Film Review: Die Nibelungen (The Nibelungs, 1924)

When nations appear to hit rock bottom, their people often try to find escape, comfort or inspiration in distant heroic mythical past. In early 1920s Germany was, following defeat in Great War, in such situation, being affected by national humiliation, revolution, violence, hyperinflantion and other woes. Task of reminding Germans of their past glory was taken by Erich Pommer, producer of Die Niebelgungen (literally “The Nibelungs”), 1924 fantasy epic directed by Fritz Lang, which is often considered to be one of the grand works of German silent cinema.

The film is based on Nibelungenlied (or Song of the Nibelungs), 13 century German epic poem which represents retelling of ancient Germanic myths that deal with events that took place roughly centuries ago. This work has inspired many writers and artists, most notably famous composer Richard Wagner who covered it with his The Ring of the Nibelung, his famous four-part opera cycle. The plot of Lang’s version begins with Siegfried of Xanten (played by Paul Richter), son of King Siegmund of Xanten, hearing tales about Kingdom of Burgundy and its beautiful princess Kriemhild (played by Margarethe Schön). Determined to have, Siegfried goes on a journey during which he would encounter dragon, slay it and bathe in its blood that makes him invulnerable, except for small spot accidentally covered by leaf on shoulder blade. His next obstacle is Alberich (played by Georg John), king of Dwarves, from whom he takes net of invisibility and finds large treasure. When he arrives at Burgundian court, King Gunther (played by Theodor Loos), Kriemhield’s brother, promises hand of his sister in exchange for helping him win the hand of Brunhild (played by Hanna Ralph), Queen of Isengaard, who has swore that she worry only a man who could defeat her in threefold physical contest. Siegfried, using his net of invisibility, does so and later even impersonates Gunther in order to help Gunther consummate his marriage. He marries Kriemhild, but she soon gets in conflict with her sister-in-law and inadvertently reveals Siegfried’s deception. Infuriated, Brunhild conspires with Gunther’s brother Hagen of Tronje (played by Hans Adalbert Schlettow) to have Siegrfried murdered. When this happens, and when she realises that her own family murdered her husband, she accepts marriage proposal from Lord Etzel (played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge), king of Huns, hoping that she would help him exact terrible revenge.

Made by UFA, studio that was becoming powerhouse of European cinema at the time, Die Nibelungen represented one of the most ambitious German film project of its time. Its ambition to serve as country’s first proper cinema epic can be seen in being formally dedicated to “the German people”. Fritz Lang and his wife and scriptwriter Thea von Harbou, partly inspired by Wagner’s approach to the source material more than half century earlier, and partly aware of the problems great length of almost five hours might make, decided to split their film into two parts. The first part, titled “Siegfried”, is more interesting, at least to the fans of fantasy genre, because the plot features recognisable mythical creatures like dragons and dwarves and there is more need for Lang to employ and experiment with various forms of special effects. Many of such special effects, quite understandably, look primitive from today’s perspective, but they represented first class film techniques of its time and some are impressive even today, like the large dragon who was, due to absence of credible miniatures or stop motion animation, reconstructed by life-sized model.

Second part, titled “Kriemhild’s Revenge”, is slightly different in terms of style and theme. It almost doesn’t feature any fantasy elements, it is more generic period piece and its is rooted in more in history than legend, with King Etzel a.k.a. Atilla being real life figure. This part is also much darker, featuring killing of children and ending with prolonged battle ending with apocalyptic and tragic outcome. “Kriemhild’s Revenge” also shows Lang’s great effort to reconstruct ancient Huns, making them look more savage and exotic than Burgundians with their clean costumes and neat geometric patterns in architecture and decorations. However, second part is much worse, because pace is very slow and the final showdown seems to go on forever, testing patience even some of the viewers who were accustomed to silent era epics.

The acting in Die Nibelungen is solid and the theatricality characteristic of many silent films is mostly subdued. However, Lang doesn’t appear to have much love for his actors, at least due to absence of close ups and too much use of wide shots that also make some of the events slightly confusing. Some of those flaws are, however, compensated by epic music score by Gottfried Huppertz, composer who would later work with Lang with his science fiction classic Metropolis. At the end, Die Nibelungen became massive hit and made Lang into one of the most successful and influential film makers of his time. His film continued to inspire many film makers in next decades, most notably Peter Jackson and his The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo

InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7

Posted using CineTV