little to oppose this woman who is crazy about intrigues. Although it is Kerr who cheats on his wife with Evelyne, he accuses Inge of infidelity. He uses the occasion when he sees Jan Olsen come out of his house. However, Inge only treated his injuries sustained while visiting a nightclub during a fight he got into. Another dramatic incident leads Inge to return to her parents' house after she and her husband have decided to divorce. Nothing stands in the way of happiness with Jan, who suits her much better.
Inge Larsen was scripted by Karl Vollmoeller and Hans Steinhoff. Helmar Lerski did the cinematography, while sets were by Fritz Lück, Alfred Junge, and Ludwig Kainer. The latter also did the costumes. The first outdoor shots were taken on Rügen in the second half of October 1922. This was followed by further shooting in Berlin. At the end of April / beginning of May 1923 further filming took place in Copenhagen because Porten was no longer satisfied with the film. The critic Fritz Olimsky, who noticed at the premiere that the film was not of the usual length, learned when asked that Henny Porten had subsequently removed or severely cut the scenes from the already-completed film in which she herself cannot be seen. Thus, from an ensemble film, “a clichéd star film with finely worked out secondary episodes” emerged, according to Olimsky. The film, forbidden for non-adults, premiered on 22 September 1923 at the Berlin cinema Kammer-Lichtspielen.
For some of the Berlin critics, the film was a vehicle for the star Henny Porten and was “fully geared towards the audience”. It was a "bomb role" for her. The other part was of the opinion that the film was old-fashioned "as it was half a decade ago" and "as it has always been in her famous films". The work of the production designer and the work of the cameraman were assessed as consistently positive. In particular, the opening shots by Lerski reminded me of contemporary Swedish cinema. It is also said that after a few failures with the embodiment of Inge Larsen as the ideal German woman and mother, Henny Porten was returning to a role that her regular audience expects of her.
The disappointment was expressed in view of the "pulp fiction plot", since Karl Vollmoeller was after all considered a "literary screenwriter", who, however, turns out to be a "backward-looking poet and dexterous family novelist". While the weaknesses of the film were blamed on the script and the superiority of Henny Porten, the work of Hans Steinhoff was rated positively. It was said that he “gave the maudlin story an atmospheric setting” and “worked out individual moods very finely”. Steinhoff had shown that “there is a lot of good in him” and that “a lot can still be expected from him”.
The film, long thought to be lost, was discovered in the Moscow film archive Gosfilmofond including the censorship card and extensively restored by the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv Berlin and the University of the West of England Bristol as well as with partial support from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board. The restored version was shown for the first time on 11 September 2007.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/3. Photo: Henny Porten Filmproduktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Hansen in Inge Larsen (Hans Steinhoff, 1924).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/5. Photo: Henny Porten Filmproduktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Otto in Inge Larsen (Hans Steinhoff, 1924).
Die Flammen lügen (1926)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/1. Photo: Henny Porten Film. Henny Porten and Ferdinand von Alten in Die Flammen lügen (Carl Froehlich, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/2. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten in the German silent film Die Flammen lügen (Carl Froehlich, 1926). The men may be Paul Bildt and Gerd Briese as Porten's father and brother in the film.
In Die Flammen lügen/The Flames Lie (Carl Froehlich, 1926), Gertrud von Gehr (Porten) is the daughter of the retired officer Major von Gehr (Paul Bildt). He is annoyed by his neighbor's new house, the wealthy factory owner Conrad Birkinger (Hans Adalbert Schlettow). To make matters worse, Gehr's daughter Gertrud falls in love with Birkinger and one day they both get married. The childless marriage is not under a lucky star, because Birkinger cheats on his wife with his former girlfriend Doritt (Ruth Weyher). Gertrud's unfaithful husband even goes so far that he and Doritt rent a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Birkinger.
When a fire breaks out in the hotel, the two can no longer escape and perish in the flames. Now Gertrud Birkinger is officially dead. At first, she does not notice anything of this development because she had stayed in the hotel too, as she had secretly traveled to join her husband. But she could be saved. After a lengthy recovery, Gertrud returns to her old, premarital life and devotes herself entirely to her brother Hermann's children.
Die Flammen lügen was created in April and May 1926 in the Berlin-Staaken studio. The film passed the censorship on 25 September and was banned from youth. The first performance took place on 22 October 1926 in the Berlin cinema Mozartsaal. The length of the six-acter was 2780 meters. Paimann’s film lists summed up: “The subject is kept quite sentimental and has a number of gripping moments, the direction is consistent, the mise-en-scene and photography neat."
Additional actors were Ferdinand von Alten as Birkinger's secretary, Gerd Briese as Gertrud's brother Hermann, Grete Mosheim, and Hubert von Meyerinck. Friedrich Raff did the script, Franz Schroedter was responsible for the film sets, and Axel Graatkjær did the cinematography.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/3. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten and Hans Adalbert Schlettow in Die Flammen lügen (Carl Froehlich, 1926).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten in Die Flammen lügen (Carl Froehlich, 1926).
Liebfraumilch (1929)
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 106/1. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich produktion (HPF). Henny Porten in Liebfraumilch/German Wine (Carl Froehlich, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 106/2. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich produktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Henckels in Liebfraumilch/German Wine (Carl Froehlich, 1929).
Liebfraumilch/German Wine (Carl Froehlich, 1929) is a German silent film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Livio Pavanelli as wine estate owner Hans Hentschel, Henny Porten as his wife Klara, and Paul Henckels as her grandfather.
The film takes its German title from the sweet white wine Liebfraumilch. The film's sets were designed by Gustav A. Knauer and Willy Schiller. The film was shot on location in Wiesbaden and by the Rhein River (in Bacharach and the surrounding area).
On 19 December 1928, the German censors authorised Liebfraumilch for projection. The premiere of the film took place on 5 February 1929, in Berlin at the Titania-Palast. It was distributed by the German branch of Universal Pictures.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 106/3. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich produktion (HPF). Henny Porten and Paul Henckels in Liebfraumilch/German Wine (Carl Froehlich, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 106/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich produktion. Henny Porten in Liebfraumilch/German Wine (Carl Froehlich, 1929).
Sources: German Wikipedia, Horst Claus (Bundesarchiv, Filmblatt 6), Filmportal.de, and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment