Das Mirakel

Ce soir j'ai vu à la cinémathèque Das Mirakel.

Allemagne - 1912 - 69’

Avec Maria Carmi, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Payne, Florence Winston.

Le résumé :

Une religieuse quitte son couvent pour partir vivre des aventures avec un chevalier. En son absence, une statue de la Vierge prend vie et effectue ses tâches à sa place.
Copie restaurée par les Archives françaises du film-CNC.
Ernst Lubitsch acteur dans ce film

Das Mirakel ("The Miracle"), is a short filmdirected by Cherry Kearton and Max Reinhardt and released in 1912. It is best known for its experimental use of sound.

The film was adapted by Joseph Menchen from a play by Karl Vollmöller and starred Vollmöller's wife Maria Carmi as the Madonna. It is one of two movie versions of the play released in 1912 . There would not be another film version of it for nearly fifty years.

Talking pictures were not available or practical until 1927's The Jazz Singer, although filmmakers had begun experimenting with mixing sounds and pictures as early as 1895. One such experiment was Das Mirakel.

Kearton's pioneering talking film was an adapted version of the 1911 Max Reinhardt stage spectacular of the same name. Based on the legend of a statue of the Virgin Mary coming to life to replace a wayward nun, the original stage version ran nearly three hours. The play was thus essentially a mime with music by Engelbert Humperdinck. Kearton's adaptation was pared down to three reels.

The actual film reel itself was silent since filmmakers would not discover how to put a soundtrack on film until the late 1920's.

The movie was filmed entirely on location in the grounds of Kreuzenstein Castle and at the Cathedral of Pechtoldsdorf in Vienna, Austria. It was shot in black-and-white 35mm and ran for about 30 minutes. The film premiered in Germany on 21 December 1912.
(la version du film présentée à la cinémathèque dure 69 minutes )