Ekstase

Ecstasy
Extase / My Ecstasy / Symphonie der Liebe / Symphony of Love / Rhapsody of Love

Austria / Czechoslovakia 1933
produced by
Moriz Grunhut, Frantisek Horký, Otto Sonnenfeld (executive) for Elektafilm
directed by Gustav Machatý
starring Hedy Kiesler (= Hedy Lamarr), Aribert Mog, Zvoonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer, Jirina Steimarová, Antonín Kubový, Karel Macha-Kuca, Eduard Slégl, Jan Sviták, Comedian Harmonists
screenplay by Frantisek Horký, Jacques A.Koerpel, Gustav Machatý, based on the book by Robert Horky, music by Giuseppe Becce, special effects by Theo Nischwitz

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Eva (Hedy Lamarr) has just gotten married to Emile (Zvonimir Rogoz), but even in the wedding night it becomes apparent that they don't match on a sexual level, and while Emile doesn't even seem to notice, Eva becomes more and more frustrated. After a few weeks, Eva files for divorce and returns to her father (Leopold Kramer) in the country, who fails to wholly understand his daughter.

One day, after a skinny-dipping expedition forced Eva to chase her horse in the nude, she meets handsome young engineer Adam (Aribert Mog), and the two of them quickly fall in love. Everything couldn't be better, but then Eva's husband arrives on her doorstep to take her back. When she refuses, eh breaks down, but nevertheless embarks for the city without her. On his way home, he picks up a hitchhiker, Adam, and recognizes him as the man who has taken away his wife while Adam has no idea about the whole affair - and that's a further blow to Emile. When he later sees the both of them dancing at the inn he's staying at, that's too much for him, and he shoots himself. Seeing her (ex-)husband dead, Eva decides to leave the city for good to start a new life, and though Adam wants to come with her, she manages to escape him at the first possible occasion, breaking his heart almost as much as she broke Emile's. Only when a child from their unity is born are they reunited.

Of course, nowadays this film is mainly known because it shows the boobs of Hedy Lamarr (which are a sight for sore eyes to be sure), but actually this film is not a piece of sleaze this fact in itself would suggest but a genuine piece of art, an interesting and wholly original exercise in avant garde filmmaking that for the most part tells its story without dialogue - without in any way resembling the methods of silent cinema which in 1933 still was a fresh memory - and in very suggestive images, suggestive not necessarily in a sexual context but also concerning the use of metaphors and the like.

In all, pretty much a must-see for everyone who likes unusual movies!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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