Biopics of classical composers were a popular genre in German cinema during the silent and early sound era. The life of Franz Schubert, master of intricate, ro­mantic affectivity, was turned into half a dozen German feature films between the 1910s and the 1930s. By far the most impressive of all the cinematic Schuberts is Hans Jaray, who takes on the role in Willi Forst’s directorial debut. Written by Walter Reisch, Leise flehen meine Lieder tells the bittersweet story of a love triangle between Schubert, Countess Car­olin (Marta Eggerth) and Emmy (Luise Ullrich), a pawnbroker’s daughter. In his first film behind the camera, Forst already establishes many of the key themes of his art: the beauty and melancholia of Vi­enna, music as a source of both joy and suffering, and love as self-abandonment.
The film proved to be popular with both critics and audiences and estab­lished Forst as one of the prime craftsmen of German cinema. It also laid the foun­dation for Forst’s surprising popularity in Japan. Akira Kurosawa once listed Leise flehen meine Lieder as one of his favorite movies. Yasujiro Ozu went one step further and used a lengthy clip of the film in his own The Only Son (1936).
Shot a few months after the Nazi takeover in the summer of 1933, Leise flehen meine Lieder still is very much a film in the vein of Weimar-era cinema. One obvious sign is the involvement of a number of Jewish artists both in front of and behind the camera. Both screenwrit­er Reisch and lead actor Jaray soon after were banned from German screens. The same is true for director of photography Franz Planer and producers Gregor Rab­inowitsch and Arnold Pressburger, while actress Marta Eggerth, also Jewish, man­aged to continue to work in Germany for a few more years due to her popularity.

Lukas Foerster