And knowledge is death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | And knowledge is death |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1915 |
| length | 73 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Walter Schmidthässler |
| production | German bioscop |
| occupation | |
| |
And knowledge is death is a German silent fantasy film from 1915 by Walter Schmidthässler .
action
Ahasver, the eternal Jew, who, according to a legend, is doomed to wander through life for ever, descends from the barren mountains into the valley and one evening knocks on the door of the philosopher Dr. Alfred Bergmann. He is currently busy with a great literary work. Bergmann allows the old Jew in and lets him stay overnight. The following morning the host's brother and young bride are also present in the house. Ahasver is venerated as a wise man and asked for his blessing. But he refuses this and quickly leaves the house. Dr. Bergmann wants information about his behavior and hurries after Ahasver. He tells him that the young couple's happiness will not last long and that the girl will be lying dead on the stretcher within three days. Bergmann is shocked and fascinated at the same time. He asked Ahasver to transmit this gift of prophecy on him. Ahasver warns his host about this gift, as it will make him unhappy and desperate, but Bergmann insists on his request. And so he gets Ahasver's clairvoyant ability. In fact, Bergmann now realizes that his future sister-in-law will be dead in three days.
Shocked by this finding, Dr. Bergmann avoid these developments and go on a journey. Before even stepping on the train, he can only see death and destruction on the faces of the passengers. Bergmann anticipates a serious accident and asks the passengers not to get on the train. He is thought to be crazy, just a passenger, the banker Sohmer, who is also on the train with his daughter, lets himself be persuaded to get off the train and take the next train. And indeed: the train crashed. Sohmer is so shocked that, at the next opportunity, he will meet a company in whose presence Dr. Bergmann's gift tells. Another guest, Baron Königsmark, asks the clairvoyant whether his seriously ill grandchild will die in the near future. Bergmann can reassure him, the disease will be overcome. Soon afterwards Edith, her father and Bergmann visit the opera together, and again the latter sees only death in all faces. You leave the theater building quickly and it actually collapses completely.
Edith profusely thanks her savior, and her father invites Dr. Bergmann invited to spend a few days on his estate. During a walk through the neighboring town, Bergmann is gripped by sheer horror. He urgently advises father and daughter Sohmer to leave this doomed place as soon as possible. And indeed - the story obviously takes place in a border region during the First World War - enemy troops overrun the region the following day and burn everything down, including Sohmers manor. From Edith's gratitude to Bergmann, affection grows, and so the two decide to get married. But Bergmann's serious nature does not really match Edith's cheerful carelessness, and so the girl soon turns to Walter von Lupinsky, who is much more in keeping with her nature. Although the wedding with Bergmann is firmly planned, she and Walter run off on the morning of their planned marriage, not without leaving her father with a letter to explain. Bergmann, on the other hand, is in the process of preparing for this important day when he anticipates his own death in the mirror. He rushes to Edith's apartment, where his future father-in-law is already waiting for him and, shocked, tells him that his daughter has run away with someone else. Bergmann had not expected this at all, and in shock and utterly confused, he resorted to a deadly poison. With that, his fate prophesied by Ahasver has come true.
Production notes
And knowledge is death was created between October and early November 1915 in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg . The film passed the censorship in March 1916 and was probably premiered a little later (probably in May 1916). The four-stroke had a length of 1334 meters.
The same basic idea has been used again in the American Final Destination horror films since the turn of the millennium .
classification
The considerable success that Deutsche Bioscop had achieved in 1915 with the first Golem film and which was to make a great national and international impression, prompted the same production company to produce further fantastic fabrics. After the film And the Knowledge Is Death , made in the autumn of 1915 , the same team (director Schmidthässler, leading actors Bergen and Sandten) shot the no less fantastic story Der Trödler von Prag .
criticism
“A fantastic tragedy, the captivating plot of which is based on a peculiar thought in which the author, through Ahasver, the eternal Jew, gives the hero of the drama, who is a ponderous spirit, the strange gift of death in every human being To read visions in advance, a gift that is his undoing too. The clever structure of the plot means a solution to the difficult problem that the director posed with this film. "
Web links
- And knowledge is death at The German Early Cinema Database
- And knowledge is death at filmportal.de
- And knowledge is death in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Report in the Kinematographische Rundschau of November 7, 1915, p. 58.