''Schlußakkord'' (''Final Accord'' or better ''Final Chord'';Sabine Hake, ''Popular Cinema of the Third Reich'', Austin: University of Texas, 2001, , p. 246, note 4: the title "refers to a musical term" whereas that of Sierck's 1939 French-language ''Accord Final'' can also mean "concluding agreement". sometimes anglicised ''Schlussakkord'') is a German film

melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...

of the Nazi period, the first melodrama directed by Detlef Sierck, who later had a career in Hollywood as

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war f ...

and specialised in melodramas. It was made under contract for (UFA), stars Lil Dagover and Willy Birgel and also features Maria von Tasnady, and premièred in 1936. It shows stylistic features later developed by Sierck/Sirk and makes symbolic and thematic use of music.

Production and release

Production took place from February to April 1936. Concert scenes were filmed at the Berliner Philharmonie in Kreuzberg, which would be destroyed in an air raid in 1944. The film had two premières, on 27 June 1936 at the annual cinema owners' convention in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, and on 24 July 1936 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin, after which it was placed on general release.Cinzia Romani, tr. Robert Connolly, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'', New York: Sarpedon, 1992, repr. Rome: Gremese, 2001, , p. 52.Hake, p. 112.

Plot

At a New Year's Eve party in New York, Hanna Müller ( Maria von Tasnady) is informed that her husband has been found dead in Central Park, presumably a suicide. The couple had left Germany because he had embezzled money. Meanwhile, the young son they left behind in an orphanage, Peter, is adopted by Erich Garvenberg ( Willy Birgel), a famous conductor, and his wife Charlotte ( Lil Dagover), who is having an affair with an astrologer, Gregor Carl-Otto. Hanna Müller goes to the orphanage to enquire after her son and Erich Garvenberg hires her as a nanny. They grow close through their love for the boy. Charlotte Garvenberg learns of Müller's husband's criminality and fires her. Müller returns to abduct her son, but Charlotte, who is being blackmailed by Carl-Otto, overdoses on morphine and dies. Müller administered the drug and is suspected of murder, but at the trial a maid reveals that Charlotte had said she was going to commit suicide. Hanna and Erich Garvenberg can now marry.

Partial cast list

* Maria von Tasnady: Hanna Müller * Willy Birgel: Erich Garvenberg * Lil Dagover: Charlotte Garvenberg ( Pola Negri refused the role, saying she was too busy) * Maria Koppenhöfer: Frau Freese, the maid * Peter Bosse: Hanna's son Peter * Theodor Loos: Professor Obereit, the paediatrician * Albert Lippert: Gregor Carl-Otto, an astrologer *

Kurt Meisel Kurt Meisel (18 August 1912 – 4 April 1994) was an Austrian actor and film director. He appeared in 65 films between 1934 and 1994. He also directed 21 films between 1949 and 1984. Meisel was married to the actress Ursula Lingen. He was born a ...

: Baron Salviany, Carl-Otto's friend * Erich Ponto: judge * Hella Graf: Frau Czerwonska * Paul Otto: prosecutor * Alexander Engel: Mr. Smith, landlord * Eva Tinschmann: head nurse * Walter Werner: Dr. Smedley, doctor in New York * Carl Auen: New York criminal investigator * Erich Bartels: court official * Johannes Bergfeld: adoption notary * Ursula Deinert: dancer * Christa Mattner: Peter's foster mother * Erna Berger: soprano soloist * Luise Willer: alto soloist * Rudolf Watzke: bass soloist * Hellmuth Melchert: tenor soloist

Themes and imagery

The film contrasts American with German culture and "a decadent past" (the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

) with a "healthy, hopeful present" (the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

) that reaffirms the values of the "old" (pre-Weimar) Germany.Hake, p. 119. The interiors, by

Erich Kettelhut Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut (1 November 1893 – 13 March 1979) was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. Kettelhut is considered one of the most important artists in the history of early German cinema, mainly for his s ...

, a co-designer on ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

'', have symbolic force; in particular, Charlotte Garvenberg is surrounded by mirrors, suggesting

narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...

, preoccupied with her own happiness at the expense of her husband, so that her fate in the film "in a way, rehearses the conditions under which eimarculture came to an end", in selfishness, "erotic obsessions" and "empty rituals". In contrast Erich Garvenberg and Hanna are both guided by duty, and Garvenberg is a decisive leader and Hanna is able to draw strength from her rootedness in German culture and her healthy maternal feelings. Sierck stated in an interview that he saw melodrama in its original and etymological sense, as "music + drama". In ''Schlußakkord'', Kurt Schröder's score is reminiscent in style of later work by Erich Korngold and incorporates several excerpts of classical music, including radio broadcasts and gramophone records.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Opus number, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many criti ...

was performed for the soundtrack by the orchestra of the

Berlin State Opera The Staatsoper Unter den Linden ( State Opera under the Lime Trees), also known as the Berlin State Opera (), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of P ...

with well-known soloists including Hellmuth Melchert and Erna Berger. Throughout ''Schlußakkord'', music serves both to further the plot and to symbolise values.

