Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
Warning Shadows (1923)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | 01:25:43 | 3,42 Gb
Score only - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | No intertitles
Genre: Art-house, Fantasy
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC 4:3 | 01:25:43 | 3,42 Gb
Score only - AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | No intertitles
Genre: Art-house, Fantasy
Director: Arthur Robison
German expressionist cinema was at its height in the 1920s, and few films embodied the movement as much as Warning Shadows. Directed by Arthur Robison, this classic tale of psychological horror remains his best known work, celebrated for its outrageous visual style and notorious for its attempt to make a purely visual feature film - in other words, a film with no intertitles (except, of course, the opening credits).
A mysterious traveler and illusionist who performs shadow puppetry arrives to provide some entertainment at an otherwise routine dinner party. The host of the party is already mad with jealousy over the presence of his wife’s four suitors, but when the puppet show begins, passions overtake reason and reality is not what it appears to be. Shadows, reflections and silhouettes are the dominant imagery, and the film boasts the extraordinary camerawork of Fritz Arno Wagner, the German cinematographer who is renowned for his work with Fritz Lang (Spies, M) and F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu).
Although this marks the first time the film has been released on DVD in the United States, Warning Shadows has long been considered a landmark work by champions of the German cinema. Lotte Eisner, in her book "The Haunted Screen," declared that director Robison "handles phantoms with the same mastery as his strange illusionist," while Siegfried Kracauer, in "From Caligari to Hitler," simply stated that Warning Shadows "belongs among the masterpieces of the German screen."
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Wow, just wow. Warning Shadows is a very under-appreciated German Expressionist film and, in my opinion, very close to being a masterpiece.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
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The film is about a husband and wife who invite four men over to their home for dinner. They also hire a shadow puppeteer for entertainment. But, alas, the husband begins to suspect that the dinner guests are making moves on his wife and that his wife is playing along with the flirt. The shadow puppeteer, who also seems to be a hypnotist, shows all the people of the house how the night will end if the guest continue their pursuit of the woman; if the man continues his jealousy; and if his wife continues her flirting; in short, it would end in disaster.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
![Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)]()
The film, at times, can be a bit confusing. It definitely requires your full attention. It's not so much that the plot is confusing, but more so that there are no intertitles and the film relies heavily on visuals to tell the story.
This actually seems to be the first feature length silent film to intentionally have a lack of intertitles and a strictly visual presentation. A technique that would be often imitated later in the genre's history.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
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The film takes place almost completely inside of a mansion. The sets here aren't surreal, complex, or dazzling, but it still has beautiful interior design and architecture. The main eye candy comes from the film's amazing use of shadows. The film certainly lives up to its name.
I've always had an acute interest and fascination with shadows. I'm not sure where the interest roots from but nonetheless this film only heightens my fascination. The shadow work is great in here, some of the best I've seen, which is largely due to the shadow puppeteer. It's almost as if, in certain scenes, you're watching two planes of existence at once: the material plane and the shadows.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
![Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)]()
The world of shadows is never quite the same as the real world, and this film does a great job of making a point of that. Shadows are deceiving, and I'd even say that shadows are one of the antagonists of this film. The dinner guests, just fooling around, pretend to fondle the woman's shadow. But, from the other side of the curtain it appears, to the husband, that they are actually fondling her body. This is a recurring theme in Warning Shadows, that things aren't always quite as they seem.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
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The first half of the film plays out a bit like a melodrama, but a good one. The story deals with lust, jealousy, vengeance, and more. The latter half of the film is a bit more action packed, since it takes place in the puppeteer's induced vision. I actually found the latter half to be a bit boring, which is a shame because it definitely had the potential to be awesome. My eyes just kind of got bored of watching and stopped paying attention.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
![Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)]()
There are some truly amazing scenes throughout the film though. I loved the mirror scene, and the the shadow animals. My favorite moment was definitely when they left the real world and entered the hallucination; their shadows shrinking into their bodies and coming out on the other side. It's a spectacle that must be seen to be understood.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
![Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)]()
It's a very stylized film. I loved the use of mirrors and even the opening credits where all the characters were introduced was ingenious.
I truly have trouble doing this film justice with mere words, it really is something you must witness for yourself. A film with so much great and only a few strides short of masterful.
Schatten - Eine nächtliche Halluzination (1923)
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