Die große Sehnsucht (1930)

During a lunch break in the canteen, Luis Trenker, Maria Paudler, and Hans Adalbert Schlettow sit together at a table and chat. This is how this story from the world of film begins. Preparations for a major new production are already in full swing at the nearby studio. During rehearsals, director Hall is horrified to discover that his star, Carla Marventa, is not delivering the performance he expects from her. To make matters worse, she is also behaving like a demanding diva. He now has to recast the role and find a replacement for Marventa. His gaze briefly flits across Eva, a blonde extra in the studio, who misreads his look and thinks that her chance of a lifetime has surely come at last. She promptly approaches Hall, believing she can take Marventa’s place … only to be met with mocking laughter: who is she, after all? A nobody! When Conrad Veidt, the star of the film about to be made, joins them and assumes Eva is his co-star, she is terribly embarrassed and runs off. Hall still has no idea whom to cast in Marventa’s place, and desperately sifts through countless photographs of actresses instead of going to the birthday party Anny Ondra is holding in her dressing room. Since he can’t think of a better idea, the director sends Eva the script to study—one never knows … At home, she rehearses intensively with her boyfriend, Paul Wessel, who, like her, scrapes by as an extra. To give the whole thing a professional polish, Eva asks Fritz Kortner to go over the possible role with her and iron out any mistakes. The results speak for themselves: Eva is indeed hired. This brings the envious out of the woodwork, since surely a debutante cannot be given the leading role straight away. People suspect a case of casting-couch favoritism and assume Eva must be having an affair with the director. When Paul hears this accusation from a fellow extra in front of witnesses, he promptly knocks the slanderer down, showing that he is still on Eva’s side. But before long, he too has to acknowledge that Eva has grown increasingly distant from him. First they have a furious argument, and then they finally break up. Eva, who has already suffered a nervous breakdown and sincerely loves Paul, wants to run after him, but director Hall holds her back. When he asks Eva whether he should suspend filming with her until she has settled her personal affairs, the ambitious aspiring actress says no: her love of the profession, “the great longing” to finally become a film star, matters more to her than private happiness. Her return to the set is taken as a sign of great professionalism, and she is given a big round of applause at the studio.