THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1924) - extreme 'horror acting'

THE HANDS OF ORLAC

(1924, Germany/Austria, Orlacs Hände)

But doctor, will I still be able to play the piano?

The name might not be familiar, but many horror films owe a debt to the story and this first adaption of The Hands of Orlac. Besides the better-known remakes, consider The Beast With Five Fingers (1946), the Christopher Lee segment of Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Oliver Stone's The Hand (1981), Ash's possession in Evil Dead II (1987) and especially the homage of Body Parts (1991).

Before surgical transplant procedures had been perfected, there was actually a debate over which organ a person's soul might inhabit, and whether personality was also transferable. In the story, concert pianist Orlac loses his hands in a train crash, waking to find that they've been replaced with those of an executed murderer! He can no longer trust his own hands!

Using this logic, the Frankenstein monster would have had multiple traits from each part of his patchwork body, but in those movies, the donor's personality and memory only transferred when the brains were swapped. In The Hands of Orlac, it's the original function of the hands that's conveyed - they still want to kill, hold knives, strangle...


This far-fetched concept is brought to life purely by the actor's performance. Conrad Veidt (a favourite actor of Christopher Lee) has to convince us he's frightened of his own hands. Not an easy task, but the film is a tour de force nearly two hours long, made fascinating by the extreme 'horror acting' of the cast.

For want of a better phrase, 'horror acting' means to me that someone has to convey extremes of fear and madness when confronted by the impossible, the supernatural, or the downright evil. This is exaggerated to match the extreme circumstances. I'm talking about the frenzied state that 'the final girl' has to convey when she's cornered by a killer, or Ash's descent into madness as the whole house conspires against him. Also the kind of performance needed when the killer is finally unmasked, and has to look like they are insane enough to have committed all those mad murders. But there's a fine line between successfully 'hitting these heights' and over-acting. I think it's also possible, Shatner-style, to overact and take the audience with you.

This is a rare and difficult skill. How often in a horror film have you seen someone scream unconvincingly, or not look scared enough? The reason I gave up on the Saw movies was because of Carey Elwes in the first film. At the crux of the story, trying to look insane enough to cut off your own foot required a height that Elwes didn't reach.

It's the 'horror acting' that really kept me watching The Hands of Orlac. Filmed back when it was a new artform, the art of appearing very, very scared by the supernatural. Paul Orlac (pity he's not called Hans) and his wife, Yvonne, are happy for a couple of minutes before being dropped into a pit of despair and terror.


Yvonne (Alexandra Sorina) has a similarly extreme emotional rollercoaster ride. First she's awaiting his embrace before he returns from a concert tour, her yearning for the touch of his hands on her body will soon prove problematic. Then she's distraught as she hears that his train has crashed and races to the site not knowing whether he's survived. The torture mounts at the hospital as she waits to hear whether he'll survive, then there's the horror as she learns he'll lose his hands. The actress is limited to playing this last scene in an armchair, but takes distraught to the very limit as if she's climbing the walls.


When Orlac finally regains consciousness, he's relieved to see his new healthy hands unbandaged after the crash, in notably the only daylight exterior scene. For the rest of the film, once he discovers he's inherited the hands of a criminal, the character is trapped in gloomy, cavernous, expressionistic sets. Besides not being able to play the piano, he fears that he can't trust touch his wife with such murderous hands.


Orlac's battle with his hands through the rest of the story is extraordinary to watch. The sheer strain of his performance even showing in the veins on Conrad Veidt's forehead. I'd previously thought Bruce Campbell was the king of 'possessed hand' acting after his Oscar-worthy, kitchen-destroying struggle in Evil Dead II. But Veidt has to keep this level of intensity up for most of the film!

But while Veidt and Sorina's performances are exaggerated, they're still truthful. In silents, performers are allowed to show how they feel inside. Like the most memorable scenes of Lillian Gish in the American silent classics The Wind and Broken Blossoms. The latter has her trapped in a cupboard with a killer trying to break his way inside. For me this works ten times better than Shelley Duvall in the bathroom in The Shining. Gish gets so worked up, she eventually looks like a cornered animal being driven frantic with fear. I should say this acting is heightened rather than exaggerated. It has to be amplified because the actor has to convey everything to us, without the help of dialogue, sound effects or music.


Director Robert Wiene continued using surreal set design of early German supernatural cinema, which he'd helped pioneer in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, also starring Conrad Veidt. The oversized sets, dominated by simple shapes are partly obscured in the murk of the fading prints. But these sets are as unnatural and psychologically wearing as the acting. Not as surreal as in Caligari, but overly imposing and empty, stripped down to the essentials of the script. A music room, a piano. A bedroom, a bed. The patterns on the walls and the frames of the doorways dominate the sets.

