The Sins of Rose Bernd

I came across this movie on a dull weekend zapping through TV. My first impression was - "i see, one of this typically trashy German movies being trendy at 1956." I was totally wrong.

The movie was already in progress and at the first sight there was the idyllic picture of young women sitting on the lap of an older fatherly man listen to his wisdom. But there was a disturbing sexual atmosphere between them. My initial notion was that the director and actors have made a hidden rebellion against the sanctimoniously smugness of these times. But during the movie it got clear that this was not a hidden rebellion the whole film is about the second face of a canting society.

The story takes place on a picturesque estate with focus to the main character - the beguiling house maid Rose. But behind the beautiful scene there is the gloomy fate lurking for her and all of the other characters, underscored at certain moments by some impressing surreal camera settings. It is such a movie where the characters are leaping with their somber desires straight ahead in the abyss of self-destruction, and the audience is doomed to watch the decline helplessly. The dark side of Rose's life culminates in the loneliness of a black and white pictured cold winter landscape.

Because I prefer unconventional movies which left me thoughtful afterwards and include an excellent work of the film crew - this movie was a big discovery by accident.

The German playwright Gerhart HAUPTMANN was a busy playwright who is considered the most important representative of naturalism in German-language literature. His play ROSE BERND premiered on October 31, 1903 and was still an excellent film material in the 1950s. In between, Gerhart HAUPTMANN was awarded the NOBEL PRIZE for literature in 1912.

After the great success with DIE RATTEN / THE RATS (Golden Bear 1955), Maria SCHELL once again played a character of the great playwright, this time under the direction of Wolfgang STAUDTE, who, together with Helmut KÄUTNER, is considered one of the most important directors in the West German film industry of the 1950s and 1960s.

The young Rose Bernd (Maria SCHELL) works as a maid on the farm of large landowner Christoph Flamm (Swiss actor Leopold BIBERTI) and his wife Henriette (Austrian actress Käthe GOLD), who is in need of care. The fun-loving young woman is literally being bullied by the men around her. The muscular excavator operator Arthur Streckmann (Italian actor Raf VALLONE) blatantly wants sex from her, even though he is also in a relationship with the attractive Marie Schubert (Christa KELLER). Rose's own father (Arthur WIESNER) puts her under severe pressure with his religious ideas. She finally gives in to the stalking of the large landowner who once took her and her father in as expellees. Even if she blames herself for it because of the friendly Henriette Flamm. In order to escape this encirclement, Rose wants to marry August Keil (GERMAN FILM PRIZE 1957 for Hannes MESSEMER), whom she does not love. But before that a catastrophe occurs...

This film is incredibly sad, but is one of the most beautiful films of the 1950s. The cameraman Klaus von RAUTENFELD delivers beautiful images from the area between Ammersee and Starnberger See. The interior shots were taken in the BAVARIA studios in Munich.

This extremely beautifully filmed film was shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957 and was able to attract more than 6.8 million cinemagoers to West German cinemas.

Absolutely recommended!