Heimat (1938)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Carl Froelich

Writers:

Harald Braun (writer)
Hans Brennert (adaptation)

Release Date:

9 September 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Father Daughter Relationship | Based On Play

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Zarah Leander	...	Magda von Schwartze
Heinrich George	...	Leopold von Schwartze
Ruth Hellberg	...	Marie
Lina Carstens	...	Fränze von Klebs
Paul Hörbiger	...	Franz Heffterdingk
Georg Alexander	...	Ludwig Prinz von Ilmingen
Leo Slezak	...	Rohrmoser
Hans Nielsen	...	Max von Wendlowsky
Franz Schafheitlin	...	Bankdirektor von Keller

Also Known As:

Homeland
Magda (USA)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Tonfilmstudio Carl Froelich

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Heimat - Eine deutsche Chronik" (1984)

Soundtrack:

Drei Sterne sah ich scheinen

From play to film

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Watching an older movie is often more fun when one tries to empathize the times it was made. With "Heimat", this is a bit demanding: the movie mas made in 1938 Germany, so certainly under the control of Goebbels' propaganda ministry. It is based on the play of same name by Hermann Sudermann (1893), about a woman who left home in anger, and comes back eight years later (for a short time, incognito) as a famous opera singer.

The full text of the play is available online at the German Gutenberg project, so given enough time, one can compare both to see what was changed in the movie adaptation. Much, to put it briefly.

The play is a rather static thing: the same set for all four acts, a living-room. People enter, act, exit - a dialog-heavy piece most of all (with sometimes quite sarcastic and even laugh-out-loud dialog, to be true). The usually positive term "Heimat" (home, home-place) takes on a negative feel as it is used to subsume the traditional moral restrictions of small-town Germany in the 1880s. The strong heroine goes through many deep conflicts about her past, lifestyle, and future life, and in the end watches her father die of stroke.

For the movie, the basic structure was left intact, but much was added - mostly music, which only befits a film about a singer, starring Zarah Leander. Besides her typical chansons, two crucial segments of more classical music were added for Zarah to sing: Orpheus' air from Gluck's Orpheus and Eurydice, and some parts from J.S.Bach's St. Matthew Passion. These are really thrilling to watch la Leander in, especially the latter.

As may be mandatory in a movie, the end was considerably happied up - the old man no longer dies, but gets to recognize his grand-daughter, and the film closes on a positive feeling. "Magda" (that was also the US title) stands strong and is ultimately redeemed from the moral contempt ("family honor" forbidding premarital sex or childbirth) that looms so dangerously over the story minutes before.

I watched this movie, then read the play, then watched the movie again... so you can guess I was fascinated by it. Camera-work, as well as the montage between different scenes, with different action going on at the same time, make this quite a pleasure to watch. And the older society ladies are delightful caricatures... 8/10.