The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna

• Brigitte Helm Nina Petrovna
• Franz Lederer: Cornet Michael Andreevich Silief
• Warwick Ward: Cossack colonel Terhof
• Lya Jan: country girl
• Michael of Newlinski
• Franz Schafheitlin
• Ekkehard Arendt
• Harry Hardt

The wonderful lie of Nina Petrovna is a German film drama from the year 1929. It tells the dreary life of the mistress of a wealthy captains in Tsarist Russia that wants to break out and fails.

Action

Nina Petrovna, the mistress of Colonel Teroff, looks to the undressing barracks near the Cavalry on the balcony of her house. She throws a rose into the squadron, which is randomly picked up by the young cornet Michael Silief. At a ball, the two meet again. Colonel Teroff immediately recognize the affection of the two for each other and burning with jealousy. Although he intimidates Silief as more senior officer and Nina threatens the loss of his favor, he can not avoid the love between the two. Nina leaves the secure existence of Colonel Teroff and lives in a shabby apartment. The two give in to the illusion of pure love, the waivers and possession. The cornet increasingly neglected his duties. As the debts pile up at Nina so she can not pay the electricity bill, Michael begins to play, as his pay is not sufficient to ensure Nina's existence. The Colonel, his rival who wants to destroy Michael, caught him by the wrong play, so this is now in his hand. Nina, who save her lover and goes "forever" back to the Colonel, so that spared him. Your lover, she tells the lie that they now finally want to live in luxury that he could not offer her. Michael, who does not see through the lies and does not know that she saved him, she leaves deeply disappointed. Nina takes of her lover in the same manner farewell as she first met him. Standing on the balcony awaits the departure of the cavalry. Again she throws a rose for her beloved, which this is not observed; it falls on the way and will be trampled by the horses' hooves. The colonel, who believes in the target, she finds the next day at his villa on the bed. In the belief that she was asleep, he throws the flowers of the container on the lying, until he realizes that she is dead. She had poisoned herself.

Background

Filming took place from November 1928 to January 1929. Robert Herlth and Walter Roehrig created the Filmbauten, René Hubert costumes. Alexander Arnstam was present as an artistic consultant. The film received after the censorship template (5 April 1929), the title of " artistic merit ". Originally 102 minutes long UFA film premiered on 15 April 1929 at the Berlin Ufa - Palast am Zoo.

The uniform of the regiment ausreitenden not correspond to the Russian Cossacks, but that of a Prussian Guard Cuirassier Regiment.

Reconstruction

"The film, the Hanns Schwarz has designed to Brigitte Helm, could be rediscovered thanks to the National Film Archives in London decades ago and presented film friends and lovers of old silent movies. The copy was indeed in terms of their content structure relatively complete ( even if the score by Maurice Jaubert the absence of some minutes betrayed ), but unfortunately in a very bad condition. She pointed to scratches, splices and missing sequences - all defects that identify a frequently used rental copy. Thanks to the collaboration of the Friedrich- Wilhelm -Murnau- Foundation, the Film Archive of the Federal Archives Berlin / Koblenz and arte could take place, a search of most materials. Result: It was found - along with other, less important elements - the two original camera negatives of the German and the foreign rental version in the film archive of the Federal Archives. The comparison of these two negative materials with the previous restorations made ​​it possible to determine the differences and in particular the incompleteness of the negative of the German distribution version and the version of the National Film Archive. After the comparison was completed, scene sequence and assembly of the film could be reconstructed. The newly reconstructed version is the original version, closer than the old version -. , Not only because it is longer, but also because the assembly with the score by Maurice Jaubert corresponds "

Criticism

• " Only a lengthy Liebesmelodram ".
• " So you can say that in the case of THE WONDERFUL LIE OF NINA Petrovna not only the narration of the film has been restored, but also his sculptural and formal values ​​. Consequently, a comprehensive restoration that returns us a great movie. "