Lang’s mysterious silent melodrama from 1921 is a parable about love and death that captivates with its ambition, enigma and sophistication
The only response to this 1921 silent movie by Fritz Lang, now restored and rereleased, is a kind of amazement – at its ambition, its enigma, its combination of innocence and sophistication. As so often with early cinema and silent cinema, you see the kinship with fable and fairy story, but also find yourself suspecting that it is somehow silent cinema that is truly aware of the medium’s possibilities; these seem to elude the more evolved, yet earthbound realist cinema that comes later.
Destiny is a parable fantasy: a young woman (Lil Dagover) is horrified when her fiance (Walter Janssen) is led away by the implacable figure of Death (Bernhard Goetzke) who has recently bought a plot of land that he has turned into a walled garden for his captured souls.
The only response to this 1921 silent movie by Fritz Lang, now restored and rereleased, is a kind of amazement – at its ambition, its enigma, its combination of innocence and sophistication. As so often with early cinema and silent cinema, you see the kinship with fable and fairy story, but also find yourself suspecting that it is somehow silent cinema that is truly aware of the medium’s possibilities; these seem to elude the more evolved, yet earthbound realist cinema that comes later.
Destiny is a parable fantasy: a young woman (Lil Dagover) is horrified when her fiance (Walter Janssen) is led away by the implacable figure of Death (Bernhard Goetzke) who has recently bought a plot of land that he has turned into a walled garden for his captured souls.
- 6/8/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Fritz Lang’s Destiny (1921) with Music by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra screens November 5th at 7:30 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E Lockwood Ave,) as part of this year’s this year’s St. Fritz Lang’s Destiny Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.
There’s nothing better than seeing a silent film with live music and you’ll have the opportunity Saturday November 5th at 7:30 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. There’s a new restoration of Fritz Lang’s Destiny (Der müde Tod 1921) a dizzying blend of German Romanticism, Orientalism, and Expressionism and Cinema St. Louis will be screening it at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The film will be accompanied live by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra, who will debuting their new original score for the film.
Destiny marked a bold step for Fritz Lang,...
There’s nothing better than seeing a silent film with live music and you’ll have the opportunity Saturday November 5th at 7:30 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. There’s a new restoration of Fritz Lang’s Destiny (Der müde Tod 1921) a dizzying blend of German Romanticism, Orientalism, and Expressionism and Cinema St. Louis will be screening it at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. The film will be accompanied live by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra, who will debuting their new original score for the film.
Destiny marked a bold step for Fritz Lang,...
- 10/31/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The schedule for the 25th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff) has been announced and once again film goers will be offered the best in cutting edge features and shorts from around the globe. The festival takes place November 3-13, 2016.
Sliff kicks off on November 3 with the opening-night selection St. Louis Brews, the latest home-brewed documentary by local filmmaker Bill Streeter, director of Brick By Chance And Fortune: A St. Louis Story (read my interview with Bill Here)
According to Sliff, the festival will feature more than 125 filmmaking guests, including honorees: Actress Karen Allen (Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Animal House), director Charles Burnett (Killer Of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), winner of the Cinema St. Louis Lifetime Achievement Award; and director Steve James (Hoop Dreams).
Full information on Sliff films, including synopses, dates/time, and links for purchase of advance tickets is available on the Cinema St.
Sliff kicks off on November 3 with the opening-night selection St. Louis Brews, the latest home-brewed documentary by local filmmaker Bill Streeter, director of Brick By Chance And Fortune: A St. Louis Story (read my interview with Bill Here)
According to Sliff, the festival will feature more than 125 filmmaking guests, including honorees: Actress Karen Allen (Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Animal House), director Charles Burnett (Killer Of Sheep, To Sleep With Anger), winner of the Cinema St. Louis Lifetime Achievement Award; and director Steve James (Hoop Dreams).
Full information on Sliff films, including synopses, dates/time, and links for purchase of advance tickets is available on the Cinema St.
- 10/14/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
He's back and more diabolically ruthless than ever! Berlin cowers under the influence of a gambler-mastermind, the secret architect of an 'Empire of Crime.' Restored to near its full length (4.5 hours!), Fritz Lang's monumental pulp masterpiece is a Euro-classic lover's delight. Dr. Mabuse The Gambler Blu-ray Kino Lorber Classics 1922 / B&W / 1:33 flat Full Frame / 270 min. / Street Date September 13, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Alfred Abel, Aud Egede Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Bernhard Goetzke, Robert Forster-Larrinaga, Paul Richter Cinematography Carl Hoffmann Art Direction Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, Karl Stahl-Urach, Karl Vollbrecht Writing credits Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou & Norbert Jacques from the novel by Norbert Jacques Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fritz Lang really upped his game, directing-wise, between his 1921 fantasy epic Destiny and his next thriller extravaganza Dr. Mabuse The Gambler. Transcending contemporary notions of a popular release, the...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Fritz Lang really upped his game, directing-wise, between his 1921 fantasy epic Destiny and his next thriller extravaganza Dr. Mabuse The Gambler. Transcending contemporary notions of a popular release, the...
