''Egon Schiele – Exzess und Bestrafung'', also known as ''Egon Schiele – Excess and Punishment'' (English) and ''Egon Schiele, enfer et passion'' (French) is a 1980 film based on the life of the Austrian artist
Egon Schiele. Set in Austria during the years immediately prior to and during the
Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the film stars Mathieu Carriere as Schiele, with Jane Birkin as his muse
Walburga (Wally) Neuzil, Christine Kaufmann as his wife Edith, and Kristina van Eyck as Edith's sister. Essentially a depiction of obsession and its constituents of
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...
,
alcohol, and
uncontrolled emotions, the film
portrays Schiele as an
agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
of
social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations.
Definition
Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or socio ...
leading to the destruction of those he
love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...
s and ultimately of
himself
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence.
In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...
.
Plot
The short life of Austrian
Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
painter Egon Schiele is chronicled against a backdrop of the final years of the Habsburg Monarchy. The story begins around 1912 as Schiele (Mathieu Carriere) and his mistress and artistic muse Wally (Jane Birkin) are befriended by an obsessed teenage girl (Karina Fallenstein), who has
run away to be with Schiele. Schiele is subsequently imprisoned on the grounds that he has behaved in a sexually improper way towards the young woman. The young woman falsely accuses Schiele, who denies the charge to no avail. Although the girl withdraws her accusations, Schiele is nevertheless requested to leave the area, as he has offended the social mores of the conservative society in which he lives. Those offended include his mother (Angelika Hauff), who rails against his lax morals.
Upon his release, he continues his excesses, despite fighting (literally) to conform, even going so far as to volunteer for service in the
Austrian army
The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria.
The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. As a soldier, Schiele cuts a pathetic figure and is quickly
discharged
Discharge may refer to
Expel or let go
* Discharge, the act of firing a gun
* Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer
* Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...
as unfit for duty. He disposes of his
alcoholic
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...
mistress and has an affair with a
society beauty, who ultimately abandons him, unable to cope with his sexual obsessions. Schiele's emotional cruelty is exposed when he shuns Wally, who is near death. Their parting scene at a
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
social gathering reveals the corruption at the heart of Schiele's artistic soul.
Schiele's paintings, however, develop greater depth as he pushes himself to the limit. Whilst his paintings gain acceptance (and many now hang in the
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl.
It contains the w ...
in Vienna), his own sanity suffers. He marries and appears to find a modicum of contentment until his wife Edith (Christine Kaufmann) falls ill during the 1918
Spanish influenza
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
pandemic. Schiele makes love to his dying wife in a scene that is tender yet shocking, evoking a central theme of Schiele's work: the link between sex and death. Shortly thereafter, Schiele himself contracts influenza and dies.
Production
The film was an
international co-production
A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companie ...
with actors of German, French, Dutch, and English origin. Shot
on location in Vienna and the Croatian
capital city
A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...
of
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
, it was
directed
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
by
Herbert Vesely
Herbert Vesely (31 March 1931 – 13 July 2002) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1955 and 1988.
Selected filmography
* ' (1955)
* '' The Bread of Those Early Years'' (1962) — (based on the nov ...
and
produced by and Robert Hess, with
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
by Rudolf Blahacek and
soundtrack
A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...
by Brian Eno. Although selected as the Austrian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
53rd Academy Awards
The 53rd Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1980 and took place on March 31, 1981, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 7:00 p ...
, it was not accepted as a nominee.
[Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]
Cast
*
Mathieu Carrière
Mathieu Carrière (; born 2 August 1950) is a German actor.
Life
Carrière grew up in Berlin and Lübeck; he attended the Jesuit boarding school in Vannes, France, a school which had previously been attended by the director of Carrière's fir ...
– Egon Schiele
*
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an English-French singer and actress. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career ...
– Wally Neuzil
*
Christine Kaufmann
Christine Maria Kaufmann (; 11 January 1945 – 28 March 2017) was a German-Austrian actress, author, and businesswoman. The daughter of a German father and a French mother, she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress f ...
– Edith Harms
* – Adele Harms
* – Tatjana von Mossig
* – Gerti
*
Marcel Ophüls
Marcel Ophuls (; born 1 November 1927) is a German-French documentary film maker and former actor, best known for his films ''The Sorrow and the Pity'' and '' Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie''.
Life and career
Ophuls was bo ...
– Dr Stovel
* – Benesch
* Danny Mann – Mrs Stovel
*
Guido Weiland – Herr von Mossig
*
Maria Ebner – Frau Harms
*
Angelika Hauff
Angelika Hauff (1922–1983) was an Austrian stage and film actress. She worked prolifically as a film actress in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War appearing in the lead roles in several successful films that included '' The Marria ...
– Frau Gertrude Schiele, Schiele's mother
*
Helmut Dohle – Gustav Klimt
*
Wolfgang Leisowsky – Arthur Roessler
*
Serge Gainsbourg – Unnamed
Reviews
''New York Times'' review
See also
*
*
* ''
Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden'' (2016)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egon Schiele Exzess Und Bestrafung
1980 films
1980s biographical films
French biographical films
Austrian biographical films
West German films
German biographical films
Biographical films about painters
Films directed by Herbert Vesely
Films set in Austria
Films set in the 1910s
1980s German-language films
Cultural depictions of 20th-century painters
Cultural depictions of Austrian men
German multilingual films
Austrian multilingual films
French multilingual films
1980s French films
1980s German films