Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1950) - film adaptation of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Ronan Paterson (University of Teesside)

Ed. by Ema Vyroubalova, Trinity College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Domains

Cinema/ Film/ TV

Dates

Date of occurrence 1950

Places

Germany (Location)
England (Involved)

Genres and Modes

Adaptation
Comedy

Resources

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Recommended Reading

Adapted from Otto Nicolai’s singspiel (a genre of opera combining music with spoken word)

Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor

(1849), German libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, and William Shakespeare’s

The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Directed by Georg Wildhagen. Screenplay by Georg Wildhagen and Wolff von Gordon. Cast includes Sonia Ziemann, Camilla Spira, Paul Esser, Ina Halley, and Eckart Dux. German. Black and white. 96 minutes.

Die Lustigen Weiber is the first sound film based on a Shakespeare play to be made in the so-called Soviet Bloc. From 1945 Germany was occupied by the Allied Powers, the eastern part of the country being within the Russian zone. The German film industry, prolific up to and including the Nazi period, no longer existed. The Russian zone contained the

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971 words

Citation: Paterson, Ronan. "Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1950) - film adaptation of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 September 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19423, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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