Production
Wicki based his film on the 1938 novel Father Malachy's Miracle by the Scottish accountant and writer Bruce Marshall. He wrote the script together with the screenwriter Heinz Pauck, planning to not only adapt the original novel, but also to expose the "social structure of our saturated " (German: "soziale Struktur unserer Sattheit"). Writing the script took more than six months, whereas the actual filming took five months.
For the main role of Father Malachias Wicki cast the stage actor Horst Bollmann, who had never played in a film. Other important roles were played by experienced film actors such as Richard Münch or Günter Pfitzmann. Supporting actors were often lay actors who played a role corresponding to their real profession, as for example journalists, press photographers or businessmen. Several known people had cameo appearances in the film, including the German translator of Justine, Maria Carlsson as a socialite, the humorist and graphic artist Loriot as a playboy and the film journalist Kurt Habernoll as a sausage vendor.
The film was shot completely on location and not a single scene was shot on on a studio set. Most scenes were shot in Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Area. In total 95 different locations were used, including several industrial sites and the Musiktheater im Revier. A small part of the footage showing monks and priests was shot in advance at the Eucharistical World Congress in Munich. To increase the authenticity of the film Wicki used real brand names such Miele, König-Pilsener, Coca-Cola or Telefunken. Some brand names featured in fictional slogans that were used by those trying to make a profit from the miracle, for example "The girl that witnessed the miracle flies around the world with PAA". (German: "Das Mädchen, das das Wunder sah, fliegt um die Welt mit PAA") or "Stay on earth — drive Borgward" (German: "Bleib auf der Erde — fahr Borgward").
The film was planned to have its premiere at the International Film Festival in Berlin. As it was not yet completed the selection committee of the film festival saw only a raw cut of the film. This led to speculation in the tabloid press of a race against the time and that Wicki had collapsed at the cutting table due to the time pressure. Ultimately the film was finished only seven hours before it premiered at the festival.
Read more about this topic: The Miracle Of Father Malachia
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“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
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