MAYERLING
France, 1936, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Jean Dax, Gabrielle Dorziat.
Directed by Anatole Litvak.
Mayerling was a very successful French romantic feature of 1936. Charles Boyer had already achieved eminence on the American screen after a career in France. He returned to France for this film and it gave a further boost to his international career. The young Danielle Darrieux is Marie.
The film was stylishly made by Anatole Litvak. Litvak was to go to the U.S. and make such films as Bette Davis's The Sisters, All This And Heaven Too.
The film recreates the atmosphere of the Austro-Hungarian? empire, the strong rule of the Emperor Franz Josef, the atmosphere of revolution and unrest in 19th century. It shows the Archduke Rudolf and his differences from his father, his wanting to live a more ordinary life, his arranged marriage, falling in love with the young countess Marie, the romance and the ultimate tragedy with the suicide in the hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889.
The film echoed some of the interests of the period with the questions about the abdication of Edward VIII of England. The story was remade with the same title, quite lavishly in 1968, with Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve as the lovers and James Mason and Ava Gardner as the Emperor and Empress. The director was Terence Young.
1. Interesting and enjoyable romantic drama? History and fact? Interpretation and memory?
2. Black and white photography, locations and sets? The atmosphere of Vienna and the Empire? The musical score, use of the classics, Tchaikovsky and Strauss? The superposition techniques for the Archduke's memory during the ballet? Editing and pace?
3. The title, the focus and Mayerling and the tragedy?
4. The presentation of the Austral Hungarian empire, the Emperor Franz Josef and his long reign, his power, politics, ambitions? His distant relationship with his son? The arranged marriage? His head of council? and the questions of student revolutions, subversive papers? The place of the Emperors? The arranged marriage? Her accepting her status and state? This background for understanding the Archduke?
5. Charles Boyer and his style and presence as Rudolph? His mixing with Szepes and the revolutionaries? In the taverns? His easygoing way of life, women? The spies? Marinka and her betraying him for money? The arranged marriage? His going through with it? The arrest and his association with the editor? The passing of time, five years, his wedding anniversary, the tavern and the toast? His wandering the city? A glimpse of Marie, with her at the carnival, the handsome stranger, attracted by her simplicity? Playing at the carnival? The opera, his being attracted to her? The beginning of the relationship? Falling in love, the contrast with is ordinary life? The possibility of an annulment? Her being taken away? His desolate reaction, drunkenness? Her meeting him again, his change of heart? The plans, going ahead, the interaction with his father? The ball, leading the dance? Going to Mayerling, his love for Marie, her death, his suicide?
6. Marie, young, her family, at the carnival, attracted by the stranger, at the opera, discovering the truth? Swept off her feet? The romantic? interludes? Society and its reactions? The separation, her speaking sternly to him? Her love, the ball, the dance, going to Mayerling, her death?
7. Taffe and the head of council, his spies, antirevolutionary, arrest of Szepes and Rudolf? The emperor's reliance on him? The picture of the spies, their work? Rudolf and his trying to elude them?
8. Szepes, friendship with Rudolf, the revolutionary paper, the arrests?
9. The women at court, the Hapsburgh cousins, flirtations and romance, theatre, intrigues? Marie's family and their attitude towards the relationship? Double standards?
10. The drinking friends, the tavern life, gypsies and the singers, the spies?
11. The picture of the 19th century? The pressures on royalty? Ultimate tragedy?
