Magnat (film)
| Magnat | |
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| Directed by | Filip Bajon |
| Written by | Filip Bajon |
| Starring |
Jan Nowicki Olgierd Łukaszewicz Jan Englert Bogusław Linda Grażyna Szapołowska Alfred Struwe |
| Music by | Jerzy Satanowski |
| Cinematography | Piotr Sobociński |
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Production
company |
Studio Filmowe TOR
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Release date
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Running time
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171 minutes |
| Country | Poland |
| Language |
Polish German Silesian |
Magnat is a 1987 Polish historical drama film directed by Filip Bajon.
The film traces the fascinating saga of a wealthy, princely Polish dynasty in years 1900-1935. In 1900 Prince Hans Heinrich XV von Teuss entertains Emperor Wilhelm II with a bison hunt at his palatial residence. He finds out many years later that his wife was emperor's secret mistress and divorces her soon after. In the '20s, during the Silesian uprisings against the German Empire, Prince's son Conrad turns out to be involved in a homosexual relationship and is unable to produce an heir to the family fortune. In 1932, the Prince, now married to young adventuress Marisca, becomes paralysed and confined to a wheelchair. His diabolical elder son takes over the ruined estate and unknown to his father becomes associated with Hitler's supporters and the Nazi party.
In 2004 Magnat was included in the list of 100 Best Polish Films of all time.
In the year 1900 the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, was invited for a bison hunt in the hunting lodge and estate of a wealthy industrialist and businessman Prince Hans Heinrich XV (of the von Teuss family) in German-controlled Silesia. The emperor, satisfied with the diplomatic services of the Prince for the country and charmed by his young wife Daisy, offers him a profitable position. The Prince is obliged to choose: either become the Great Huntsman of the Crown and receive additional land for building new factories, coal mines and manufacturing plants or become an Ambassador of the German Empire in London. Although under the constant pressure of his wife to choose the position of an ambassador, Hans Heinrich decides to choose the position of the Great Huntsman of the Empire. Later distressed Princess Daisy turns to the Emperor for help in order to escape from her tyrannical, cynical and obsessed husband. Upon the Kaiser's refusal she becomes involved in a scandalous affair that would later have devastating consequences on the von Teuss family and her marriage. The Prince eventually divorced Daisy in the 1920s.
Upon receiving the land from Wilhelm II, Hans Heinrich XV, while taking part in an event near his residential palace, decides to give the gained territories to his German loyal servant, court adviser and collaborator, Heinberg. Clever Heinberg, with obvious knowledge of the surrounding natural resources, decides to build a coal mine instead of keeping the forest intact and becomes the initiator of the newly established and later very successful company Heinberg Gruppe. Soon Heinberg exclaims that his ancestors have served the von Teuss family for decades and he shall be the last one to be a "slave" at his estate. The Prince, firstly shocked but later comfortable with the tight situation, made a mistake that would later cost him his entire investment in the mines and affect his involvement in the Central-Western European and global trade market. Heinberg, upon becoming a shareholder, eventually would take over his entire business.
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Wikipedia