- 9/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Few filmmakers have had a decade-long run quite like director Fritz Lang did from 1921-1931. Featuring films like Metropolis, Spies and lest we forget arguably his greatest film, 1931’s M, Lang’s run throughout the ‘20s and into the ‘30s is a collection of films that any director would kill to have listed on his iMDB credits page.
And one of the films that started this series is maybe the director’s most underrated masterpiece, 1921’s silent epic Destiny. One of the “weirder” entries in the filmography of Fritz Lang, this neo-surrealist horror/drama tells the story of a woman as she encounters the physical manifestation of death, a black cloaked-man (Bernhard Goetzke), after he steals away her main squeeze (Walter Janssen). Attempting to get him back at all costs, Death offers the woman three chances to save her lover, tasking the woman (played by Lil Dagover) with saving the...
And one of the films that started this series is maybe the director’s most underrated masterpiece, 1921’s silent epic Destiny. One of the “weirder” entries in the filmography of Fritz Lang, this neo-surrealist horror/drama tells the story of a woman as she encounters the physical manifestation of death, a black cloaked-man (Bernhard Goetzke), after he steals away her main squeeze (Walter Janssen). Attempting to get him back at all costs, Death offers the woman three chances to save her lover, tasking the woman (played by Lil Dagover) with saving the...
- 9/2/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Death doesn't take a holiday in this, the granddaddy of movies about the woeful duties of the Grim Reaper. Fritz Lang's heavy-duty Expressionist fable is as German as they get -- a morbid folk tale with an emotionally powerful finish. Destiny Blu-ray Kino Classics 1921 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 98 min. / Street Date August 30, 2016 / Der müde Tod / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Bernhard Goetzke, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Georg John. Cinematography Bruno Mondi, Erich Nitzschmann, Herrmann Saalfrank, Bruno Timm, Fritz Arno Wagner Film Editor Fritz Lang Written by Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
- 8/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Women suffrage movie 'Mothers of Men': Dorothy Davenport becomes a judge and later State Governor in socially conscious thriller about U.S. women's voting rights. Women suffrage movie 'Mothers of Men': Will women's right to vote lead to the destruction of The American Family? Directed by and featuring the now all but forgotten Willis Robards, Mothers of Men – about women suffrage and political power – was a fast-paced, 64-minute buried treasure screened at the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held June 2–5. I thoroughly enjoyed being taken back in time by this 1917 socially conscious drama that dares to ask the question: “What will happen to the nation if all women have the right to vote?” One newspaper editor insists that women suffrage would mean the destruction of The Family. Women, after all, just did not have the capacity for making objective decisions due to their emotional composition. It...
- 7/1/2016
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Roland Emmerich's (More Creative) Predecessor: Lang Was Early Cinema's Foremost Master of Spectacles
'Die Nibelungen: Siegfried': Paul Richter as the dragon-slaying hero of medieval Germanic mythology. 'Die Nibelungen': Enthralling silent classic despite complex plot and countless characters Based on the medieval epic poem Nibelungenlied, itself inspired by the early medieval Germanic saga about the Burgundian royal family, Fritz Lang's two-part Die Nibelungen is one of those movies I can enjoy many times without ever really understanding who's who and what's what. After all, the semi-historical, fantasy/adventure epic is packed with intrigue, treachery, deceit, hatred, murder, and sex. And that's just the basic plotline. As seen in Kino's definitive two-disc edition, artistically and cinematically speaking Die Nibelungen contains some of the greatest visual compositions I've ever seen. Filmed mostly in long shots that frame the imaginative sets and high ceilings, each static shot is meticulously composed with such symmetry and balance that, even though Die Nibelungen takes the viewer through a mythical fantasia,...
- 6/22/2016
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
It can be said with little hesitation, and without even looking at the slate of what’s to come, that the restoration of a Fritz Lang film will be among any year’s finest cinematic offerings. The Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation deserves real credit, then, for bringing us a new version of his 1921 epic Destiny, here presented in a recolored edition that reflects Lang’s original intentions and with a new score by Cornelius Schwehr.
After premiering at this year’s Berlinale, the movie will begin running next month, courtesy of Kino. Ahead of that is a preview featuring a pull-quote from none other than Luis Buñuel — and if it’s good enough for him, who are you to pass this up?
