Timetable

Ariane

Paul Czinner

DE
1931
Spielfilm
85’
dt. OmeU
Focus

»Elisabeth was the peerless embodiment of a figure that was neither woman nor man. The short hair and the Bergner curl on her forehead—this look became the fashion of the day. She spoke the German language in her own way, putting accents on unexpected syllables. She played with the audience like a magician. The fascination intoxicated us all. She knew that.«
Marlene Dietrich

Young Ariane Kusnetzowa is fun-loving and full of energy. The expatriate Russian gravitates from Switzerland to Berlin to begin her mathematics studies. »I so long to finally become free and independent. I have to go out into the world at last, I have to«, she declares after passing her school-leaving exams with flying colours. Ariane promptly meets the much older bon vivant Konstantin Michael at the opera, who flirts intensely with her. She submits to his charms and plays up her inexperience to him, also because he makes no bones about having no time for deeper feelings and innocent girls and just wanting a casual fling. Ariane, on the other hand, throws all her emotions into their relationship, going out of her way and investing far more in her first affair than he does. When Konstantin dumps her while they are on holiday in Italy, Ariane acts cool but is deeply hurt.
Ariane is the first sound film in Elisabeth Bergner’s distinguished film career.

Guests: Renate Berger (art historian& curator), Anke Hahn (Head of Film Distribution of the Deutsche Kinemathek)


With Elisabeth Bergner

Elisabeth Bergner, born in 1897, studied at the Vienna Conservatory and is one of the pre-eminent actresses of the early 20th century. Her major breakthrough came in 1923 as Rosalind in Max Reinhardt’s production of As You Like It. She made her film debut in the same year. In 1924, she began her artistic collaboration with Paul Czinner, who wrote roles for her that brought out Bergner’s androgynous eroticism. The couple emigrated to England in 1933 and married. She successfully continued her career in theatre and film, was nominated for an Oscar and went to Hollywood in 1940. She died in London in 1986. In 2021, the biography Die Schauspielerin Elisabeth Bergner: Ein Leben zwischen Selbstbehauptung und MeToo was published, in which Renate Berger describes how difficult it was for actresses in the theatre in the 1920s to assert themselves within a deeply sexist system.


Films with Elisabeth Bergner (Selection)
Feine Gesellschaft – beschränkte Haftung 1982 | Der Pfingstausflug 1978 | Die glücklichen Jahre der Thorwalds 1962 | Verlass mich niemals wieder 1935 | Katharina die Große 1934 | Fräulein Else 1929 | Doña Juana 1927 | Der Geiger von Florenz 1926 | Nju 1924 | Der Evangelimann 1923

Director

Paul Czinner

Script

Paul Czinner, Carl Mayer

Cinematography

Adolf Schlasy, Fritz Arno Wagner

Editing

Herbert Selpin

Music

Leo Witt, Richard Strauß, Merek Lieven-Belorussoff

Cast

Elisabeth Bergner, Rudolf Forster, Annemarie Steinsieck, Herta Guthmar

Production

Seymour Nebenzahl, Ernst Wolff, Nero-Film

Contact

Deutsche Kinemathek