Living Buddhas

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Movie
Original title Living Buddhas
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1925
length 93 (censored version 1924) 87 (1925) minutes
Rod
Director Paul Wegener
script Paul Wegener
Hans Sturm
production Paul Wegener
for Paul Wegener Film, Berlin
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Guido Seeber
Reimar Kuntze
Joseph Rona
occupation

Living Buddhas is a German feature film from 1923/24. Directed by Paul Wegener , who also played the leading role alongside Asta Nielsen .

action

The British geographer Prof. Campbel and his compatriot, the linguist Dr. Smith, are on an expedition to Central Asia, where they want to deepen their studies. Shortly before completing their research, they want to visit a shrine. It is a remote place where people pay homage to the goddess Kurukulle, who is currently preparing a great festival in honor. Tibetan monks escort a select number of young, festively decorated people who are to be sacrificed to the goddess. The Great Lama, the incarnation of Buddha, who has also traveled, is ready to grant foreigners from distant Europe access to the sanctuary if the two scientists promise not to leave their quarters and not to disturb the course of the cruel ritual.

When the two men are about to be brought to their quarters, they see a festively decorated woman, obviously chosen as another victim, who obviously begs for help at the moment of eye contact. Smith then slips into the disguise of a Tibetan and is able to penetrate the temple complex undetected. The festivities are in full swing, the participants move loudly and ecstatically as if they were under a magical spell. Then someone reads from a scroll, the sutra, to begin the sacrificial ritual. Smith sees the festively decorated woman and can help her, who is the next to fall victim to this cruel ritual, to escape. But when he tries to delve deeply into the course of the sacrificial ceremony with scientific curiosity, the locals quickly realize that the ignorant person must be a stranger. Death stands upon this sacrilege, and the Buddhist warriors shoot arrows at it. Smith sinks to the ground. The young woman flees and tells Smith's colleague Campbel about the terrible events of the previous night.

Smith survived despite his wounds and is protected from his own followers by the Great Lama. The wise man fears that if Smith suffers the death demanded of his own people, the British colonial powers will surely carry out a bloody punitive action. To eliminate the knowledge of the Witnesses, the Great Lama sends his adept Jeb-sun to follow Campbel and the woman who has fled. The lama’s magical powers can quickly locate those fleeing, and the leader of the goddess cult is even able to completely erase any memory of the Tibetan woman. The lama's docile disciple is supposed to accompany the convalescent Smith on his return to Europe - not out of concern, but because the scroll with the sacrificial ritual stolen by Smith is supposed to come back into the hands of the Buddha followers. At home in London, Campbel urges the linguist to translate the text quickly, but Dr. Smith is already partially under the spell of the Great Lama and wants to return the document to the owner as soon as possible.

In the meantime the Great Lama has also arrived in London and summons his docile disciple Jeb-sun to come to him. Very great magician, the Great Lama disappears thanks to sheer spirituality, loses his physicality and integrates himself as a figure in a temple painting. The young lama rolls up this picture to give it to the unsuspecting scientists as a Danaer gift . Smith and the Tibetan girl, however, suspect nothing good when they see the figure arrangement on the screen. But then the Big Lama reaches into the big box of tricks and uses fire and wind to erase the characters on the ritual scroll as if by magic. All of Smith's translation work seems to be gone, and he collapses in disappointment. While Campbel wants to get a doctor, the lama's power over Smith takes on more and more violent forms. The Englishman can struggle against being lured into his clutches by the figure in the picture. In one last rearing he tears up the picture. Then he finds himself at home. The scroll is gone, as is the Tibetan woman, and the servant, who rushes over with medicine from the pharmacy, confirms that “he has just met the Asian gentlemen on the street”.

Production notes

The shooting of this technically extremely complex film began in 1923 and dragged on until the beginning of 1924. The first censorship of March 28, 1924 resulted in a youth ban, the premiere took place on May 12, 1925 in the Theater am Nollendorfplatz. The version from 1925, which was shortened compared to the first censorship in 1924 and which finally made it to the cinemas, was six minutes shorter. The censorship title Gods of Tibet was also used as a second or subtitle for Living Buddhas .

For Paul Wegener, this film, which he had also produced with the company he had just founded, was his last director for the time being. The enormous production costs, the mixed criticism and the weak response from the audience made further productions of the actor impossible during the silent film era. “The film, which was produced at enormous expense in the Staaken Zeppelin Hall, is a financial disaster and remains the only one in his company and the last one he will realize in the multifunctional role of author-director and actor.” Not until a decade later - the sound film had long since become reality enforced - Wegener began to direct films again.

The film structures come from the famous Berlin architect Hans Poelzig , which were executed by Botho Höfer . Walter Ruttmann animated the special sequences. Berthold Held, a childhood friend of Max Reinhardt's , was the production manager, Berti Rosenberg designed the costumes.

Reviews

The ambitious film by the great Asia lover Wegener left an ambivalent impression:

Heinz Michaelis wrote in Film-Kurier in 1925 : “For German film, the name Paul Wegener means more than a unique artistic individuality - unique in strengths and weaknesses. It means an idea, the idea of ​​the pure, concession-free film artwork. (...) It is all the more painful to have to tell him this time that the creative work of art lags behind the creative will. We know that for Wegener the fantastic film means the real sphere of film art. Mysticism is the area to which he would like to see the film restricted most. (...) The artist Wegener was tempted to shape the secrets of the religions of India in a fairy tale, and he might have succeeded completely if the ethnologist hadn't spoiled the concept for him. What was created in this way is basically an erotic educational film that has been designed by an artist. (…) Individual figures stick in the memory: There is above all the Grand Lama von Wegener himself: a figure who conjures up memories of his Holofernes in Hebbel's "Judith". An idol, of course more of a Tartar than Indian character. His gaze has the magic that the film as such lacks. As a young lama, Gregory Chmara is excellent for the unity of its implementation. A monk fanatic of the East, behind a rigid mask, he foreshadows the glow of religious zeal. Finally, Asta Nielsen was wonderful in the distress of the sacrificial animal, as well as in the design of the somnambulistic state. "

Dr. Mendel summed up in the Lichtbild-Bühne : “Paul Wegener's last opus remains a highly interesting literary and cinematic experiment, even if one does not want to fully agree with the finished result. One must highly appreciate Wegener's artistic endeavors, who primarily sees film as the medium of conveying fantasy and symbolism. The material that he and his professional colleague Hans Sturm have worked on this time leaves nothing to be desired for lush, rampant imagination and exotic strangeness. (...) An abundance of religious miracles, largely based on suggestion and hypnosis, now gives the cameraman a splendid opportunity to prove his trickery. - This material contained purely cinematic material in such an amount that its effectiveness actually seemed certain, especially since it could also have conveyed beautiful information about the country, people and culture of the "forbidden country". Unfortunately, however, the authors' flowering imagination ran away; they mix up the fundamentally different cults of the highly ethical Buddha in Tibet and the raw, cruel Bhawani in India so that their cultural value is almost destroyed. (...) Those who want to learn how to scare will definitely get their money's worth: You can also really enjoy being outfitted with real costumes and props as well as moving crowd scenes. On the other hand, the pace slows, volatility of logic and - unfortunately it must be said - of photography, which make it impossible to go along with the fantastic plot, which some dream and wonder scenes even brought almost to the limit of quiet comedy. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CineGraph: Paul Wegener, Delivery 11, D 3
  2. ^ Film-Kurier No. 12 of May 13, 1925
  3. ↑ Lichtbild-Bühne No. 72 from May 13, 1925

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