The Ancestress
About The Ancestress
Berta von Borotin, played by Liane Haid, loses a scarf to the wind. Jaromir von Eschen, played by Max Neufeld, brings it back, drives robbers off her, and is welcomed by her father, Count Zdenko, the last man of the line. The ancestress, a woman also named Berta who stabbed the husband she was forced to marry, appears when harm is near, and Haid plays her as well. Jaromir is the bandit the soldiers are hunting. With her dagger he kills Zdenko, his own father, then he and Berta die, and the ghost rests.
Cast & crew
More about The Ancestress
Jakob Fleck and Luise Kolm directed and wrote the script from Franz Grillparzer's 1817 play Die Ahnfrau. Anton Kolm produced with them for Wiener Kunstfilm. Alfred Meschkan designed the sets. The Vienna premiere was August 22, 1919. A Berlin opening followed in November 1919. The original running time is 84 minutes. The surviving fragment runs about 40 minutes. Josef Recht plays the robber Boleslav, who raised Jaromir. Eugen Neufeld plays a captain. Eduard Sekler plays the castellan. The same play had been filmed in 1910.
Themes
Reviews
On August 22, 1919, the day of the Vienna premiere, the Neue Freie Presse wrote that this was the first film taken from a work by Grillparzer.
Preservation
The 1919 release ran 84 minutes. The surviving fragment is about 40 minutes.
Notes
- English Wikipedia dates the release November 1919, which matches the Berlin opening.
- Haid's double part is why Jaromir takes the apparition for the living Berta.
- What circulates is a fragment of about 40 minutes from an 84-minute original.
- A 1910 film had already used Grillparzer's play.
Scenes
- The scarf blows into the courtyard and Jaromir picks it up.
- In the crypt Jaromir stabs Zdenko with the ancestress's dagger and learns the count is his father.
Influenced by
- Die Ahnfrau (Franz Grillparzer play)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-die-ahnfrau)