Review of Fährmann Maria

"Fährmann Maria" or "Ferryman Maria" or "Death and the Maiden" is a German movie from 1936, so this one already had its 80th anniversary last year. It was written and directed by Frank Wisbar and is one of his most known early career efforts as he went on to become one of (West) Germany's most successful filmmakers after the 2nd World War too. So you already have the reference to Nazi Germany, but this relatively short film (77 minutes without credits the version I watched) is not a propaganda film by any means and also does not include any NS ideology I would say. There mere talk about Heimat is not enough to create this connection. It is a black-and-white sound film of course, but at times you could see that it was still the relatively early days of silent film as there were long sequences without people talking. And it is not in color either, which was pretty much a given for that time as those German films that were in color were mostly the Söderbaum propaganda films shortly afterward. The lead actress is Sybille Schmitz and her male co-lead is Aribert Mog and sadly both faced tragic fates afterward in her careers and lives. However, I personally found Peter Voß' turn as death personified much more interesting than Mog I must say. In any case, Schmitz is the heart and soul of the film and with her stunning looks and talent (reminds me a bit of Kristen Stewart physically) it is certainly not a surprise that she was (and still is today) the most known cast member, especially when it comes to early German sound films. Her decline even inspired Rainer Werner Fassbinder for one of his most famous works decades later. But back to this film here. I will say that I was a bit generous with my ***/***** rating here because the story has some weaknesses to be honest. Like I said, the male central character was fairly bland and are we really supposed to believe death will just sink down in the swamp and be defeated? I don't know. The ending I am still undecided on. I am generally not a fan of happy ending that feel completely unrealistic and this is certainly one of them, for reasons I explained the previous sentence too. However, compared to today, there were many many more films back then with unhappy endings for central characters, so this is almost a bit of a change to what you could expect, even with the dark background and plot involving Voß' character. So yeah, eventually the nice soundtrack and Schmitz' strong turn let me come to the conclusion that the positive in here is still more significant than the negative. I recommend this movie. Go see it if you can.