Cinema
The Angel with the Trumpet
Der Engel mit der Posaune
Karl Hartl · 1948
Synopsis
Vienna, 1888. Franz Alt, heir to a piano factory housed in a building whose door bears an angel with a trumpet, wants to marry Henriette Stein, the daughter of a professor of Jewish origin, despite the opposition of his family. Henriette once loved Crown Prince Rudolf; she marries Franz on the very day the prince's death becomes known. Two generations then live through the end of the monarchy, the war, the Republic, and then the annexation in the house.
Context
Adapted from the novel that the exiled Jewish writer Ernst Lothar published in 1946, the film was shot at the Rosenhügel studios and in Vienna, premiered at the Festspielhaus in Salzburg on 19 August 1948, then shown at the Venice Biennale. It allowed Paula Wessely and the Hörbiger brothers, stars of Viennese cinema in the war years, to distance themselves from their past under the regime. Oskar Werner, aged twenty-five, has his first important role in it. An English version was shot in 1950, in which Anthony Bushell was credited in place of Hartl.
Who it is for
More than two hours of family chronicle over nearly sixty years. The parts devoted to the annexation are harsh and do not spare the viewer.
Prizes and reception
Voted best film of the year by the Austrian public, and one of the biggest successes of the post-war years; released in France in 1951.
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