When learning of a best of cinema in 1942 poll on ICM,I looked forward to viewing auteur film maker Willi Forst's creation from the year,only to not be able to find where I had placed it. A few weeks later I decided to watch Caprices (1942-also reviewed) and found Forst's film had somehow ended up in the same file! Which led to me at last going to Vienna.
View on the film:
Inviting the audience with a peculiar introduction of a scientist mixing "Humour", "Carelessness","Heart","History" and "Music" potions in a lab, co-writer/(with Ernst Marischka, and regular collaborator Axel Eggebrecht) directing auteur Willi Forst & cinematographer Jan Stallich cast an enchanting spell which conjures an extension of the visual themes running across Forst's work. Framing subjects having their portraits done as if they were living paintings,Forst crystallises his ultra-stylisation in lavish tracking shots down the glittering, immaculately detailed corridors of the palace, twirling into surrealist overlapping dissolves of dreamy dance numbers. Bringing his eye for Comedy to the forefront, Forst weaves the elegance of the Wiener Filme genre with longer takes for physical comedy, digging into uncomfortable awkwardness against the towering backdrop.
Going back in time again to a Vienna of old for this adaptation of Viktor Leon and Leo Stein's Operetta, the screenplay by Forst/ Marischka and Eggebrecht waltz the title onto a continuation of the themes Forst explores across his credits,in the refine-looking royalty slyly trying to keep secrets behind their image, a risqué painting being held-up as a threat,and the writers dripping the sweet flight of fantasy wish fulfillment on the shoes of Melanie catching the eyes of all. Reuniting with Forst from Operette (1940), Maria Holst gives a excellent, contrasting performance as the reserved Melanie, who breaks out into a ravishing flirt, when going under another name at the ball where Forst serves a slice of his Viennese Trilogy.
View on the film:
Inviting the audience with a peculiar introduction of a scientist mixing "Humour", "Carelessness","Heart","History" and "Music" potions in a lab, co-writer/(with Ernst Marischka, and regular collaborator Axel Eggebrecht) directing auteur Willi Forst & cinematographer Jan Stallich cast an enchanting spell which conjures an extension of the visual themes running across Forst's work. Framing subjects having their portraits done as if they were living paintings,Forst crystallises his ultra-stylisation in lavish tracking shots down the glittering, immaculately detailed corridors of the palace, twirling into surrealist overlapping dissolves of dreamy dance numbers. Bringing his eye for Comedy to the forefront, Forst weaves the elegance of the Wiener Filme genre with longer takes for physical comedy, digging into uncomfortable awkwardness against the towering backdrop.
Going back in time again to a Vienna of old for this adaptation of Viktor Leon and Leo Stein's Operetta, the screenplay by Forst/ Marischka and Eggebrecht waltz the title onto a continuation of the themes Forst explores across his credits,in the refine-looking royalty slyly trying to keep secrets behind their image, a risqué painting being held-up as a threat,and the writers dripping the sweet flight of fantasy wish fulfillment on the shoes of Melanie catching the eyes of all. Reuniting with Forst from Operette (1940), Maria Holst gives a excellent, contrasting performance as the reserved Melanie, who breaks out into a ravishing flirt, when going under another name at the ball where Forst serves a slice of his Viennese Trilogy.