Whom the Gods Love (1942 film)

Whom the Gods Love
Directed byKarl Hartl
Written byRichard Billinger (novel)
E. Strzygowski (novel)
Eduard von Borsody
Produced byKarl Hartl
StarringHans Holt
Irene von Meyendorff
Winnie Markus
Paul Hörbiger
CinematographyGünther Anders
Edited byHenny Brünsch
Karl Hartl
Production
company
Distributed byUFA
Release date
  • 5 December 1942 (1942-12-05)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryAustria (Part of Greater Germany)
LanguageGerman

Whom the Gods Love (German: Wen die Götter lieben) is a 1942 Austrian historical musical film directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Holt, Irene von Meyendorff, and Winnie Markus. The film is a biopic of the Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.[1] It was made as a co-production between the giant German studio UFA and Wien-Film which had been set up following the German annexation of Austria. The film was part of a wider attempt by the Nazis to portray Mozart as an authentic German hero. Like many German biopics of the war years, it portrays the composer as a pioneering visionary.

The title refers to Mozart's middle name Amadeus (Latin for "love God") and to the aphorism "he whom the gods love, dies young" (Latin: "quem di diligunt, adolescens moritur") from Plautus' Bacchides, lines 816–17, and earlier Greek sources, including Homer's mention of Trophonius; Mozart died at the age of 35.

A British film of the same title had been released in 1936.

Cast

See also

References

  1. ^ Hake p. 157

Bibliography

  • Hake, Sabine. Popular Cinema of the Third Reich. University of Texas Press, 2001.