“BLIND HUSBANDS”

FILM BY

Erich von Stroheim
1919

 

MUSIC BY

Andreas-Eduardo Frank
2021

Commissioned by ZDF in collaboration with ARTE
Wiener Konzerthaus and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

 

SCORE

1 Flöte/Picc./Bassflöte, 1 Oboe/engl. Horn, 1 Klarinette/Bassklarinette, 1 Trompete, 1 Klavier (inside playing)/Bandoneon/Toypiano, 1 Gitarre/Banjo/Resonatorgitarre, 1 Schlagzeug, 1 Violine, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Kontrabass

[100 minutes]

 

EDITOR

Nina Goslar / ZDF

 

INFO ABOUT THE FILM

In his debut film, Erich v. Stroheim immediately delivers everything that later made him legendary as ‘man you love to hate’: a thrilling story about an impostor and supposed officer (played by the director himself) who puts the fidelity of a bored wife to the test and makes other women unhappy in the process. A brilliantly staged drama in the mountains and farce on bourgeois marriage.

Blind Husbands was already a great cinema success in its time and established Erich v. Stroheim’s rank as one of the most important directors of American silent cinema. Under the title ‘The Pinnacle’ he had offered the script to the Universal boss Carl Laemmle. The motifs of his later films already appear here: the decadence of the imperial and royal monarchy, criticism of the bourgeoisie. Monarchy, criticism of the bourgeois family and a depiction of erotic longings and frustrations that was unusually open for the time. Stroheim staged unsentimentally and provoked from the beginning with his unique mixture of realism and ironic exaggeration, which he himself stood for in the role of the deceitful officer von Steuben.

IMDB

 

INFO ABOUT THE PROJECT

ARTE cine-concert / 2eleven music film

 

PERFORMANCES

– 2021.October.03 / ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE, Wiener Konzerthaus (Wien) [WORLD PREMIERE]
– 2022.March.23 / ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) [GERMAN PREMIERE]

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