The Ancient Law
About The Ancient Law
In 1860s Galicia, Rabbi Mayer's son Baruch (Ernst Deutsch) plays King Ahasuerus in a Purim play and decides he will be an actor. His father forbids it. Baruch joins a traveling troupe, is laughed at for his payot, and is taken up by Archduchess Elisabeth Theresia (Henny Porten), who gets him into Vienna's Burgtheater. He insists on opening as Hamlet on Yom Kippur. The performance succeeds, the archduchess drops him, and he goes home at Passover. The rabbi disowns him. Esther leaves with Baruch. After an illness and a reading of Shakespeare, the rabbi comes to see his son act.
Cast & crew
More about The Ancient Law
E. A. Dupont directed. Paul Reno wrote the script; Heinrich Laube is also credited. Theodor Sparkuhl was the cinematographer. The German release was 29 October 1923. Avrom Morewski plays Rabbi Mayer, Robert Garrison plays Ruben Pick, and Margarete Schlegel plays Esther.
Themes
Background
A Weimar film of 1923 set in Habsburg Galicia and Vienna, about an Orthodox household and a state theater.
Making
Dupont cast Deutsch, a leading expressionist actor, as the rabbi's son and Porten, then one of Germany's biggest stars, as the archduchess who sponsors him and then drops him.
Reviews
In 1923 Film-Kurier and Lichtbild-Bühne praised Dupont's picture of the ghetto and of Viennese theater society, while noting slips of detail.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl photographed the Galician rooms and the Burgtheater scenes.
Music
Silent on release. Philippe Schoeller's score for the 2018 restoration was recorded by the Jakobsplatz Orchestra.
Preservation
Several copies survive. Deutsche Kinemathek's 135-minute restoration premiered at the Berlinale on 16 February 2018.
Notes
- Hermann Vallentin plays Heinrich Laube, the historical Burgtheater director, inside the story.
- Baruch's Hamlet opens on Yom Kippur, which is the break with his father's calendar.
- Film-Kurier and Lichtbild-Bühne reviewed it in 1923 and wrote about Dupont's staging of the Galician household and of Vienna.
- Deutsche Kinemathek restored a 135-minute version, premiered at the Berlinale on 16 February 2018, with intertitles rebuilt from censorship cards. Philippe Schoeller wrote a new score, recorded by the Jakobsplatz Orchestra in Munich.
- Several copies survive. The Internet Archive identifier is silent-this-ancient-law.
Scenes
- Baruch is laughed off a picnic stage because of his payot, until the archduchess intervenes.
- He opens as Hamlet on Yom Kippur.
- The rabbi, after reading Shakespeare during an illness, goes to see his son perform.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-this-ancient-law)
