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Films:<\/strong><\/p>\n M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/strong> Muchachas de uniforme<\/strong> M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/strong> Leontine Sagan, Christa Winsloe, and a film classic with consequences Leontine Sagan1934_Sammlung: filmexil@synema.at<\/p><\/div>\n Three rigidly run educational institutions: the Prussian Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift in Potsdam, a Catholic convent school in Mexico, a German boarding school for officers\u2019 daughters. Three young orphans who are quasi trapped in these institutions of authoritarian coldness and develop romantic feelings for a young governess. Three versions of the same story, three films: the first, a worldwide success from Weimar cinema; the second, an almost forgotten exile film by German emigrants in Mexico; the third, a remake from West Germany in the late 1950s that was underrated for many years. 3 x M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em> is certainly the first opportunity to see the three versions from 1931, 1951, and 1958 on the big screen and compare them.<\/p>\n The spectacular starting point of this series, M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em> from 1931, was the exception to the rule in several respects in its day: directed by a woman (Leontine Sagan), written by a woman (Christa Winsloe), and filmed exclusively with women in the leading roles. It was made on the fringes of industrial film production as a production of the Deutsche Filmgemeinschaft; all those involved received only minimum pay, but shared in the box-office takings.<\/p>\n As extraordinary as this first film is, so, too, are the biographies and careers of those who made it. Leontine Sagan was born Leontine Schlesinger in Budapest (then Austria-Hungary) in 1889; the fiftieth anniversary of her death will be celebrated in May 2024. Her mother, Emma Fasal, belonged to Vienna\u2019s Jewish bourgeoisie; her father, Isidor Schlesinger, was a mining engineer in the diamond fields of South Africa. Leontine grew up with her siblings in Vienna, Budapest, and Johannesburg, where she worked as a secretary in the consulate. At the age of 21, she traveled back to Europe and attended Max Reinhardt\u2019s acting school in Berlin. This is followed by engagements in Bohemia, Dresden, and at the Neue Wiener B\u00fchne. From 1916, she expanded her previous repertoire at the Schauspielhaus Frankfurt to include classical dramatic (leading) roles. In addition, she gave lessons at the associated theater school, and\u2014still quite unusual for a woman at the time\u2014also began directing.<\/p>\n Unfulfilled Expectations <\/strong><\/p>\n At the beginning of 1931, Leontine Sagan staged the play Gestern und Heute<\/em> in Berlin and filmed it that same year under the title M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em>. Christa Winsloe, the author of the theater version, worked closely with Sagan on preparing the screenplay. The international success of the film should have opened up a world career for both women, but these expectations were not fulfilled.<\/p>\n The following year, the director shot Men of Tomorrow<\/em> in England for the film producer Alexander Korda, a satire on chauvinist scientists in Oxford, which is now considered lost; she then traveled to Hollywood and sounded out projects with David O. Selznick, but no more films were made. In 1934, she returned to London without having achieved anything and continued her work in the theater, staging anti-Nazi plays and operetta productions and toured the English provinces with the successful play Murder in Mayfair<\/em>.<\/p>\n In the same year, Christa Winsloe, whose books had been burned in Germany, also tried to gain a foothold in Hollywood. She had contact with the director Dorothy Arzner, then traveled to New York where she wrote for Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/em>, and ultimately settled down in France. She worked on the screenplay for G.W. Pabst\u2019s Jeunes filles en d\u00e9tresse (Girls in Distress)<\/em> in Paris in 1938; it is her final encounter with the film industry. In 1944, she and her partner, the Swiss translator Simone Gentet, are murdered by the French as alleged collaborators.<\/p>\n On Four Continents <\/strong><\/p>\n In 1947, Leontine Sagan returned to the distant land of her childhood together with her husband Victor Fleischer, the Viennese founder and former director of the Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt. In South Africa, she is given the opportunity to use her experience and talent to train actors, and in the 1950s\u2014in addition to her work as an impresario and director\u2014she played a key role in establishing a national theater organization. To this day, she is revered in South Africa as a pioneer of modern stage culture and acting. Sagan died in Pretoria in 1974. She proudly wrote her moving memoir Licht und Schatten. Schauspielerin und Regisseurin auf vier Kontinenten<\/em>, \u201cas a Jew and emigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n Apropos. Last but not least, the three films recall the many artists banished by the Nazis who were involved in the different versions of M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em>: apart from Sagan (GB, US, ZA) and Winsloe (US, FR), these are also the actors Hertha Thiele (CH), Erika Mann (CH, FR, US), Hedwig Schlichter (FR, AR), Therese Giehse (BE, LU, CH), Blandine Ebinger (US), Lilli Palmer (GB, US), Ellen Schwanneke (AT, CH, US), and Immy Schell (CH). In addition, the cutter Oswald Hafenrichter (FR, GB), screenplay authors Franz Hoellering (CZ, US) and Egon Eis (FR, CU), production manager Frank Wysbar (US), producers Artur \u201cAtze\u201d Brauner (SU) and Rudi \u201cRodolfo\u201d Loewenthal (FR, CU, MX), as well as the director Alfredo B. Crevenna (MX).<\/p>\n M\u00e4dchen in Uniform<\/em>\u00a0is currently considered a classic\u2014and not just of lesbian cinema. What Sagan once summed up can still be felt today: \u201cIn this ensemble, which was comprised principally of women, a solidarity and enthusiasm prevailed, which carried over to the screen.\u201d The story of the chaste yet forbidden love between the boarding school pupil Manuela and the governess she adored, stays with us far beyond the end of each film.<\/p>\n A Diagonale Special by filmexil@synema.at<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Films: M\u00e4dchen in Uniform Leontine Sagan DE 1931, 88 min Muchachas de uniforme Alfredo B. Crevenna MX 1951, 101 min M\u00e4dchen in Uniform G\u00e9za von Radv\u00e1nyi BRD\/FR 1958, 95 min Leontine Sagan, Christa Winsloe, and a film classic with consequences By Brigitte Mayr und Michael Omasta Three rigidly run educational institutions: the Prussian Kaiserin-Augusta-Stift […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-86878","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLeontine Sagan
\nDE 1931, 88 min<\/p>\n
\nAlfredo B. Crevenna
\nMX 1951, 101 min<\/p>\n
\nG\u00e9za von Radv\u00e1nyi
\nBRD\/FR 1958, 95 min<\/p>\nxxx<\/pre>\n
\n<\/strong>By Brigitte Mayr und Michael Omasta<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Leontine-Sagan1934_Sammlung_filmexil@synema.at_-524x295.jpg\")
xxx<\/pre>\n
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