Germany (1922)

Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Music: Max Deutsch

THE TREASURE was G.W. Pabst’s debut film as well as the last film of the German expressionist era. It illustrates a parable about the dialectic between the power of material and idealistic values. This is a theme that is as current today as it was in the 1920s. Musically, the original composition by Max Deutsch is a unique historic document, since it is the first composed film symphony in five acts.

THE STORY:THE TREASURE is a story about a Slovenian bell maker family, Svetocar Badalic, his wife, their daughter Beate and the worker Svetelenz. One evening the bell maker tells a story of a treasure that was hidden during a Turkish invasion in 1684. Svetelenz decides to search for the treasure to win Beate’s hand in marriage. In the meantime a young journeyman named Arno begins a love affair with Beate. Arno is also searching for the treasure. When he finds an empty space in a basement pillar, he and Svetelenz are sent into the cellar. They discover the treasure, and Svetelenz is granted Beate’s hand in marriage against her will. Arno, though, has already found his “treasure” in the young bell man’s daughter, and so the two lovers escape. Out of anger Svetelenz destroys the pillar in which the treasure was found. The house breaks down, killing the avaricious bell maker, his wife and Svetelenz.

INSTRUMENTATION: 1.1.1.0 – 0.1.1.0 – timp.2perc.pno.harmonium – strings (10.8.0.5.4 or 12.10.0.6.5)

number of musicians: 37 or 43

 

This is a production by the EUROPEAN FILMPHILHARMONIC INSTITUTE.

The project was supported by ZDF/ARTE.

contact: Beate Warkentien

Phone +49 (0) 30 27890-194

e-mail: warkentien@filmphilharmonie.de