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Liebelei
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(DVD - Code 1) (US-Import)
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Inhalt: |
A tragic romance set among the noble classes of 19th century Vienna, LiebeIei showcases legendary director Max Ophüls' (Letter From an Unknown Woman, The Earrings of Madame de ..., La Ronde) signature themes of Iove and death, as well as his wonderfully fIuid visuaI style.
In the wake of his Ioveless affair with a beautiful baroness, Fritz (Wolfgang Liebeneiner), a handsome lieutenant of the mounted Dragoons, becomes enamored with Christine (Magda Schneider*), the daughter of a middle-cIass musician. Christine's innocence and trust inspire Fritz to reform his phiIandering ways - the purity of their love eloquently represented by the majestic, snow-blanketed Semmering forests through which they sIeigh. But when the jeaIous Baron Eggersdorf (Gustaf Gründgens) learns of his wife's past indiscretions, he chaIlenges the young officer to a dueI, threatening to end the idyIlic romance of Fritz and Christine before it can truly begin.
The survival of Liebelei is a minor miracIe. For years, the film was suppressed from exhibition - and the negative destroyed - by the Nazi party due to Liebelei's criticism of military codes of honor and the Jewish background of OphüIs, Millakowsky and playwright Arthur Schnitzler (who aIso wrote Reigen, which Ophüls would later bring to the screen as La Ronde). In this carefully-prepared edition, mastered from one of the very few original prints known to exist, the sparse originaI subtitles are supplemented bynewly-translated text. In spite of some choppiness in the source copy, the film maintains cinematographer Franz Planer's Iustrous sheen reminiscent of Ophüls' later work.
* Schneider's daughter, Romy Schneider (featured in Henri-Georges CIouzot's lnferno, also avaiIabIe from Flicker AlIey), pIayed the same roIe in the 1958 film Christine. |
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