PRINCEZA KORALJA / Die Korallenprinzessin

Germany
1937. / 77’ / 35mm

Directed by :
Victor Janson

Written by:
F.B. Cortan, Stevo Kluic

Cast:
Iván Petrovich, Ita Rina

Distribution:
BUNDESARCHIV-FILMARCHIV
Fehrbelliner Platz 3
10707 Berlin
Tel. 03018/ 7770-917
Fax. 03018/ 7770-999
E-mail: u.klawitter@barch.bund.de

The Coral Princess is based on a story by Stevo Kluić. The film is one of the escapist melodramas from the time films were either serious or entertaining- that was the official genre division. It is the time of German cinematography from the national socialistic period and one of the German-Yugoslav co productions filmed on the Adriatic coast, in Split, island of Zlarin and the island of Hvar. Our Mediterranean setting becomes an exotic ambiance for this adventurous foreign language melodrama; something like North Africa in American and French movies of the 1930’s. In the background of intimate settings, class differences come into play and the love between a wealthy couple, Didi and Marko, in the world of poor fishermen and realistic ambiance dealing with social differences, create a realistic deviation from the genre. Ita Rina, the star of that time (Slovenian born in Divača as Italina/Ida/Tamara Kravanja in 1907., died in Budva in 1979.as Tamara Marković) stars in the movie. Movie Erotikon (1929.) by Gustav Machatý made her famous. Music was made by Ivo Tijardović.

Victor Janson (Riga, 1884 – 1960. Berlin), star of more than a hundred movies, director of about fifty, mostly comedies and melodramas. During the German “exile-cinema”, when many German film makers and artists left the country, he directed a series of populist films. In an early silent movie, satire mocking the “new rich”, The Oyster Princess, he played the father, “king” of oysters.