Les Trois Lumières

Contemporary audiences must have been awed by the spectacle of the three exotic adventure episodes within `Der Mude Tod', but the imagery Fritz Lang employs in the bookends is the most fascinating aspect of the film today. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton had already occasionally used clever camera tricks, but Fritz Lang's film revels in special effects. Through editing and double exposure, he makes it look even now as though ghosts are disappearing through a garden wall, or that two lovers' souls are exiting their bodies. The most exciting thing about Lang's magic, of course, is that his images act as a foundation for beautiful, poetic ideas. His unusually sympathetic portrayal of Death is just one example of why the outer story resonates so much more than the obvious melodrama in its middle. Lang seems to argue that, while love cannot overcome death, it retains a power which even death would respect and envy.

Rating: 8

Wonderfully haunting in its images, this early Lang film has recently been reissued on DVD under the title Destiny. A title I have heard about for years, it is a pleasure to see it in a finely restored format that does justice to its beauty. The film is made up of four stories, a framing sequence and three historical vignettes, related by the central theme of a woman trying to defy Death to save her lover. While the plots are simple, the telling is astonishing in vision and execution and each of the four stories has a distinctive, entertaining tone -- the brooding expressionistic framing piece, a tale of Arabian adventure, a Renaissance romance, and a comic Chinese fantasy. I found the Chinese segment especially entertaining and some of the images -- such as the old magician transformed into a cactus -- are incredibly surreal and surprising 80 years after they were filmed. Interesting as the film that made Lang famous and very entertaining in its own right, I would recommend this film to anyone who likes cinema of the imagination.

One of Fritz Lang's lesser known - and, sadly, lesser shown - films is DESTINY, a haunting and beautiful film about a woman who wishes to rescue her lover from the clutches of Death, and travels to the past to do so. Filled with incredible images, this is both a visual treat - as you would expect from Lang - and also a bittersweet love story. An obvious influence on Ingmar Bergman's THE SEVENTH SEAL, this was also the film which made Luis Bunuel want to become a director. If you ever get the chance to see this, grab it. As important and impressive a silent film as SUNRISE or GREED.

I really was impressed by Fritz Lang's "Destiny". It seemed like the pictorialization of a timeless German fable rather than a figment of Lang's imagination. The story of a young woman in medieval times whose beloved fiancée is taken by death while they travel through a small village, it is timelessly haunting even now. It must have really hit people hard in 1921 Germany, three years after the death and destruction of WWI. The framing story is set around three mini-stories set in ancient Persia, Renaissance Venice and China. These stories are well done and diverting, but also a bit distracting from the poignant main story which was what I really responded to. Lang seemed totally assured and powerful as a filmmaker even in 1921. Lil Dagover was affecting as the heroine and Bernhard Goetzke gave a powerful and moving performance as Death. He was also great in Joe May's "The Indian Tomb" released in 1921 also. I highly recommend "Destiny" or "Der Mude Tod" to anyone at all interested in silent film or the career of Fritz Lang.

The films of Weimar Germany are an interesting and exciting period to study. They share a rich cultural heritage, similar themes and revolutionary film styles and techniques. "Destiny" (Der Müde Tod) is the earliest mature work I've seen from Fritz Lang, one of the period's principal filmmakers--much better than the Spiders series. It's somewhat expressionistic, in the loose sense usually applied to these films, which is to say it's thematically dark and, occasionally, photographed and designed intentionally to affect mood and express emotions. An exceptional crew of cinematographers and art directors, as in many of the best films of the period, support the director.

Yet, I think the narrative has its faults; the frame narrative is great, but only the last of the three episodes within was entertaining--for its light and magical treatment. In the film, a girl's young lover dies, and Death offers her three tries to resurrect his life. The episodes are flimsy at times, but some impressive imagery and powerful performances by Lil Dagover and Bernhard Goetzke make up for much of that. Additionally, the exotic Arabian, historical Venetian and Chinese settings for the three inner episodes are well rendered, surely, but it's the haunting graveyard scenes and the meetings with Death, especially the room of candles scenes, that I'll remember. They're not merely exotic; they're otherworldly--the atmospheric, moving and imaginative places I want movies to take me.