''Elisabeth and the Fool'' (German: ''Elisabeth und der Narr'') is a 1934 German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Thea von Harbou Thea Gabriele von Harbou (27 December 1888 – 1 July 1954) was a German screenwriter, novelist, film director, and actress. She is remembered as the screenwriter of the science fiction film classic ''Metropolis'' (1927) and for the 192 ...

and starring

Hertha Thiele Hertha Thiele (8 May 1908 – 5 August 1984) was a German actress. She is noted for her starring roles in then controversial stage plays and films produced during Germany's Weimar Republic and the early years of the Third Reich. After the post-w ...

Theodor Loos Theodor August Konrad Loos (18 May 1883 – 27 June 1954) was a German actor. The son of a watchmaker and instruments manufacturer, he left secondary school prematurely and worked for three years at an export firm for music instruments in L ...

and

Rudolf Klein-Rogge Friedrich Rudolf Klein (24 November 1885 – 29 May 1955), better known as Rudolf Klein-Rogge, was a German film actor, best known for playing sinister figures in films in the 1920s and 1930s as well as being a mainstay in director Fritz Lang's ...

. Dixon & Foster p.154 The film was the directing debut of Harbou, who was known for her screenplays for directors such as

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...

and

F. W. Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter. He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at th ...

. Filming began on 12 October 1933 in

Meersburg Meersburg () is a town in Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany. It is on Lake Constance. It is known for its medieval city. The lower town ("Unterstadt") and upper town ("Oberstadt") are reserved for pedestrians only, and connected by t ...

and the

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...

area. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Kurt Dürnhöfer Kurt Dürnhöfer (1886–1958) was a German art director.Drewniak p.40 Selected filmography * '' Ruth's Two Husbands'' (1919) * '' The Living Dead'' (1919) * ''A Dying Nation'' (1922) * '' The Emperor's Old Clothes'' (1923) * ''Taras Bulba'' (19 ...

and

Walter Reimann Walter Reimann (2 June 1887 – 8 November 1936) was a German painter and art director. He was an Expressionist and member of the group of artists associated with Zurich magazine, Der Sturm. He worked on the production design of a number of films ...

. The film premiered on 24 January 1934.

Synopsis

It tells the story of a young woman at a girls' boarding school connected to a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

, and the intrigues caused by a man who is obsessed with the monastery's organ.

Cast

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009. * Dixon, Wheeler Winston & Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. ''A Short History of Film''. Rutgers University Press, 2013.

External links

* 1934 films Films directed by Thea von Harbou Films of Nazi Germany German drama films 1930s German-language films German black-and-white films 1934 drama films 1934 directorial debut films 1930s German films {{1930s-Germany-film-stub