A Morte Cansada

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.

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.

In a small village somewhere in time, a stranger lease for ninety-nine years a field annex to the cemetery and surround it with a very high wall without gate. When a young couple of travelers stop in a local tavern for resting, the fiancé vanishes and her fiancée seeks him and meets his spirit entering through the wall. She finds an entrance and finds that the stranger is actually Death, who is tired of bringing suffering to the world. She begs for the life of her beloved fiancé, and Death proposes her to save one of three lives that are in the end. If she succeeds, Death will bring her lover back to live. The lady becomes a woman in Persia, in Venice and in China, and in all situations she fails to save her respective lover. Death gives her one last chance, if she manages to find within one hour a person in the village that could give up living. When the local hospital is burning in fire, the young woman realizes the only way to stay with her lover.

"Der Müde Tod" is another magnificent fantasy of the genius Fritz Lang. Ingmar Berman was certainly influenced and inspired by this stunning film with his masterpiece "Det Sjunde Inseglet" (a.k.a. "The Seventh Seal"). It is amazing how Fritz Lang was able to generate shadows and special effects with the primitive apparatuses in the incipient cinema. Further, the originality of his screenplays is absolutely impressive. "Der Müde Tod" shows wonderful fantasy about the duel between love and death, with a beautiful message in the end, proving that love is stronger than death. My admiration for this master increases after watching each of his movies. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "A Morte Cansada" ("The Tired Death")

I don't know why, but one of my favorite film genres is German Expressionism. Like American film noir, it creates a dark vision of human existence from which a flowering of truth unfolds. And this truth is not what the protagonist wants to hear and comes at a great price. I love this stuff.

I recently had the opportunity to view "Der Müde Tod" theatrically, and it was pure heaven. Billed as Fritz Lang's first big hit, it's easy to see why. Filled with lavish spectacle and special effects, the film still maintains it's human level. And such a story: a young newlywed husband is taken by Death on his honeymoon. As in a fairytale, the bride is able to confront Death and beg for you her husbands return. Death will grant her this if she can once cheat him of one who is about to die. She is given three chances to pull off this trick, which transport her to Persia, Venice and China. Death, her husband and herself are characters in each of these fanciful locales. All this leads back to a gripping finale in Germany where it all began.

As far as silent movies go, this is one of the best.

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