Sirk in Germany (1934/1935) (Eureka)

[James Luckard]

SIRK IN GERMANY 1934-1935 (Masters of Cinema) Limited Edition Two-disc Blu-ray

Originally Posted by cooey

Pre-order: Amazon.co.uk - Eureka
Release date: Feb 24th, 2025

An undisputed master of melodrama, director Douglas Sirk is best known for the lavish, sweeping romances he made during the last decade of his career, including Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life. But by the time Sirk – born Hans Detlef Sierck – arrived in Hollywood, he had already made several films in his native Germany. The Masters of Cinema series is honoured to present this collection of Sirk’s earliest films, all of which established a blueprint for his later work: April, April!, The Girl from Marsh Croft (Das Mädchen vom Moorhof)and Pillars of Society (Stützen der Gesellschaft).

In Sirk’s directorial debut – the comedy April, April! – a businessman and shameless social climber, Julius Lampe (Erhard Siedel), is subjected to a cruel April Fools’ Day prank when he is led to believe a noble prince (Albrecht Schoenhals) intends to personally inspect his pasta factory. Then, in Sirk’s first melodrama The Girl from Marsh Croft, farmer Karsten Dittmar (Kurt Fischer-Fehling) falls in love with the disreputable young maid Helga Christmann (Hansi Knoteck) – much to the dismay of his fiancée Gertrud Gerhart (Ellen Frank). Finally, in Pillars of Society, wealthy Norwegian shipbuilder Consul Karsten Bernick (Heinrich George) must face up to a lifetime of corruption and deceit when farmer Johann Tonnessen (Albrecht Schoenhals) returns to Norway after a twenty-year absence and discovers that Bernick has smeared his good name.

Presented alongside Sirk’s shorts Two Greyhounds (Zwei Windhunde), Three Times Before (3 x Ehe)and The Imaginary Invalid (Der eingebildete Kranke), these three features – all released in 1935 – showcase the burgeoning talents of a filmmaker who would go on to become one of the most important figures in the history of Hollywood cinema. Sirk’s early works are presented here on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK from brand-new restorations by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation.

LIMITED EDITION TWO-DISC BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Limited edition of 2000 copies
- Limited edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork by Scott Saslow
- HD presentations from new restorations supplied by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation
- Optional English subtitles on all features and shorts
- Two Greyhounds (Zwei Windhunde)– 1934 short by Douglas Sirk
- Three Times Before (3 x Ehe) [silent version] – 1934 short by Douglas Sirk | Alternate “sound” presentation of Three Times Before (produced at the same time as the “silent version,” unfortunately the original sound reel no longer exists – this version is presented with subtitles)
- The Imaginary Invalid (Der eingebildete Kranke)– 1935 short by Douglas Sirk
- New audio commentaries on all three featuresby Sirk expert David Melville Wingrove
- Magnificent Obsessions – new interview with film historian Sheldon Hall on Sirk’s career from Germany to Hollywood
- PLUS: Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring a new extended essay on Sirk’s early works by German cinema expert Tim Bergfelder

[James Luckard]

I'm hugely excited for this. It looks like it will be a definitive edition for Sirk's German work.

This 1934/1935 set includes the three short films he directed and his first three feature films.

- April, April! has never previously been released on home video
- The Girl From the Marsh Croft was released by Kino in 2022, I presume this will use the same restoration
- Pillars of Society was released as part of a long-OOP French DVD set of Sirk's early work, with no English subtitles.

The dates so prominently featured on the front and spine suggest this is Vol 1, with a Vol 2 that would cover 1936/1937 yet to come. If so, that set would include four more titles on 2 more discs:

- The Final Chord - released by Kino in 2022
- Das Hofkonzert - only available on DVD from Germany with no English subtitles
- To New Shores - released by Kino in 2021
- La Habanera - released by Kino in 2022

I was sad that Kino didn't continue their Sirk series. I believe they said on here that sales were not great. I'm grateful to Eureka for taking over.

[Das Grosse E]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I'm hugely excited for this. It looks like it will be a definitive edition for Sirk's German work.

This 1934/1935 set includes the three short films he directed and his first three feature films.

- April, April! has never previously been released on home video
- The Girl From the Marsh Croft was released by Kino in 2022, I presume this will use the same restoration
- Pillars of Society was released as part of a long-OOP French DVD set of Sirk's early work, with no English subtitles.

The dates so prominently featured on the front and spine suggest this is Vol 1, with a Vol 2 that would cover 1936/1937 yet to come. If so, that set would include four more titles on 2 more discs:

- The Final Chord - released by Kino in 2022
- Das Hofkonzert - only available on DVD from Germany with no English subtitles
- To New Shores - released by Kino in 2021
- La Habanera - released by Kino in 2022

I was sad that Kino didn't continue their Sirk series. I believe they said on here that sales were not great. I'm grateful to Eureka for taking over.

