Abschied (1930) User Reviews

A little gem

[wilmut · 8/10 · 2 April 2015]

Imaginatively and skilfully directed despite the considerable limitations of the technical side. With only one microphone in use and no subsequent mixing the music - mostly piano played on or off screen by one of the inmates - was recorded at the same time as the dialogue; although the sound editing sometimes wasn't at the same point as the picture, this sometimes resulted in abrupt cuts - really the only technical problem. When shown at the National Film Theatre on April 1 2015 the print quality was excellent and the sound, though the levels were a bit variable, well balanced with good use of perspectives, and mostly very clear.

The acting is good, held suitably in check, and the intercutting between various conversations quite advanced for the time. Unusually for the period, the film opens with an attractive theme song sung over the titles; the tune recurs from time to time as played by one of the inmates.

The films ends with a neat ironic twist to provide the unhappy ending. Bizarrely, the production company (UFA) shot a further scene (without reference to Siodmak) to go on the end, in which some of the minor characters meet a year later and describe a happy ending for the main characters, thus completely undermining the original ironic ending. (The NFT showed this after the film, with an explanatory subtitle.)

"If you can't afford us you'd better stay at home, and let the canary sing to you."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 29 June 2021]

In the middle of a marathon viewing of Akira Kurosawa's works,I decided it was time to go for a second marathon viewing of a fellow auteur film maker whose work I've been wanting to explore in-depth: Robert Siodmak. Checking my pile of his titles,I set to hear Siodmak's first "Talkie."

View on the film:

Hired by Ufa to make the first sound film for the studio after his Silent directing debut People on Sunday (1930-also reviewed) had been a hit and given a budget of 60,000 Marks, directing auteur Robert Siodmak reunites with occasional collaborator (and future Eyes Without A Face (1960-also reviewed) cinematographer) Eugen Schufftan, and between close-up shots of hovers (!) and elegant dissolves over the guesthouse of misfits where Peter and Hella reside.

Siodmak finds in the ending a pessimism which would become a major theme across his works, as Hella (played by a radiant Brigitte Horney in her film debut) waits with bated breath for her lover to return, but finds herself with the fading memory of their romance being the only company she has left.

In what was only his second film credit, Emeric Pressburger joins Irma von Cube in housing Hella & Winkler with a nifty screenplay,where the initial, snappy comedy exchanges between the couple and fellow residences at the guesthouse cracks into a stormy Melodrama of mistrust entering the engaged entanglement of Winkler and Hella.

Flawed, but nevertheless interesting little movie

[El_John · 6/10 · 18 November 2015]

After his success with ''People on Sunday'', director Robert Siodmak made the first talking picture for UFA in quite a similar fashion. While ''People on Sunday' focuses on the life of four regular citizens of pre-war Germany during a Sunday and shows the love and pleasure of daily life, 'Abschied'' takes a more cynical approach and depicts a day in the life of mostly poor people who live in the same building with main focus on the couple Hella and Peter Winkler.

The main conflict arises when Hella finds out that her boyfriend wants to move out but hasn't told her anything about it. He then tells her that he got a job offer which would pay him enough money for them to be married. After this conflict is resolved, another emerges because of a misunderstanding and so on. This is more ore less how the movie plays out until it leads to a bittersweet ending.

Since this was the first sound film produced by the UFA, they had to experiment and used it at practically every instant they could, whether it was necessary or not. Because of this, the piano player, one of the few characters, felt shoe-horned in and didn't contributed anything to the film. This what the movie lacked in the first place: Developed characters, which is really a shame since the cast is small anyway and the whole film takes place in a confined space (one building) were most characters basically have to interact with each other.

The acting was fine for the most part, except for Aribert Mog, who played the main character Peter. His acting was atrocious in some scenes. Other weird decisions were the camera placement during a dialog between the couple, were the upper body of Peter completely covered Hellas face.

All in all it was a fine little movie with an interesting theme, nut also without it's flaws

By halfway I was charmed by this opposite of GRAND HOTEL, Germany's Not-so-grand BOARDING HOUSE.

[Larry41OnEbay-2 · 7/10 · 6 January 2024]

Abschied (1930) aka FAREWELL was the first sound film by UFA film studio and only the second film directed by the great Robert Siodmak; best known for The Killers (1946) & Criss Cross (1949) as well as the second film by the great writer Emeric Pressburger; known for The Red Shoes (1948), A Matter of Life and Death (1946) aka Stairway to Heaven and I Know Where I'm Going! (1945).

As far as sound films go, it is packed with lovely music from a pianist lodger who delights himself and listeners with brief jazz and popular song riffs. We also hear electric sweeper sounds, shouting, doors slamming, singing, humming, whistling and various conversations.

Like Grand Hotel there are fascinating characters with their own lives, intersections, hopes, dreams, passions and stories that are talked about. Yes, these people are poor and the Great Depresssion makes it hard to find any job, let alone a great job.

SPOILERS: Our central characters are boyfriend Winkler (Aribert Mog) and girlfriend Hella (Brigitte Horney), who are not only in love but hoping to save the money necessary to get married, some day. The seemingly small but soon to be momentous conflict is that Winkler was offered a wonderful job in another city, far away, at near triple the pay and he is leaving town tomorrow which he hasn't told Hella.

This crack in her trust of him causes her to channel her anger into wanting to make him jealous. So she tells him, fine she is going out for a good time and leaves! He does not know she has gone into debt to by a new dress that she cannot afford just to make him happy and she leaves to buy a matching hat hoping to impress him upon her return.

Meanwhile, after she has goes his anger boils over and he packs and leaves that night before she returns. He settles all his debts and heads to the train station. When Hella returns she is devastated to find him gone. He did not wait. He left no note. They don't have a chance to talk of their possible future.

The other neighbors in the boardinghouse all have opinions into what went wrong, or maybe how selfish Winkler was, how evil, he was no good etc.

One of the unemployed characters has the bad habit of stealing small items, cigarettes, aspirin, etc. When he searches Winkler's room, he finds a gold ring left on top of a dresser and pockets it. Later when he hears the others bashing his friend Winkler he finally interrupts with a story that Winkler had told him that he asked after Hella, he wished her well, in fact he gave this man a ring to give to Hella for him.

Everyone is stunned into silence and one-by-one they say they always knew Winkle was a good and loving man. Hope returns to all that it will somehow work out. They slowly drift away and Hella is left alone with the ring when she notices it is engraved, "Wear it forever, forget me never. Hella." (My conclusion is, that this ring was one she had given him before and he took it off not wanting her any longer. On his last night she had went out without him. The relationship was forever over.) BUT! The studio did not want a down beat ending as the director Siodmak did. So, a happier ending was filmed by the studio, without the director's help. In this final scene it's a year later and at a bar several of the neighbors talk how the couple had got married and moved away together and are happy planning their family. For me, both endings could work out. Life happens and we learn by our mistakes. This film got us inside a boardinghouse and exposed us to some interesting people sharing their lives.

A forgotten masterpiece

[Stanislas Lefort · 9/10 · 4 June 1999]

One of the very first sound movies. Sound is everywhere during the whole film: the vacuum-cleaner, the ringing of the phone, the piano... Everybody speaks but no-one hears, except maybe the cleaning woman who is presented as deaf. The story takes place in a flat where several destinies cross but may be never meet. It is a very bitter description of a microcosm: all the characters are funny, but desperately helpless and hopeless.