Wen die Götter lieben

In the first of two biographies of Mozart by Hartl, Hans Holt embodies the pithy composer, who - in the spirit of the period in which the film was made - is drawn out into the world like a soldier of art after his falling out with the Salzburg authorities. Instead of lands, he captures the hearts of young ladies, like one of his most famous creations.
While contemporary critics mainly emphasised the adversities that Mozart had to overcome, the picture is reversed from today's perspective: It is above all his wife and family who suffer at the hands of the ruthless male ‘genius’ - also quite fitting for 1942, when the fatal illness that strikes him just as he repentantly returns to his Constanze almost seems like poetic justice. (Florian Widegger)