''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' (1955) is a short film made by
Michael Powell for
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...
(NDR)
West German television.
It is the 1797
Goethe story
of the same name presented as a ballet performed by the
Frankfurt Opera
The Oper Frankfurt (Frankfurt Opera) is a German opera company based in Frankfurt.
Opera in Frankfurt am Main has a long tradition, with many world premieres such as Franz Shrek's ''Der ferne Klang'' in 1912, '' Fennimore und Gerda'' by Frede ...
with
Sonia Arova as the solo dancer. There are other character dancers appearing as various items and creatures and of course the Sorcerer himself. But none of these are named on the credits and nobody has managed to find out who they were, as yet. The English-language narrator is also uncredited.
Production
The original apparently ran for about 30 minutes. But the only version that seems to exist is this 13-minute version. There are probably many small cuts rather than any big ones because the bulk of the story appears to be there although some of the cutting seems choppy.
Michael Powell was hired to direct it for his old friend
Hein Heckroth
Hein Heckroth (14 April 1901 in Gießen - 7 July 1970 in Amsterdam) was a German art director of stage and film productions.
Heckroth began his career working with the German national ballet. Later, he moved to Great Britain and, after designing ...
. Heckroth had already done the design and set everything up so Powell appears to have had little input.
Notes
External links
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1955 films
1955 television films
1955 short films
1955 musical films
West German films
German musical television films
German drama short films
1950s English-language films
English-language German films
Films directed by Michael Powell
Films by Powell and Pressburger
Films based on works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Ballet films
Works based on The Sorcerer's Apprentice
1950s German films
Das Erste original programming
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