Kino Classics has recently released four German classics of the silent era, presented in restorations by the F.W. Murnau-Stiftung: The Great Leap (1927), directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Leni Riefenstahl, Paul Wegener’s The Golem (1920), G.W. Pabst’s The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), and F.W. Murnau’s Tartuffe (1925), starring Emil Jannings. Get all the details on these historic pieces of filmmaking below:
Synopsis: Before she became a celebrated documentarian (and notorious public figure), Leni Riefenstahl was a popular actress, best known for her “mountain films” made by director Arnold Fanck. The Holy Mountain (Der heilige Berg, 1926) and The White Hell of Pitz Palu (Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü, 1929) were awe-inspiring dramas of romance and survival, but her 1927 film The Great Leap (Der große Sprung) was something surprisingly different: a playful romantic comedy set high atop the Dolomotes. Riefenstahl plays an Italian peasant whose simple life is upended when a series of urbanites invade the slopes for a ski vacation. This bubbly comedy (featuring Riefenstahl’s usual on-screen love interest, Luis Trenker) combines slapstick laughs with stunning footage of acrobatic skiing and rock climbing, making it perhaps the most entertaining (if unconventional) entry in the cycle of German mountain films.
- Audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan
Synopsis: Widely recognized as the source of the Frankenstein myth, the ancient Hebrew legend of the Golem provided actor/director Paul Wegener with the substance for one of the most adventurous films of the German silent cinema. Suffering under the tyrannical rule of Rudolf II in 16th-century Prague, a Talmudic rabbi (Albert Steinruck) creates a giant warrior (Paul Wegener) to protect the safety of his people. When the rabbi’s assistant (Ernst Deutsch) takes control of the Golem and attempts to use him for selfish gain, the lumbering monster runs rampant, abducting the rabbi’s daughter (Lyda Salmonova) and setting fire to the ghetto. With its remarkable creation sequence (a dazzling blend of religion, sorcery and special effects) and the grand-scale destruction of its climax, The Golem was one of the greatest achievements of the legendary UFA Studios, and remains an undeniable landmark in the evolution of the horror film.
Synopsis: An epic of the Weimar cinema, The Love of Jeanne Ney follows a young French woman’s struggle for happiness amid the political turbulence and corruption of post-World War I Europe. A tour-de-force for director G.W. Pabst (Diary of a Lost Girl, Pandora’s Box), the film blends a variety of cinematic approaches as it weaves its complex narrative of moral chaos and political upheaval: the “American Style,” evocative of the Hollywood studio blockbuster; the avant-garde techniques of Soviet montage; as well as the eerie moving camerawork and shadowy perspectives typical of German Expressionism. The result is a stunning cinematic experiment that never fails to surprise the viewer as it races towards its exhilarting conclusion.
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Audio commentary by film historian Eddy von Mueller
- Restored German release version with music adapted and orchestrated by Bernd Thewes
- U.S. release version with music by Andrew Earle Simpson
Synopsis: The most gifted visual storyteller of the German silent era, F. W. Murnau crafted works of great subtlety and emotional complexity through his absolute command of the cinematic medium. Known for such dazzling films as Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926), and Sunrise (1927), Murnau was also drawn to more intimate dramas exploring the dark corners of the human mind.
In Tartuffe, he revisits Moliére’s fable of religious hypocrisy, in which a faithful wife (Lil Dagover) tries to convince her husband (Werner Krauss) that their morally superior guest, Tartuffe (Emil Jannings), is in fact a lecherous hypocrite with a taste for the grape. To endow the story with contemporary relevance, Murnau frames Moliére’s tale with a modern-day plot concerning a housekeeper’s stealthy efforts to poison her elderly master and take control of his estate.
SPECIAL FEATURES
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Audio commentary by film historian Troy Howarth
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Restored German release version with orchestral score by Robert Israel
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U.S. release version with music by Giuseppe Becce, adapted by Javier Perez De Azpeitia
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
