Liebelei

For the song by Raffaella Carrà, see A far l'amore comincia tu. For the play by Arthur Schnitzler, see Liebelei (play).

Liebelei
Directed by	Max Ophüls
Screenplay by	Curt Alexander Hans Wilhelm Max Ophüls
Story by	Felix Salten
Based on	Liebelei by Arthur Schnitzler
Produced by	Christoph Mülleneisen Herman Millakowsky (Pre-production)
Starring	Magda Schneider Wolfgang Liebeneiner Luise Ullrich
Cinematography	Franz Planer
Edited by	Friedel Buckow
Music by	Theo Mackeben
Production company	Elite Tonfilm
Distributed by	Metropol-Filmverleih General Foreign Sales (US)
Release dates	10 March 1933 (1933-03-10) (Germany) 27 February 1936 (1936-02-27) (US)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German

Liebelei is a 1933 German period drama film directed by Max Ophüls and starring Magda Schneider, Wolfgang Liebeneiner, and Luise Ullrich.

Plot

In Vienna during the late Imperial era, a love affair between a young lieutenant and a musician's daughter ends tragically when the lieutenant is killed in a duel, and the girl commits suicide.

Cast

• Magda Schneider as Christine Weyring
• Wolfgang Liebeneiner as Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer
• Luise Ullrich as Mizzi Schlager
• Carl Esmond as Lieutenant Theo Kaiser
• Olga Chekhova as Baronin von Eggersdorff
• Gustaf Gründgens as Baron von Eggersdorff
• Paul Hörbiger as Old Weyring, Christine's father
• Paul Otto as Major von Eggersdorf, the baron's brother

Production

Liebelei was directed by Max Ophüls and produced by Elite Tonfilm. The film, based on a play of the same name (Liebelei) by Arthur Schnitzler, describes an ill-fated love affair. A 1927 silent film version was previously produced. A separate French-language version – A Love Story (1934) – was also released, using most of the original cast.

The film's sets were designed by the art director Gabriel Pellon. Location shooting took place in Berlin and Vienna.

Release

After World War II the film was approved for showing in occupied Germany by the United Kingdom, but was banned by the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft in 1951.

Works cited

• Kelson, John (1996). Catalogue of Forbidden German Feature and Short Film Productions held in Zonal Film Archives of Film Section, Information Services Division, Control Commission for Germany, (BE) (2 ed.). Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0948911190.

Further reading

• White, Susan M. (1995). The Cinema of Max Ophüls: Magisterial Vision and the Figure of Woman. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10113-4.

External links

• Liebelei at IMDb
• "Senses of Cinema" essay by Jesús Cortés