"You know I can only love healthy things."

This German melodrama is by Austrian director Emmerich Hanus, who by 1918 had several years of experience. He had started in 1915, and would continue directing until 1930, even making a post-war comeback of two films in his native Austria. This film is not a good introduction to his work. By this I don't mean, that this film doesn't express the general style and quality of his filmography - I don't know him well enough to claim anything of the sort. I mean to say that this film would be a terrible introduction to any director.

I really like melodramas, I can enjoy the good ones, and often have fun with the bad ones. It's difficult to do either with "Die Liebe der Maria Bonde" (The Love of Maria Bonde, 1918). If you take the film literally, the narrative is alarming. Yet it's surprisingly hard to have a laugh either. The film is about a family with three daughters, all grown-up but none of them married. The oldest daughter Gunne (Eva Maria Hartmann) is engaged to Martin (Emmerich Hanus). When Gunne falls ill, Martin performs "the switch", and turns his affection towards the middle sister, Maria (Martha Novelly). The man does explain it very well, noting that it is commonly known, that he can only love healthy things. Boy, what a catch.

But Maria seems to honestly find this acceptable, and secretly marries this Romeo. When Gunne hears about this, she can no longer fight the illness. Then Maria becomes sick, and starts to get increasingly jealous, as she, too, has a younger sister...

I think a good melodrama should have a plot-line more dramatic than our everyday reality, but should still feel relatable. The morals and norms should be somewhat similar to reality. This film is terrible. None of the characters feel the least bit realistic, even by 1918 standards. I love the fact that the director cast himself as the sister-switching Martin, that did get a laugh out of me, though his performance isn't very good. What I did not like about how this story was framed was that Maria was shown to be the sinful person, and not Martin so much. Maria is the one who has to pay, not the guy who thinks it's okay to plough through a family like this. Upon watching this, I honestly did not know, how I should react. Should I be mad, or should I be amused. Neither really happened, and I did not get much from this film.

Aesthetically, the film is very basic. Camera work is static and uninteresting. None of the actors really gave much of a performance. Weirdly, there is a circus number in the middle of the film, which felt out-of-place, all things considered.

The elder of three sisters performing an equestrian number is engaged to her partner. Her frail health makes him switch affections to the middle one, Maria. They marry, have a child and she becomes also frail.He turns to the younger sister.

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Die Liebe der Maria Bonde

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