Max Linder filmt 1922 in Wien am Rosenhügel

MAX LINDER FILMT 1922 [sic] IN WIEN AM ROSENHÜGEL [Max Linder a Vienna presso il Rosenhügel Studio/Max Linder Filming in 1922 [sic] in Vienna at the Rosenhügel Studio] (AT 1924) Excerpt from compilation Buntes Allerlei (AT, ?) comp: Walter Jerven. cast: Max Linder. copia/copy: DCP, 51" (da/from 16 mm). fonte/source: Ulrich Ruedel & Lobster Films, Paris.

    Grand piano: Stephen Horne

    Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Slapstick: Appetizers, 12 Oct  2023.
 

Lisa Stein Haven (GCM 2023): " In this approximately 51-second film clip, there are three different scenes filmed on the set of Max, der Zirkuskönig (Vita-Film, 1924), described for the first time by Paolo Caneppele in his essay “Im ‘Bunten Allerlei’: Max Linder in Wien,” published in Maske und Kothurn: Max Linder ein früher Star (2008). "

" The first scene shows Linder’s arrival at the Vita-Film studio, with a dark-haired man in glasses placing “the prop” on the table located in the center of the stage. In the second scene, the camera zooms in a bit, and as Caneppele notes: “We see Linder coming to the table, taking off his coat, and discussing the script with the man in the light-colored suit.” In this scene, Linder removes his Astrakhan overcoat to reveal that he is dressed in a tuxedo (no hat). The man in the light-colored suit is now identified as the second director assigned to the project, Édouard-Émile Violet. Because of this identification, the date range of the film clip can be narrowed to between 14 January 1924 (the date of Violet’s arrival) and 10 April 1924 (the date of the film’s completion), rather than the range Caneppele suggests of 30 November 1923 to early May 1924. The Linders returned to Paris in early May, after unwinding in Switzerland for a few weeks after leaving Vienna. "

" The third scene zooms into the two men at the table examining (most likely) the film’s script . Behind the men and the table, the interior of “Count Pompadour’s” (Linder’s) bedroom can be seen, indicating that this is probably early in the production, if scenes were shot in order. Used for publicity purposes, this brief set of scenes conveys “speed, efficiency, fast production processes, and his clear ideas and guidelines for actors and crew,” known at the time as “American pace.” Such descriptors of this production, however, run counter to reality, for the film went more than a month over schedule, being completed about 10 April 1924, rather than 1 March. Although writer Felix Fischer was chastised by his journalist colleagues for being too harsh, he characterized the production’s pace as slowed significantly due to Linder’s own particular brand of divaesqueness (termed “chicanery” [“lächerliche Schikanen” in German] – by Fischer in Neues Wiener Journal , 19.1.1924). Perhaps due to such shenanigans, exaggerated or not , Vita- Film found it difficult to withstand the financial demands of the Linder film, and filed for bankruptcy in September 1924, less than a year after opening for business. "

" The clip is part of a 16 mm compilation film entitled Buntes Allerlei, part of the collection of the Austrian Filmmuseum in Vienna. The compilation includes 11 excerpts, including the Linder material. The date 1922 on the original title card of this clip is incorrect; the footage has to have been shot in early 1924... " Lisa Stein Haven

AA: Priceless behind-the-scenes footage of Max Linder making his final film Max, der Zirkuskönig / Le Roi du Cirque, a major restoration of which we saw at the 2021 GCM.