The Janus head
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Janus head |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1920 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau |
| script | Hans Janowitz |
| production |
Erich Pommer , Karl Freund , Carl Hoffmann , Carl Weiss |
| camera | Karl Freund, Carl Hoffmann, Robert Baberske |
| occupation | |
| |
The Janus Head , with the subtitle A Tragedy on the Edge of Reality , is a silent horror film from 1920, directed by FW Murnau . It is an adaptation of the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson . The film, which premiered on September 17, 1920, is considered lost.
The script for this film was written by Hans Janowitz , who also worked with Carl Mayer in the well-known film production Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920) contributed.
content
Two opposing characters are hidden in the person of the inconspicuous London gentleman Dr. Warren (played by Conrad Veidt ). At a late hour he succumbs to the madness of an animal gone wild. This hypnotic transformation is not caused by laboratory experiments as in Stevenson's original, but by a supernatural effect of a Janus bust that Dr. Warren (the Jekyll character) in the opening sequence for his lover Jane Lanyon ( Margarete Schlegel ) as a gift. The gruesome deeds he commits in these delusional episodes are not noticed by the wealthy and correct man who appears during the day due to a dissociative identity disorder . Most recently, he perishes on the hysterical, brutal and obsessed character O'Connor.
Reviews
“[...] The plot, which is completely set on sensation, is gripping from beginning to end; the metamorphoses that occur when the scene is open, if one can say so, are a technical masterpiece of perfect effect. Here the film is superior to the theater. What is simply impossible on stage, takes place on the white wall with astonishing naturalness: the narrow, spiritual face of Conrad Veidt, who won the Dr. Warren plays with brilliant control of the role, transforms almost imperceptibly into a disgusting, wild-haired, stubborn grimace, the figure doubles, becomes a completely different person. Only a few close-up shots, where you could see the mask too clearly, were a bit annoying. Conrad Veidt has achieved a fabulous virtuosity in the representation of such bizarre figures and always surprises with new possibilities of expression. Next to him, Willy Kaiser-Heyl, Magnus Stifter, Margarete Schlegel and all the other actors were quite up to date. Among the photographically very good and scenically richly designed pictures, we particularly noticed some blue viraged, nocturnal street pictures, studio photos with pretty light effects. "
“To come to the fore: This 6 act" based on English ", arranged for the film by Hans Janowitz, directed by Fred Murnau, published by Decla-Bioscop, has a future, is one of the strongest impressions of recent times. [...]
One excuses improbabilities of the content, that of the structure through subtitles; here: "A tragedy on the verge of reality". So one has to accept the fantastic. It also has the merit of fabulous tension, and is not improbable in itself. In addition, the play is brilliant, the photography is excellent, the film is well cut, otherwise technically sophisticated and, apart from a dull fifth act, treated with considerable taste.
Conrad Veidt is Dr. Warren - O'Connor, only half himself, half Werner Krauss, but very strong in the game. The young Margarete Schlegel also won a film, for the time being a little too biased towards the stage style. Magnus Stifter made his friend unobtrusively elegant. Willi Kaiser-Heyl, Margarete Kupfer, Danny Gürtler appeared to be well above their own average performance.
All in all: Rare quality and yet a success with the public. "
particularities
The script and additional production materials still preserved today indicate that the "moving camera" was introduced and used in this work for the first time in film history. In a scene in which the doctor climbs the stairs to his laboratory, Janowitz writes the following sentence in his script: "The camera follows him down the stairs".
Web links
- The Head of Janus in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Janus head at Lost-films.eu
- The Janus head at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ The Janus head on filmportal.de
- ^ Fritz Podehl on the film portal. de
- ↑ Lotte H. Eisner : Murnau. University of California Press edition, 1973, ISBN 0-520-02425-7 , p. 31.