There's also Dreiklang (Triad) from 1938, written by Sirk. The project was almost ready for shooting when he left Germany, so another director, Hanns Hinrich, took over directing duties. Sirk called it his first "broken lovestory", a theme he explored more in his US productions.

[koberulz]

I'm really only familiar with Sirk through his later Hollywood melodramas, of which I'm not at all a fan. Have really enjoyed the Weimar films I've been exposed to, though. Whereabouts on a scale between those two points would these fall?

[filmlover22]

Originally Posted by koberulz

I'm really only familiar with Sirk through his later Hollywood melodramas, of which I'm not at all a fan. Have really enjoyed the Weimar films I've been exposed to, though. Whereabouts on a scale between those two points would these fall?

I like his Hollywood films, but no idea about his Weimar output.

[Das Grosse E]

Originally Posted by koberulz

I'm really only familiar with Sirk through his later Hollywood melodramas, of which I'm not at all a fan. Have really enjoyed the Weimar films I've been exposed to, though. Whereabouts on a scale between those two points would these fall?

The short films are comedies, as well as his first feature April, April!
The Girl from Marsh Croft is a (melo)drama and Pillars of Society a drama but still heavily influenced by German cinema of the 1930s.
Keep in mind this is mid 30s Germany, so the Weimar republic was a memory at that point.

[PSYCHICGUY]

Hmmm, as nice as it is, it's still a bit disappointing.

I think I'll get the French boxset, instead.

[filmlover22]

Originally Posted by PSYCHICGUY

Hmmm, as nice as it is, it's still a bit disappointing.

I think I'll get the French boxset, instead.

If you can speak German or French, then yes.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by koberulz

I'm really only familiar with Sirk through his later Hollywood melodramas, of which I'm not at all a fan. Have really enjoyed the Weimar films I've been exposed to, though. Whereabouts on a scale between those two points would these fall?

To be clear, he made all 7 of his German feature films in a short two-year burst, from 1935-1937, entirely under the Nazi government.

He stayed in Germany longer than many other artists because his Nazi ex-wife had custody of his son, and he didn't want to abandon the boy. In the end, he had to, because his new wife was Jewish. They fled to Italy, then France, then Holland, then America.

I wouldn't say the films have much in common with Weimar-era German movies. They're glossy entertainments - mostly melodramas. If you don't like his later American films, I suspect you won't like these either, they're fairly similar.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by PSYCHICGUY

Hmmm, as nice as it is, it's still a bit disappointing.

I think I'll get the French boxset, instead.

Interesting, I had no idea we already had all 7 of his German films on BD.



Only useful for those who speak German or French, however, as stated above.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by Das Grosse E

Keep in mind this is mid 30s Germany, so the Weimar republic was a memory at that point.

Originally Posted by James Luckard

To be clear, he made all 7 of his German feature films in a short two-year burst, from 1935-1937, entirely under the Nazi government.

Sure, but there were people born in the Weimar Republic who weren't even old enough to walk in 1935, and dividing lines between eras aren't often particularly sharp (though an authoritarian government would perhaps make for a sharper delineation than usual).

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Sure, but there were people born in the Weimar Republic who weren't even old enough to walk in 1935, and dividing lines between eras aren't often particularly sharp (though an authoritarian government would perhaps make for a sharper delineation than usual).

The dividing line between Weimar cinema and Third Reich cinema was pretty abrupt and extreme. The changes were all-encompassing, and happened almost overnight.

Sirk worked exclusively at the UFA studio from 1934-1937, he made all his shorts and features there. UFA enthusiastically embraced the Nazi ideology immediately, firing its Jewish staff as soon as Hitler assumed power in 1933:

https://archivalspaces.com/2021/12/0...-aryanization/

In 1933, UFA was owned by a wealthy industrialist who helped put Hitler in power, and by 1937 it had been effectively nationalized entirely.

By the time Sirk was directing features in 1935, most of the biggest names in German cinema had fled the country, and the bold, experimental style of the previous decade had been completely done away with, by government edict, replaced by a few approved genres: patriotic propaganda pieces, glossy melodramas and lavish musicals.

Sirk found a way to work within that world for a time, only because he had to, making films that the authorities found palatable, but which he could also live with. It's fascinating to look at something like La Habanera and see the "heimat" themes that the Nazi censors approved of, but also the subtle indictment of a strongman leader that they seemed not to notice.

[CrockettandTubbs]

I was Sick in Germany once - on a school trip...

Oh - Sirk!

[Show spoiler]

[James Luckard]

Mine arrived today, Amazon UK sent it by DHL for some unfathomable reason, haha.

Looking forward to diving into it, there's a nice slipcover.

