''The Cornet'' (german: Der Cornet. Die Weise von Liebe und Tod) is a 1955 West German

historical film A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swa ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

directed by

Walter Reisch Walter Reisch (May 23, 1903 – March 28, 1983) was an Austrian-born director and screenwriter. He also wrote lyrics to several songs featured in his films, one popular title is "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne". He was married to the dancer and a ...

and starring Götz von Langheim,

Anita Björk Anita Björk (25 April 1923 – 24 October 2012) was a Swedish actress. She was born in Tällberg, Dalarna and attended the Royal Dramatic Training Academy from 1942 to 1945. She was a leading lady of Swedish theatre for many years and wor ...

and

Wolfgang Preiss Wolfgang Preiss (27 February 1910 – 27 November 2002) was a German theatre, film and television actor. The son of a teacher, Preiss studied philosophy, German, and drama in the early 1930s. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schlen ...

.Davidson & Hake p.237filmportal.de, ''Der Cornet. Die Weise von Liebe und Tod''
/ref> Set during the

Great Turkish War The Great Turkish War (german: Großer Türkenkrieg), also called the Wars of the Holy League ( tr, Kutsal İttifak Savaşları), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Pola ...

, the film is related to the 1912 poem '' The Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke'' by

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...

. It was shot in

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

Location filming In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...

took place in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Wolf Englert Wolf Englert (1924–1997) was a German painter and art director who designed the sets of a number of German films and television series.Herzogenrath p.308 Selected filmography * '' Hubertus Castle'' (1954) * '' The Sinful Village'' (1954) * '' ...

Cast

* Götz von Langheim as Cornet Christoph von Rilke *

as Gräfin von Zathmar *

as Freiherr von Pirovano * Peter van Eyck as Mönchschreiber *

Benno Sterzenbach Benno Sterzenbach (born 3 March 1916 Osnabrück - died 13 September 1985 Feldafing) was a German cinema and theatre actor and director. Biography His first major role on stage was ''Götz von Berlichingen'' at which he played next to Ellen S ...

as Rittmeister Reningen *

Walter Janssen Walter Janssen (7 February 1887 – 1 January 1976) was a German film actor and director. He appeared in more than 160 films between 1917 and 1970. Selected filmography * '' The Dancer'' (1919) * ''Destiny'' (1921) * ''Wandering Souls'' (1 ...

as Arzt * Claus Clausen as General Graf Spork *

Piet Clausen Piet may refer to: People *Piet (given name), a common name in the Netherlands and South Africa *Henri Piet (1888–1915), French lightweight boxer *Tony Piet (1906–1981), American Major League Baseball player Schools *Purushottam Institute of ...

as Adjutant Spork *

Fritz Rasp Fritz Heinrich Rasp (13 May 1891 – 30 November 1976) was a German film actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1916 and 1976. His obituary in '' Der Spiegel'' described Rasp as "the German film villain in service, for over 60 years." ...

as Großwesir *

Eduard Köck Eduard Köck (26 February 1880 – 3 November 1961) was an Austrian stage actor, stage and film actor.Fritsche p.220 He made a few silent film appearances, but most of his screen performances were character roles during the 1940s and 1950s. Selec ...

as Falkenier *

Karl Friedrich Feudell Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

as Kurier *

Emmy Erb The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

as Obermagd * Hanne-Lore Morell as Edeldame *

Almut Rothweiler Almut is feminine German given name. Notable people with the name include: * Almut Brömmel (born 1935), German javelin and discus thrower *Almut Kemperdick (born 1963), German volleyball player *Almut Lehmann Almut Lehmann (married name: Peyper) ...

as Edeldame *

Ruth Fischer Ruth Fischer (11 December 1895 – 13 March 1961) was an Austrian and German Communist, and a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) in 1918. Along with her partner Arkadi Maslow, she led the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) through b ...

as Zigeunerin * as Der Deutsche * Hans-Joachim Post as Der Spucker * Gisela Free as Magd * Fritz Friedrichs as Pfarrer *

Willi Hanning Willi is a given name, nickname (often a short form or hypocorism of Wilhelm) and surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name * Willi Apel (1893–1988), German-American musicologist * Willi Boskovsky (1909–1991), Austrian violini ...

as Amtmann *

Friedrich Koch Friedrich Ernst Koch (3 July 1862 – 30 January 1927) was a German composer, cello, cellist and teacher. Biography He was born in Berlin and studied cello with Robert Hausmann and composition with Woldemar Bargiel at the Berlin Berlin Universit ...

as Richter * Heinz Püschel as Türkischer Feldwebel *

Walter Clemens Walter Carl Clemens, Jr. (born April 6, 1933) is an American political scientist best known for advancing complexity science as an approach to the study of international relations and comparative politics. He has been active in the analysis of comp ...

as Marquis *

Rolf Kutschera Rolf is a male given name and a surname. It originates in the Germanic name ''Hrolf'', itself a contraction of ''Hrodwulf'' ( Rudolf), a conjunction of the stem words ''hrod'' ("renown") + ''wulf'' ("wolf"). The Old Norse cognate is ''Hrólfr''. ...

Klaus Miedel Klaus is a German language, German, Dutch language, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klau ...

* Wolfgang Schmidt-Kessler

References

Bibliography

* Davidson, John & Hake, Sabine. ''Framing the Fifties: Cinema in a Divided Germany''. Berghahn Books, 2007.

External links

* 1955 films 1950s historical films 1955 war films German war films German historical films West German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Walter Reisch Films set in the 1660s Rainer Maria Rilke Films shot in Bavaria Films based on poems 1950s German films {{1950s-Germany-film-stub