''Der Müller und sein Kind'' (''The Miller and His Child'') is a

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

released in 1911 and is the oldest

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n drama film to survive in its entirety. It was produced by the ''Österreichisch-Ungarische Kinoindustrie'', which later in 1911 changed its name to the Wiener Kunstfilm-Industrie. The same company had filmed the same plot the previous year, but no footage from that earlier version survives. The film is based on the late Romantic supernatural melodrama by German

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Ernst Raupach Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach (21 May 178418 March 1852) was a German dramatist. Biography He was born at Straupitz (), near Liegnitz in Silesia, a son of the village pastor. He attended the gymnasium at Liegnitz, and studied theology at the un ...

, a very popular work that was first performed to great acclaim in 1830 at the

Burgtheater The Burgtheater (; literally: "Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater", originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Thereafter it was performed in many theatres at Halloween well into the 20th century. The film had its premiere on 21 October 1911 in Vienna. According to the producers the film had a length of around 600 metres, on 35 mm

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitration, nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitri ...

. The drama was filmed in 19 scenes, and at a projection speed of 16 frames per second, common in early silent films, lasted 21 minutes and 50 seconds. Although the

Filmarchiv Austria The Filmarchiv Austria ("Austrian Film Archive") is an organisation for the discovery, reconstruction and preservation of Austrian film record material: films themselves, literature about film and cinema, or film-related periodicals. With over 260 ...

, which preserves the film, has 150 metres less, the action of the film is nevertheless complete, although the ends of the individual reels are too abrupt, and the end of scene 19 is missing. Technical direction was by

Joseph Delmont Joseph Delmont (8 May 1873 as Josef Pollak in Loiwein, Austria-Hungary – 12 March 1935 in Piešťany, Czechoslovakia) was an Austrian film director of some 200 films, largely shorts, in which he was noted for his innovative use of beasts of ...

, later a director of animal films and crime films, who among other things operated the camera by a hand crank.

Plot

Konrad, a poor

miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

's son, wants to marry Marie, the daughter of a rich miller. Marie's father, who is a

widower A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjective for ...

, is malicious and avaricious, and he tricks the young lovers in a despicable way. The imminent demise of the miller and his innocent daughter is foreshadowed by the appearance of the bird of death and the graveyard ghost.

Cast

* Max Bing as Konrad, son of a poor miller *Else Heller as rich miller's daughter Marie *Theodor Weiß as rich miller *Ernst Lunzer as the landlord *Herr Ludwig as the priest

Notes

External links

* Fritz, Walter, 1997: ''Im Kino erlebe ich die Welt – 100 Jahre Kino und Film in Österreich''. Vienna: Christian Brandstätter * 1911 films 1911 drama films Austrian silent short films Silent Austrian drama films Austrian black-and-white films Films shot in Austria Austrian films based on plays 1911 short films Austro-Hungarian drama films 1910s German-language films 1910s rediscovered films Rediscovered Austrian films {{Austria-film-stub