Liliom

Liliom (1934)

Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal?

Date of release
1934-05-15
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (28)
Runtime
1h 58m
Genres
Drama, Fantasy
Director
Fritz Lang

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Liliom

Liliom is a 1934 French fantasy film directed by Fritz Lang based on the 1909 Hungarian stage play of the same title by Ferenc Molnár. The film stars Charles Boyer as Liliom, a carousel barker who is fired from his job after defending the chambermaid Julie from the jealousy of Mme. Muscat, the carousel owner who is infatuated with Liliom. He moves in with Julie and they begin an affair. When Liliom discovers he's about to become a father, he finds he needs money and participates in a robbery which goes awry. Rather than allow himself to be arrested, Liliom kills himself and his soul is transported to a waiting room of Heaven.

Production

After being fired by Universum Film AG (UFA), producer Erich Pommer moved to France in April 1933 where he founded the Fox-Europa film studio based at the Joinville Studios in Paris. Pommer's studio began work on their first two films: the detective film On a volé un Homme and an adaptation of Ferenc Molnár's Liliom. Pommer had two directors to work with: Max Ophüls and Fritz Lang.

Production on Liliom began in late 1933. Lang was not completely fluent in French, and was assisted by Gilbert Mandelik in learning French filmmaking translations to help the production on the film. The French cast included Charles Boyer, who worked with Pommer on several French-language versions of German films. Madeleine Ozeray, who was part of Boyer's stage company, played Julie.

During production, Lang zealously took to the project, annotating the screenplay with his own notes and ignoring advice from others. Screenwriter Bernard Zimmer suggested scenes that did get filmed, but were later cut during post-production by Lang. After production ended in early 1934, Lang spent 48 hours without sleep to finish editing Liliom before the film was to be shown to the producers.

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