[James Luckard]

I watched the three shorts last night. They're in uneven condition, but all fun, and all show astonishing confidence behind the camera. You can see why Sirk was quickly given features to direct.

Two Greyhounds (Zwei Windhunde)
29:58 - A fun light comedy of mistaken identity. Two men show up at an office to interview for an accounting job. Through a series of misunderstandings, each mistakes the other for the head of the company. Chaos ensues, as they each do their best to impress the other.

It's in pretty good shape, it was restored by the Murnau Stiftung in 2021 in 4K

Three Times Before (3 x Ehe)
A bickering couple goes to a divorce lawyer, and each gives differing accounts of the events that day in their troubled marriage, Rashomon-style. Has an AMAZING moment where a scene stops and rewinds in order to play again, like in FUNNY GAMES, which feels incredibly modern and decades ahead of its time.

This one is in REALLY rough shape. The audio has been lost, so they present two versions:

19:08 - a silent version with original 1935 intertitles, which UFA intended to sell for 16mm exhibition.

16:30: also silent, with modern English subtitles for all the dialogue, based on the official censorship cards, which survive. The shorter run time is due to the absence of the intertitles.

I found the totally silent version much easier to watch. The intertitles only cover a small fraction of the dialogue in that version, so you go HUGE lengths of time with people talking mutely, and then an intertitle will only have a key sentence or two.

Restored by the Murnau Stiftung in 2021 in 2K.

The Imaginary Invalid (Der eingebildete Kranke)
37:51 - A farce based on a play by Moliere. The daughter of a hypochondriac wants to marry the man she loves, but her overbearing father wants her to marry the nebbishy son of his charlatan doctor, who keeps the man deluded that he's sick.

There's a warning at the beginning that the source used, a dupe negative, was improperly cropped/framed when it was produced, but honestly I didn't notice it at all.
Restored by the Murnau Stiftung in 2021 in 2K.

I also watched the 20:25 Sheldon Hall interview on Disc 2. He does a good job of covering Sirk's early life and 1920s theater career, which led to his work at UFA.

[James Luckard]

Can a mod merge this new thread into the existing one? Thanks!

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=383498

[James Luckard]

I watched the restoration of APRIL, APRIL! Last night.

I had only seen a bootleg version before, which I believe was sourced from a German TV airing. This looks great. The surviving materials are clearly imperfect, this isn't a 4K scan of a negative, but it's the best this film will ever look.

This new 2K restoration by the Murnau Stiftung is from 2021.

Note that all the feature films in this set are presented in the aspect ratio of 1.2:1, which the liner notes say is the OAR.

The film itself is a charming light romantic comedy of mistaken identity.

A pretentious nouveau riche pasta merchant and his family become intolerably full of themselves when a prince orders their noodles for an expedition to Africa. A family friend decides to play an April Fool's prank on them, and arranges for an impostor to pretend to be the prince and visit the factory. The baker gleefully has the local newspaper print word of the impending visit, which the real prince sees, and assumes is a scheduled event. He shows up and is mistaken for a salesman and falls in love with the baker's secretary, while the impostor prince woos the baker's daughter.

The commentary says that Sirk had directed a well-regarded stage production of Twelfth Night just before this, and the film definitely has echoes of Shakespeare's fondness for mistaken identity and false identity.

The commentary also makes a very good point that I somehow never put together. The reason UFA was so eagerly seeking new talent in 1935, and why they scouted Sirk at the theater and wooed him to film, was because so many filmmakers had left the country to get away from the Nazis in 1933 and 1934.

From what I understand, Sirk stayed on in Germany so much longer because he knew he could never take his son from his first marriage out of Germany, but wanted to be near the boy as long as he could.

[RossyG]

Two Greyhounds is terrific and I really enjoyed April April. A couple of quibbles though. The subtitles needed to be proofread a bit better as there are a couple of errors along the way and the text listing the films on the menu screen is ridiculously small as to be be unreadable.

[Dailyan]

Originally Posted by koberulz

Have really enjoyed the Weimar films I've been exposed to, though. Whereabouts on a scale between those two points would these fall?

About the middle. "The Girl From Marsh Croft" is probably the most "Sirk" of the three features (ex: two lovers of different social classes falling in love). That being said, I can't say I wasn't a fan of the other two features. "April, April!" is dreadful, unfunny and "Pillars of Society" has a lot going on but it's is just not interesting.

[wabrit]

Originally Posted by Dailyan

About the middle. "The Girl From Marsh Croft" is probably the most "Sirk" of the three features (ex: two lovers of different social classes falling in love). That being said, I can't say I wasn't a fan of the other two features. "April, April!" is dreadful, unfunny and "Pillars of Society" has a lot going on but it's is just not interesting.

I would concur; these are interesting to put his early career in context, but anyone expecting something along the quality or approach of his later work in the US is in for a disappointment.