Table Of ContentCarl Mayer
SYLVESTER
A Light-Play
(Roger Greaves' translation of Eisner, Lichtspiel-Theater = old-fashioned name for cinema/Kino)
First edition Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag A.G., Potsdam 1924
Contents
Translators' notes
earlier translations: Italian (Vanda Perretta, Marsilio Editori 1967)
other languages ???
We have tried to preserve Carl Mayer's "short, unfinished, often choppy or staccato phrases, constructed expressionistically with
inverted verbs and punctuated with unexpected caesuras". (Eisner, Faber)
Editor's introduction (Ernst Angel)
Film as industry - film as technics - film as art (educational material, entertainment): the three shapes in which the new
phenomenon "film" finds its expression, at the same time three developing processes they (the shapes) are being subjected to. It
is in the nature of film and its age that its inner, its artistic growth remains far behind the precociousness of its rapid technical
and industrial development, the constant mistaking and blending of its three generic criteria being a not unnegligible factor.
(five more pages following)
Director's preface (Lupu Pick)
A novum, this book. A novum, the director's preface. Both are meant for the public, not for the experts. These sparse lines aren't
another contribution to the theme "How does the film director regard his script".
In a sub-title, Carl Mayer calls Sylvester "a light-play". By this sub-title, he didn't just intend to point out a purely technical
process, the changing, the movements of lights. He must have wanted to show also the chiaroscuro in man himself, in his soul.
The eternal changing of light and shadow in the emotional relationships between people. At least that's how I see the sub-title.
When I read the script I was deeply moved by the eternal quality of the motives. And I wanted to convey to the spectator the
emotions I had while reading. How far I succeeded in this, it's not for me to judge. But during the production of the film ever
more vistas opened up to me, I realized more and more that here is a material that is as eternal and vast as the world itself - at
least in the script - masterfully captured are the events of a single hour. An hour which strangely and contrary to its destined
purpose isn't used by mankind to reflect on their lives, but used to cheer senselessly. -
About the book itself: It fulfills - in my opinion - the prerequisites of a film script, because it doesn't just - during reading -
convey purely visual images ??? optical series of imaginations. Even more strongly it releases emotions that move us all. By
seeing three people, within their narrow space, tearing each other emotionally apart, one feels with each character his pain, that
he really wants to be good to the other - and yet he isn't capable of it. By seeing the cheering, the partying, the celebrating of the
Umwelt (environment, surrounding outside world ???), one feels how much all those people are running past each other, chasing
after something, missing their aims. One feels the curse that hangs over mankind: being made / comprised of / the body of an
animal and being able to think - just like a human being. Notabene, if one wants to feel, and not just see.
The often rythmically chanted ??? language of the script conveys in my experience best to all participants the course of the
action. In this sense, each "now" - or "and" has a meaning, because by those interjections the intended "tempo of the play" can
be felt, similar to a printed score, its various notations, chromatic signs, fermatas etc... The novel camera (image) movements
like - "forward and back" or "sideways" etc. are meaningful and cannot be separated from this script. If film is essentially only a
moving image, then the author's suggestion is all the more remarkable (in the sense of new possibilities), as thus a vision is
triggered, that the Umwelt practically engulfs the narrow space of the action ... like the ocean an isle.
Novel seems to me also the composition of the light-play because it keeps the action itself within the narrowest frame, but it
assigns to the Umwelt an important, almost the main role within the whole structure, without mingling this Umwelt - what
would have been banal - with the action itself. That's why I believed that I should keep the Umwelt free of episodic details. It
(the Umwelt) should simply be effective by just being there. Not by being shown "dressed up for its purpose". It should form the
symphonic under- and background for the randomly picked fateful incident, thus being best suited to exemplify the underlying
principle as made clear by the motto which the author placed before his light-play.
Technical preliminary notes by the author
1. On the set:
Kitchen and living room, also the backroom, should be of medium or small size, so that during the frequent long shots ??? the
figures will still be standing intensely in space. - The image: street and square - is so conceived that only the two opposing
houses are plastic. The depth of the background will be achieved best by a backdrop, dripped in shadows and lights.
2. On the photography
Excepting the backrooms mentioned above, which might include the folks' pastry-shop, all other locations are just Umwelt. This
Umwelt-like quality should be enhanced by precise, always opposing, wandering movements of the camera, thus expressing the
idea of showing-simultaneously-a-single-world. During the course of this script these movements will be called, for simplicity's
sake, "pulling back", or: "from left to right", or "lifting and turning" etc. With advancing events these movements should be
executed more in depth and height, in order to show: in the midst of nature, a whirl / reeling that is seizing all the people.
3. Main characters and extras:
Since the principal action emerges from the general background of a New Year's Eve atmosphere, only the main characters
should be seen in medium shot or close-up, never the masses. Unless there are specific instructions to the contrary.
4. The action takes place without a pause
5. To the right and left of the camera
Sylvester. A Light-Play
Motto: Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
(The building of the Tower of Babel)
Characters (Figures)
The man / Eugen Klöpfer
His wife / Edith Posca
His mother / Frieda Richard
Preface:
This film tells of the eternal struggle of jealousy, where even the strong and the robust may succumb. The action, taking place
during New Year's Eve, shows without explanation or words the tragedy of three people who are washed over by the wave of
jealousy.
1. Image /scene / tableau
lightening up / getting lighter
very slowly / gradually:
THE FRONT OF A PASTRY-SHOP
¹near This shop-front / façade. Old seems the house. Black like evening.
