A taut, “slice of life” drama set in a boarding house ironically called Pension Splendide, in which everything is run down: the furniture, the rugs, the drapes, and especially the tenants. Here Peter, a salesman, and Hella, a salesgirl, fall in love. Their relationship falls apart due to a misunderstanding, but the real source of its disintegration can be traced to their tattered surroundings and embittered compatriots. British Film Institute's John Gillett notes the film's “extremely inventive use of sound, acute character sketches and a fine sense of enclosed space.”
Abschied was photographed by Eugen Schuefftan, already one of the great cinematographers and who later worked in France, notably on the films of Carne and Franju, and in Hollywood. Writer Emeric Pressburger wrote and directed films in Britain after 1935, largely in collaboration with Michael Powell. Robert Siodmak left Germany for France in 1933 and in 1940 came to Hollywood, where he is best known for his film noirs and thrillers (Phantom Lady, The Killers, The Spiral Staircase, etc.). Gillett notes, “Siodmak's Germanic heritage added a rich vein to the film noir tradition.... (He) possessed that enviable Austro/German trait for creating his own universe wherever he worked...linked to an all-embracing camera eye continually alert to details of lighting, decor and the placing of characters in lived-in settings and the enclosed spaces of mysterious houses where terror and danger lurk....” Note: The film is in German; a detailed written English synopsis will be provided.