See the preview below:
Synopsis:
A young woman (Lil Dagover) confronts the personification of Death (Bernhard Goetzke), in an effort to save the life of her fiance (Walter Janssen...
After premiering at this year’s Berlinale, the movie will begin running next month, courtesy of Kino. Ahead of that is a preview featuring a pull-quote from none other than Luis Buñuel — and if it’s good enough for him, who are you to pass this up?
See the preview below:
Synopsis:
A young woman (Lil Dagover) confronts the personification of Death (Bernhard Goetzke), in an effort to save the life of her fiance (Walter Janssen...
- 4/29/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Top 10 Aliya Whiteley Feb 8, 2013
From silent classics to the present, here's Aliya's pick of 10 foreign-language fantasy films you have to see...
It’s easier to say what fantasy isn’t, rather than what it is. It’s not the robots or interplanetary adventures of science fiction, and it’s not the inexplicable and the terrifying creations of horror. All we can say for sure about fantasy is that, within the world on the screen, anything can happen.
So here’s an alphabetical list of some of the more interesting foreign-language films in which the rules no longer apply. There may be strange happenings and mythical beasts but they are not out to scare us, or to confirm our suspicions that we need to be afraid of the new and the strange. Instead they challenge us to look with, as Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would have it in The Abyss, better eyes than that.
From silent classics to the present, here's Aliya's pick of 10 foreign-language fantasy films you have to see...
It’s easier to say what fantasy isn’t, rather than what it is. It’s not the robots or interplanetary adventures of science fiction, and it’s not the inexplicable and the terrifying creations of horror. All we can say for sure about fantasy is that, within the world on the screen, anything can happen.
So here’s an alphabetical list of some of the more interesting foreign-language films in which the rules no longer apply. There may be strange happenings and mythical beasts but they are not out to scare us, or to confirm our suspicions that we need to be afraid of the new and the strange. Instead they challenge us to look with, as Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio would have it in The Abyss, better eyes than that.
- 2/7/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
On the heels of the Toronto International Film Festival with its focus on the films and filmmakers of Mumbai, the Tiff Cinematheque presents, as part of its fall offerings, a series on the relationship between German Expressionist films and those of Indian cinema pre-Bollywood. Renowned Indian cinema curator Meenakshi Shedde presents a programme that highlights the links between Indian and German filmmaking, and includes a slate of films that illustrate a fantasy India as seen in German films such as Franz Osten’s Light of Asia as well as films that inspired and influenced Indian cinema, such as Josef von Sternberg’s classic 1930 film The Blue Angel, which was remade by V. Shantaram as Pinjra in 1972.
Indian Expressionism runs at the Tiff Bell Lightbox from November 14 to 21. Film screenings include (all information via the Tiff Press Office):
Wednesday, November 14 at 6:15 p.m.
Light of Asia (Prem Sanyas/Die Leuchte Asiens)
Franz Osten,...
Indian Expressionism runs at the Tiff Bell Lightbox from November 14 to 21. Film screenings include (all information via the Tiff Press Office):
Wednesday, November 14 at 6:15 p.m.
Light of Asia (Prem Sanyas/Die Leuchte Asiens)
Franz Osten,...
- 11/15/2012
- by Katherine Matthews
- Bollyspice
Indian films influenced by German expressionism will be screened at a series titled ‘Indian Expressionism’ at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Bell LightBox. The film package, curated by Indian critic and consultant, Meenakshi Shedde will run from 14th to 21st November, 2012.
German Expressionism refers to a series of creative movements in Germany prior to the First World War. The movement sought for change by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles.
The films to be screened are:
Light of Asia (14th November, 6:15pm)
Hindi: Prem Sanyas / German: Die leuchte asiens
Dir.: Franz Osten / Starring: Himansu Rai and Seeta Devi
Light of Asia (1925) is an Indo-German co-production based on the life of Buddha. This is a silent film with English intertitles.
The Blue Angel (14th November, 8:30pm)
German: Der Blaue Engel
Dir.: Josef Sternberg / Starring: Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings
The Blue Angel (1930) is a German film with English subtitles.
German Expressionism refers to a series of creative movements in Germany prior to the First World War. The movement sought for change by experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles.
The films to be screened are:
Light of Asia (14th November, 6:15pm)
Hindi: Prem Sanyas / German: Die leuchte asiens
Dir.: Franz Osten / Starring: Himansu Rai and Seeta Devi
Light of Asia (1925) is an Indo-German co-production based on the life of Buddha. This is a silent film with English intertitles.
The Blue Angel (14th November, 8:30pm)
German: Der Blaue Engel
Dir.: Josef Sternberg / Starring: Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings
The Blue Angel (1930) is a German film with English subtitles.
- 9/29/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
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