Yet!
From inside: warm-murky light. Showing through the frozen
window.
And!
Some folks. Wintry. Also women and children. People enter the
shop / tavern. Because: A poster has been put up.
This poster
²huge
(to be read)
TODAY
BIG NEW YEARŞ'S EVE PARTY
(painted by hand)
Then:
The shop-front.
again near:
And!
Some folks. Rubbing their hands. Others: laughing. Also drunks.
And!
Now:
Causing the shop-front to get gradually smaller.
³slowly pulling back:
¹ Shot from close.
² Shot from very close, meaning a large of section of the frame.
³ Meaning: the camera moves away from the action (see technical
preliminary notes).
Finally:
Far away the shop front is becomes visible:
And there!
The camera stops:
And!
After perhaps a second:
⁴slowly, parorama-like
to the left
And there!
Even though now at a distance: Thus the entire pastry shop
building becomes visible. Small. Low-rise. Old. Few windows are
lighted up.
Yet!
Along the building's wall: stalls are put up. And salesmen! In open
smoking light. Offering many wares. Lively very. Because: Lots of
people passing by. Hasty. Wobbling. Jeering. With lanterns quite
often.
And!
Now:
still to the left:
This house / building is like the end of a street.
Because:
Now:
A square appears. Shadowy! A reflection in many lights.
And traffic! Cars! Tramways! Carriages! Carts! People! Illuminated
ads! Cars! A single confused maze. Hard to discern. And just
rattling by.
Yet!
So to speak, at the entrance of the square: In the street's middle: A
longcase clock standing. Its dial illuminated.
And!
Now!
panning still more to the left:
This end-of-street house opposite. Broadly it stands there.
And!
⁴By turning / panning the camera the image wanders by.
Cars drive up there. Often.
Because:
From tall windows of the basement: Garish / dazzling light. A posh
nightclub apparently.
And!
Also along this building's wall: traffic!
Because:
Newsboys screaming! / newspaper-screamers! Carriers of posters!
And!
slowly panorama-like panning
back again. Lots of folks. Hasty. Wobbling. Jeering. All the time. Finally:
And there!
Again across the square and the street: There again appears the
pastry shop's front. From a far distance like before.
Seconds.
And!
Now:
Again rolling near:
Thus making the shop-front gradually more visible.
And there!
While folks go into the tavern again:
2. Image /scene / tableau
THE INTERIOR OF THE PASTRY-SHOP
¹more as a whole Small. Low-rise. Filled with smoke.
And!
In the flickering light: Tables! Even densely ??? occupied. Men.
(slutty vulgar ???) Women. Yawning children too.
And!
In a corner: A pianist. Tinkling on an old piano.
And!
While even more guests are coming in: Two waiters running about!
Because many are shouting their orders. Making noise! Laughing!
Impatient! Drunk!
And!
Especially at the counter: Many are crowding there.
Because:
There:
²larger
Among the doughnuts and the many bottles: the w i f e! Filling
glasses with beer. So that the foam rises high. A lot she's laughing.
Since many are crowding in for glasses.
And!
Now:
She slaps a guest's hand. Because he wants to kidnap her beers .
And yet he does it. Then she's laughing even more. And everybody
with her. In the smoke and the murky light.
And!
Now:
As somebody tries to catch her: she escapes him laughing.
Sneaking away through a door in the back.
more as a whole
And!
While the business keeps smoking on in here:
¹ the frame kept general
² a larger frame, in this case a section of the counter with the
guests in front
3. Image /scene / tableau
A KITCHEN
more as a whole In glaring light.
And!
At the stove: the man / husband ??? He's brewing a punch.
There!
The wife! Already she's with him. Laughing a lot.
And!
As she' standing before him: With flying hair: He hugs her happily,
broadly.
Because:
He's tall like a giant.
Yet!
His laughter is like a child's. That's how these two are. Hardly a
second.
Because:
Again she wants away. Laughing.
There!
She stops and listens. Looks towards the window. Was there a
knock?
And!
Now:
Already she's scampering over there. Pulls back a curtain.
And there!
The wife. She's looking.
larger
Yet!
Now no longer smiling.
Because:
Outside: Emerging through the window's frozen glass:
The figure of an old woman.
And there!
The wife. Almost morose / ??? ill-humoured. Thus she turns away.
Yet!
more as a whole Strange looks the husband too.
Did he see? It seems so.
Because:
Quite embarrassed he's standing there. Looking at the window all
the time. Thus scratching his hair.
At last:
While the wife makes a few steps: Back into the room: He's looking
at her imploringly.
Yet!
Since her moroseness won't pass: He turns slowly now. Towards a
back door. The wife remains for a second. The she follows him
hesitatingly.
4. Image /scene / tableau
A PARLOUR
more as a whole Dark.
Because:
A lamp has been turned down.
And!
The husband. Fast are his steps. The door to the hallway. He's
already outside.
And!
While the door remains slightly open: the wife is somehow getting
busy, hesitating.
Because:
After she's turned up the lamp: she's standing in the room. A
second.
Then:
She walks.Steps. Towards a corner.
Because:
There:
A baby's pram. Which she moves. So that it won't stand in the
light.
Then:
Steps. Back. To the table. At which she's looking, hesitating.
Because:
¹large
The table. Festively set. Also flowers on it.
Yet!
Only t w o plates are set.
¹shot from close up, thus a large frame
