Der Besuch der alten Dame is an Austrian drama based on a play written by the Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990).
The play premiered in 1956. It was turned into a movie, which premiered in 1959, only three years later.
The play was very popular. It is often read and studied in Swiss, Austrian and German schools.
A few years ago, it was turned into a movie one more time. The new movie premiered in 2008. Here is some basic information about it:
** English title: The Visit of the Old Lady
** Director: Nikolaus Leytner
** Writers: Susanne Beck & Thomas Eifer
** Language: German – no English subtitles!
** Run time: 73 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Christiane Hörbiger (1938-2022) as Claire Zachanassian (formerly Klara Wäscher)
** Dietrich Hollinderbäumer as Matthias Büsing – the mayor
** Dietrich Mattausch as Lutz Wolff – chief of police
** Michael Mendl as Alfred Ill – a business man
** Lisa Kreuzer as Angelika Ill – Alfred’s wife
** Muriel Baumeister as Mia Mohr – a journalist - daughter of Alfred & Angelika
** Hans von Borsody as Gottfried Unseld – the priest
** Rolf Hoppe as Georg Riemann – a retired school teacher
** Helmut Berger as Oliver Marx – the bank director
I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. This is why I am not going to say much about what happens in this drama. I will merely tell you how the story begins:
The story takes place in and around a small town called Güllen.
Claire Zachanassian is the old lady who decides to pay a visit to the town she left more than forty years before, when she was still a young woman.
Back then, she was injured in a car accident. Back then, she was poor and pregnant. But the young man who was driving the car and who was the father of her unborn child turned his back on her.
He refused to admit that he was driving the car and that he was the father of her unborn child.
Claire spent her last money on a train ticket out of town. Her child was stillborn. She turned to prostitution to support herself. One of her customers was a rich man, an Armenian from Russia, who later married her. When he died, Claire inherited his fortune.
After living abroad for more than forty years, Claire decides to return to the town where she grew up. By now, the town in in deep trouble. A local factory has closed and unemployment is on the rise.
Claire is one of the richest women in the world. When she announces her plan to visit the town, the local leaders see a chance for recovery.
Perhaps Claire will invest some of her large fortune in her home town? They prepare a huge welcome ceremony for her, hoping that she will want to help the town where she was born and raised.
When Claire arrives, she says that she is indeed ready to help. She will invest a huge amount of money in the town, but there is one condition.
She says she wants justice. What does she mean? She says Alfred Ill, the man who betrayed her so many years ago, must die.
Only when he is dead, will she invest the money that the town so desperately needs. The citizens are outraged. How can she set up such a horrible condition?
This is how the drama begins and this is where my presentation ends. If you want to know what happens to Claire and the people around her, including Alfred Ill, who became a highly respected business man, you will have to watch the drama - or read the play - all the way to the end.
I will add three comments:
The first is positive; the second and the third are negative:
# 1. In the original play from 1956, the story is set in the middle of the 20th century. In the new Austrian version from 2008, the story has been moved ca. 50 years forward. The story is now set in the beginning of the twenty-first century.
There are modern cars, Claire flies in a private jet and later in a helicopter, and several characters use a mobile phone. In my opinion, the transformation is done quite well. It is quite successful.
# 2. As far as I know, the story has been somewhat simplified. Several characters from the original play have been eliminated, and some details have been changed. In my opinion, these changes are unfortunate.
# 3. The drama is too short. It runs for only 73 minutes. It should have run for at least 90 minutes, perhaps even 100 minutes. If the drama had been a bit longer, the characters who were eliminated could have been included.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 60 per cent.
On Amazon Germany there are at the moment more than 170 ratings of this product, more than 40 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.5 stars which corresponds to a rating of 90 percent.
If you ask me, this rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high.
I like this drama and I want to give it a good rating, but I cannot go all the way to the top, because there are some flaws which cannot be ignored.
I have to remove one star because of these flaws. This product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. The new version of the drama was filmed in Austria – in a province that is known as Styria in Austria. The Germans call it Steiermark.
PS # 2. An English translation of the play was published by Jonathan Cape in 1973. The Visit.
PS # 3. The old movie from 1959 was released on DVD in 2008. Der Besuch der alten Dame.
*****
The Swiss author
Friedrich Dürrenmatt
(1921-1990)
*****
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