Effi Briest (1971)

Seventeen-year-old Effi Briest is enjoying herself in the garden with her friends when her mother calls her into the house because Baron Geert von Innstetten has arrived. In the hallway, her mother tells her that the Baron has just asked for Effi’s hand in marriage. When one of her friends asks whether he is the right man for her, Effi replies that any man is right as long as he is of noble birth, has a position, and is good-looking. The wedding takes place soon afterward, and Effi moves to Kessin in Pomerania to live with Geert, who works there as a district administrator. But as soon as she arrives and is introduced to the staff, she is startled when she enters the house. A stuffed crocodile and a stuffed shark hang from the ceiling of the entrance hall. Other exotic curiosities are scattered around, left by the house’s previous owner, the so-called China trader Captain Thomsen, who had lived there with his Chinese servant after selling his ship. Over their first cup of tea in their new home, Geert explains that there is not much going on socially in Kessin. Among its nearly three thousand inhabitants, the only local dignitaries are the pastor, a magistrate, the school rector, and the harbor pilot’s commander. In the end, the only people they can meet with are the apothecary Gießhübler and a handful of nobles in the surrounding area. The next morning, Effi sleeps in a little while Geert is already at work in the district office. But the housekeeper, Johanna, tells her that her husband plans to come home for his first breakfast in their new home. She also explains the noises that disturbed Effi during the night. They came from a hall above her room, where the curtains drag along the floor when the windows are open. Of course, Effi has to take a look inside the room, which is used for storage, and is frightened by a picture of a Chinese man hanging there. Over breakfast together, Geert promises to have the curtains that caused the noise shortened. At exactly eleven, the apothecary Gießhübler arrives to pay his first visit to the young Baroness. She takes the opportunity to ask whether one can go dancing in Kessin, and Gießhübler tells her that there is an annual New Year’s Eve ball and the usual Carnival festivities. After seeing the apothecary off, Effi sits on a bench in the entrance hall, is startled again by the frightening figures, closes her eyes, and dreams of playing with her friends at her childhood home. Only Geert’s return brings her back to the present. He surprises her with a call that afternoon on the Grasenabbs, but warns her not to expect too much, since these obligatory visits can also be rather tiring. Effi is bored during this visit and the others to the local nobles that follow over the coming weeks, because the conversations are always the same and the men often withdraw afterward to spend time together. One evening, Geert tells his wife that she will be alone more often now, as his workload is increasing, partly because Prince Bismarck is nearby and has known him for some time. But Effi is afraid to be alone in the house and asks Geert to move to another one, which he categorically refuses to do. Some diversion comes to the daily routine, however, when they receive an invitation to a musical soirée hosted by Gießhübler. There she meets the guest of honor, the singer Marietta Tripelli from Paris, who is passing through on her way to Saint Petersburg. But there is a second guest of honor, an old acquaintance of Baron von Innstetten’s: Major von Crampas and his wife, whom official business has brought to Kessin. On the way home, Geert asks Effi what she thinks of him. She calls him a ladies’ man, which Geert readily confirms. While walking with the family dog, Rollo, through the cemetery, Effi meets a young woman named Roswitha, who is attending the funeral of her former employers. Since Roswitha is now out of work, the pregnant Effi hires her as a nursemaid for the baby she is expecting. After giving birth to a girl, whom they name Annie, Effi travels to stay with her parents for several weeks, accompanied by Roswitha. Father Briest is merely surprised that Innstetten leaves her alone for so long and does not even visit her. After her return to Kessin, Major von Crampas comes to visit one day during breakfast, and, prompted by their conversation, they decide to go riding together. Crampas offers to find a horse for Effi. Effi enjoys the first ride so much that they plan to go on several more, accompanied by Innstetten’s coachman, since the Baron has other official duties to attend to. One afternoon, Gießhübler brings several publications with news from around the world to the house for the Baroness, so that she can at least read something new in the papers, since nothing ever happens in Kessin. He also puts forward an idea from Crampas, who wants to stage a play before Christmas. Baron Innstetten thinks the idea is excellent, as is the suggestion that his wife take the leading role. The performance is a great success, and Geert tells Effi before the celebration afterward that she is delightful in the role. Just a week later, the town’s dignitaries are riding home in their horse-drawn sleighs from a party at the chief forester’s lodge. Suddenly, the group cannot go any farther because the sleigh carrying Effi has broken through the ice into a water-filled hollow, while Geert, in the sleigh ahead, made it through without trouble. The occupants of the other sleighs decide to find another route. Effi’s female companion transfers to a sleigh that she considers safer, while the Major joins Effi. Now that the others can no longer see them, Crampas dares to kiss her passionately on the mouth. The next morning, Effi is ill in bed, and the doctor who is called prescribes plenty of fresh air by the water. When she returns from one of these walks along the Baltic Sea, Roswitha gives her a letter from Major Crampas. Effi reads it, crumples it up, then smooths it out again to continue reading, and puts it away in one of her little cabinets. The district administrator goes to Berlin on official business for eight days, leaving Effi alone in Kessin, lost in thought. From then on, Crampas walks hand in hand with her through the dunes and along the beach. When Geert returns, he surprises his wife with the news that they will be moving to Berlin, as he has been offered a position as a ministerial councillor there. She is delighted. Before leaving, she gives a particularly warm farewell to the apothecary Gießhübler, who was her best friend in Kessin. She does not say goodbye to Major von Crampas, who has also come to see her. Her new life in Berlin begins, and she quickly forgets both boring Kessin and her affair with the Major. After four years in Berlin, at a reception hosted by her husband’s superior, the minister’s wife tells her, in strict confidence, that the Empress intends to include her among her ladies-in-waiting on the occasion of the founding of the Sophie Charlotte Foundation. Effi has now been living with her husband in Berlin for six years and is away on a spa trip when Annie injures her head and the household staff urgently search the apartment for a bandage. In the process, they also open the little cabinet where Effi still keeps the Major’s old letters. Innstetten notices that the cabinet has been left open and, wanting to close it properly, accidentally discovers the letters. He recognizes who sent them and reads them, then discusses the matter with his friend Wüllersdorf. He tells him that although he still loves his wife, now that he has a confidant in Wüllersdorf, he must face the consequences. Although Wüllersdorf assures him he will keep the matter to himself, Innstetten, guided by outdated notions of honor, challenges his former rival to a duel and kills him. Effi learns what has happened while at the spa, and also that Innstetten intends to divorce her. Even her parents now forbid her from entering their home, though Father Briest does not fully agree with this decision. Effi has no choice but to rent a small apartment in Berlin, where she lives with Roswitha as her housekeeper, of course without her daughter. After not seeing Annie for two years, Effi goes to her patron, the minister’s wife, and asks her to help arrange a reunion. Although it is difficult, the minister’s wife manages to arrange a meeting, which is deeply disappointing for Effi because Annie has become completely estranged from her, with her father largely to blame. Immediately after the meeting, Effi collapses, and the family doctor advises her parents to take her back in. This happens after Father Briest firmly stands up to his wife. After a brief, happy time in her parents’ home, Effi dies at the age of just thirty.