The monumental film "Helena" was also shot in Wolfratshausen
Created: 06/09/2022, 20:00
By: Volker Ufertinger
Riot on the banks of the Isar: The 1924 momuntal film "Helena" was shot between Wolfratshausen and Icking.
© Screenshot: Hermsdorf-Hiss
The film "Helena" was a hit in the German film industry in the early 1920s.
The film was shot in the Munich area - including in Wolfratshausen.
Wolfratshausen
- The monumental film "Helena" - it celebrated its premiere in 1924 - was a real sensation in the young Weimar Republic.
Munich, otherwise not necessarily known as a film city, had done everything to make a name for itself.
The story of the most beautiful woman in the world, about whom a bitter war is being fought at the gates of Troy, was to be successful even in America and preempt the production of "Ben Hur".
People in Germany, indeed all over Europe, flocked to the cinemas in droves.
One of the scenes they got to see there: a lion hunt - filmed near Wolfratshausen.
The film was to make it big in America
You have to know that the young medium of film in the 1920s "wanted to polish up its image with upscale materials".
This is how the German film historian Friedemann Beyer puts it, who has been dealing with German film heritage for decades, including “Helena”.
It really couldn't have been much more sophisticated: Homer's "Iliad", which describes the war of the Greeks against Troy, is the oldest epic in Europe.
It's about love and war - the ideal material for a blockbuster.
Friedemann Beyer, film historian from Berlin.
© Uwe Benixen
"Münchner Lichtspielkunst" (Em-el-ka) and Bavaria Filmhaus AG worked together on "Helena".
The most famous actors of their time should contribute to the success of the project, including the Italian Edy Darclea (Helena), Vladimir Gaidarov (Paris), Adele Sandrock (Hecuba), Albert Steinbrück (Priamos).
Director Manfred Noa shot everything to do with Munich: a spectacular horse race was staged on a disused racecourse in the north of Munich (and actually beat Ben Hur in doing so), a huge sea battle with 80 ships on Lake Wörthsee - and a lion hunt in Wolfratshausen.
According to Beyer, the fact that the scene was filmed here in 1923 and nowhere else is clear from the trade journals of the time, such as the “Filmkurier”.
The greatest actors of the time took part
If you want to watch "Helena", which is available on DVD, you have to bring a little time: The running time is 204 minutes.
The silent film is accompanied by music.
The leisurely pace and the coloring of the scenes, which was common at the time ("Virage"), take some getting used to for us rushed contemporary people.
Night scenes appear dark blue, daytime scenes in sepia - as does the lion hunt.
You come across the scene after a good hour, in the first of two parts.
It lasts a good five minutes.
A lion roams along a large body of water, frightens the shepherds and kills a donkey.
A convoy sets out, a warrior kills the animal in a duel.
According to the fiction in the film, the blood of the lion is to be sacrificed at the altar of the goddess of love, Aphrodite.
The question remains: where exactly was the scene shot?
The Wolfratshausen archivist recognizes the White Wall
The Wolfratshausen archivist Simon Kalleder found no evidence of the filming in his documents.
He watched the film for our newspaper and strongly bets on the wilderness between Wolfratshausen and Icking.
"I suspect at the confluence of the Loisach and Isar," he says.
He also thinks he recognizes the white wall of Schlederloh.
Apparently, some extras from the area also played a role: the scene is populated with many shepherds, and there are plenty of cows running through the picture.
also read
Three families lose their homes: owners have to demolish illegal buildings in Wolfratshausen
Despite illness: 14-year-old holds on to the dream - and dances at the German championship
Also read: Wolfratshausen in the work of Nobel Prize winner Paul Heyse
The really big breakthrough was not destined for "Helena".
He didn't end up in America, film historians assume there was a tacit boycott of the Ben Hur competitor project.
So "Helena" was also a financial disaster because of the inflation in Germany, the Bavaria Filmhaus boss Erich Wagowski took his own life in 1927, director Noa returned to Berlin.
The film only resurfaced from obscurity in 1999, when an incomplete copy was discovered in Switzerland.
The Munich Film Museum completed the copy, in 2001 it was broadcast on TV on Arte.
Note:
The film is available on DVD at www.filmjuwelen.de.
The DVD contains a booklet with an introduction by Friedemann Beyer.
Anyone who knows anything about the film and the shooting in Wolfratshausen should contact the editorial team on 0 81 71/26 92 31.