| Ecstasy | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Gustav Machatý |
| Produced by | Moriz Grunhut Gustav Machatý Slavia-Film |
| Written by | Frantisek Horký Jacques A. Koerpel Gustav Machatý Vítězslav Nezval |
| Starring | Hedy Lamarr Aribert Mog Zvonimir Rogoz Leopold Kramer Jirina Steimarova |
| Cinematography | Hans Androschin Jan Stallich |
| Editing by | Art Jones |
| Studio | Elektafilm |
| Distributed by | Albert Deane |
| Release date(s) | January 20, 1933 (First Czech Republic) January 8, 1935, (Third Reich, called Symphony of Love, Symphonie der Liebe), December 24, 1940 (US) |
| Language | German |
Ecstasy – Extase in Czech, Ekstase in German[1] – is a Czech film made in 1933 by the Czech director Gustav Machatý. It stars Hedy Lamarr, credited under her original surname Kiesler, and Zvonimir Rogoz.
The film was highly controversial in its time largely because of a nude swimming scene. It is also perhaps the first non-pornographic movie to portray sexual intercourse,[2] although never showing more than the actors' faces. It has also been called the first on-screen depiction of a female orgasm.
Contents |
Emil (Zvonimir Rogoz), a precise, orderly older man, carries his happy new bride Eva (Hedy Lamarr) over the threshold of their home. (He has great difficulty opening the lock on the front door, trying key after key.) She is greatly disappointed on her wedding night; he does not even come to bed. After living in the unconsummated marriage for a while, she cannot bear it any longer and runs back to her father (Leopold Kramer), a horse breeder. A divorce is issued.
One day, she takes her horse riding. She goes skinny dipping, leaving her clothes on the horse, only to have it wander off, attracted by another locked in a corral. She chases after it all over the countryside. The horse is finally caught by Adam (Aribert Mog), the virile young foreman or engineer of a road construction gang. Seeing this, she hides in the bushes, where he finds her. At first, she is ashamed of her nudity, but then she glares at him in defiance. He gives her back her clothes. When she tries to leave, she hurts her foot. At first, she resists his efforts to help, then accedes.
That night, she cannot stop thinking about him. Finally, she goes to his isolated residence. After some hesitation, they embrace and spend the night together. Her pearl necklace is removed and she forgets to take it with her the next morning.
When she returns home, she finds an unwelcome visitor, her ex-husband, who has been waiting for her all night. He tries to reconcile with her, but she tells him that it is too late. He leaves.
By chance, while driving away, he encounters his rival. Adam guides him through the construction and asks for a ride into town. On the way, he shows the necklace, which Emil recognizes. Emil considers driving into an approaching train at a crossing, but thinks better of it.
That night, he sits alone in a hotel room, while a fly tries futilely to get out through a closed window and several others are shown trapped in flypaper. Downstairs, Adam and Eva are dancing when Emil shoots himself. Adam does not know of the connection between Emil and Eva, and she does not tell him.
The young couple had planned to take the train to Berlin. While waiting at the station, Adam falls asleep and a distraught Eva leaves on a different train without him. A sad Adam returns to his work. Eva is shown happily holding a baby.
The language of the film is German. The indoor scenes were filmed in the Schönbrunn studios in Vienna.
Beginning in 1936, the US distributor of Ecstasy lobbied the Hays office for ten months to get the film the Hays Code seal of approval which would allow it a wide American release. Joseph Breen called the picture "highly—even dangerously—indecent" in an inter-office memo to Will H. Hays,[3] and told the producers:[4]
I regret to have to advise you that we cannot approve your production Ecstasy that you submitted for our examination yesterday for the reason that is our considered unanimous judgment that the picture is definitely and specifically in violation of the Production Code. This violation is suggested by the basic story...in that it is a [story] of illicit love and frustrated sex, treated in detail without sufficient compensating moral values...
Ecstasy went on to limited run in America without the Hays seal, where it played in mostly independent art houses. Some state censor boards such as New York approved the film but most others either only allowed it with restrictions, demanded substantial cuts, or in the case of Pennsylvania, banned it altogether.[4]
The world premiere of the film took place on January 20, 1933 in Prague. In Austria, the film was released on February 14, but due to censorship problems, German cinemas did not show it until January 8, 1935.
This film was one of the first condemned in the United States by the Legion of Decency.