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and swing are played at the New York New Year's Eve party and a party given by Charlotte; Charlotte is late to a performance by her husband of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, fails to gain entrance and back home exclaims to her maid, " metimes he is so foreign to me. Always with Bach, Beethoven, and whatever their names are"; while in an interwoven scene, an ailing Hanna in New York, hearing on the radio the notes of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony which Garvenberg is conducting, whispers "Beethoven", remembers Germany and decides to return to her homeland, whereupon the scene shifts back to the concert hall, where the performance has reached the "Ode to Joy". The sequence contrasts Charlotte's estrangement in Berlin with the expatriate Hanna's need to belong (and to be reunited with her child). In the scene where they discover they love each other, Hanna tells Garvenberg that the ''Adagio'' movement saved her life. Other passages of classical music serve as

leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...

s in the film. A passage from Tchaikovsky's ''Nutcracker Suite'' is introduced in the opening credits and recurs "repeatedly . . . each time announcing an emotional crisis or insight." A theme from "Dance of the Toy Flutes" first occurs as Hanna mentions her child when the police in New York are questioning her, and the music changes to "lyrical and pastoral tones" as the viewer sees in turn New York

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, E ...

s, the lighted skyline of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, the Atlantic, the historic centre of Berlin, and finally the boy in the orphanage. The theme recurs when Hanna gives Charlotte her medicine and when she dreams about that last encounter, foreshadowing that she will be reunited with her son.Hake, p. 116. Other ''Nutcracker'' passages occur when Hanna is at the theatre with the director of the orphanage and are intercut with scenes of Charlotte and her lover; and after an argument with Charlotte, Hanna goes to an opera in the style of

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

, where an older woman sings an aria, "Drop of Hemlock, Sweet and Deadly," expressing Hanna's fear of elimination, but it is a younger woman who is poisoned on stage. Finally, the closing scene is at a performance of Handel's oratorio ''Judas Maccabaeus'', and the camera moves from the newly united family to the triumphant angels on the ceiling of the concert hall. Sabine Hake points out that in addition to expressing the deepest feelings of the characters, the use of music in the film establishes the "social, psychological, and cultural terms" in which it defines community, and that the use of classical music quotations as well as the film's visual symbolism presuppose a shared middle-class cultural frame of reference.

Reception

The film was successful and strengthened Sierck's negotiating position with UFA. The ''Film-Kurier'' review praised Sierck for "manag ngto blend the various emotional and affective elements of the plot into a moving musical unity" with "appropriate emphases" and "sustaining dramatic tension from start to finish." Schneider in ''Licht-Bild-Bühne'' called it " e most honest, most decent and, in its form, most compelling film of ecentyears." Another Berlin critic wrote that "Sierck . . . shows with this film that he ranks with the most important contemporary filmmakers" and singled out in particular his not favouring some "stars" over other actors: " l his actors are stars from the moment they appear on the screen." However, most of the reviews focussed on the stars Willy Birgel and Lil Dagover rather than on the direction. In 1969, David Stewart Hull wrote that the film was "done with much the same flair which Sierck (Douglas Sirk) was to evidence . . . two decades later in the United States" but also that "the excellent musical sequences saved the film from banality."David Stewart Hull, ''Film in the Third Reich: A Study of the German Cinema, 1933–1945'', Berkeley, California: University of California, 1969, , p. 103.

Awards

* ''Prädikat'' ( Propaganda Ministry award of distinction): Artistic Value (''künstlerisch Wertvoll'')Hake, p. 115. * Best Musical Film, Venice International Film Festival

''Accord final''

In 1939, Sierck made ''Accord final'' in France for France-Suisse Film; this is the same title as ''Schlußakkord'' but the plot is different.According to Rentschler, p. 288 (who gives the year as 1938), he was artistic director but the film was directed by I.R. Bay (Ignacy Rosenkranz). In French, unlike German, the title is ambiguous.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlussakkord 1936 films Films of Nazi Germany Films directed by Douglas Sirk Foreign films set in the United States Films set in Germany German black-and-white films German musical drama films 1930s musical drama films 1930s melodrama films 1936 drama films 1930s German-language films 1930s German films German-language musical drama films