The extreme performances look slightly less unusual when we meet the other grotesque characters in this nightmare, Orlac's father and his bizarre butler! I also recognised Fritz Kortner, one of the stars of Pandora's Box, lucky enough to later act opposite Louise Brooks.

The US remake with sound, Mad Love (1935), looks a lot less impressive when you see this first version. This is also for fans of Conrad Veidt, the star of The Cabinet of Caligari (1920), The Student of Prague (1926), The Man Who Laughs (1928), The Spy in Black (1939), The Thief of Baghdad (1940), not to mention Casablanca (1942).


The Kino Video DVD has assembled the best surviving elements of the film, though the picture quality fluctuates throughout. The brightness of each shot flickers a little and there are many scratches. While I'd like it all to look cleaner and a little lighter, these unavoidable artifacts all add to the atmosphere.


Here's a taster, a clip compilation from the Kino DVD transfer, on YouTube...

THE STUDENTS OF PRAGUE - two silent horrors

Two early horror films with two early horror stars

Once again, I've been chasing movies that I saw tasty photographs of in Denis Gifford's Pictorial History of Horror Movies (see the earlier article below).

During the silent era, Germany was a powerhouse of macabre movies, rivalling the early horror output of the US. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and The Golem (1920), not forgetting the gothic sections of Metropolis, have remained influential. First on the 1930s Universal Studio horrors, more recently on Tim Burton's two Batmans.

These two versions of The Student of Prague are less well known supernatural films, made by many of the same production crew behind other horror classics. They're both available on Alpha Video in the US, though I suspect the 1913 version is incomplete, running at only 41 minutes. The 1926 version runs at 90 minutes. Both have pretty poor picture quality, apparently sourced from analogue tape, but are quite watchable. Maybe not listenable though, I prefered to listen to my own choice of music while watching them. But I'm now sufficiently impressed with both films to want more carefully mastered versions.

The respective stars are Paul Wegener and Conrad Veidt, two actors who headlined horror movies before Karloff, Lugosi or even Lon Chaney.

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE
(1913, Germany, Der Student von Prag)

I think I'm right in saying this is an early example of a feature-length film - it predates even Birth of a Nation! It's also an early starring role for Paul Wegener, before he made his three Golem movies, or The Magician, Alraune or Svengali. He's now best known for The Golem - the 1920 version was a huge influence on Universal's first Frankenstein. The 1915 version and its sequel, The Golem and the Dancer are now lost films. Coincidentally, the story of The Golem was also set in Prague.

The Student of Prague is a twist on the legend of Faust (also filmed in Germany in 1926), taking the theme of doppelgangers from Edgar Allen Poe's story, 'William Wilson', and set in the 19th century. Balduin, a poor student, falls for a wealthy heiress. But he has no hope of marrying her without making a name for himself. He's enticed by a mysterious sorcerer to make a bargain with Satan. He becomes very wealthy, but of course there's a catch...

While Balduin is supposed to be the best swordsman in Prague, we never see any duels - a drawback for this version, possibly because of missing footage. Plotwise, I was puzzled why the best swordsman was unable to turn his skill into monetary gain.

Wegener's performance is very natural, modern enough to still be watchable today, not at all how silent movie acting is popularly remembered. He plays a mannered, believable character that helps you forget just how long ago this was made.

The trickster magician, Scapinelli, is creepily played by a spidery hunched John Gottowt (who later appeared in the legendary Nosferatu).

Wegener's co-director Stellan Rye was working prolifically at the time, but his career was cut short when he died fighting in the first World War. This is impressively made for such an early film, one of the most expensive in Germany at that time.

This version of the story has basic but effectively staged split-screen effects, showing the student literally haunting himself. The production also benefits from using actual locations in the 'old town' district of Prague.

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE

(1926, Germany, Der Student von Prag)

Conrad Veidt took the lead role for the 1926 remake of The Student of Prague. Although Wegener starred in The Golem remake, I guess it was too much for him to play the student again - he'd only just passed as a student in the 1913 version, when he was 39!

Veidt is probably better known for playing Nazi spies in British (The Spy In Black) and American (Casablanca) wartime films, as well as the Grand Vizier in The Thief of Baghdad remake. Though he was cast as Nazis, the fact that he worked in Britain was because he was anti-Nazi. Before he fled Germany, he was associated with many of the earliest macabre roles, famously as Cesare the sleep-walker in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The Two-Faced Man (Der Januskopf - a Jekyll and Hyde riff also with Bela Lugosi), The Hands of Orlac, The Man Who Laughs (both later remade) and a version of Rasputin.

This version of Student of Prague reunites Veidt with Werner Krauss, the original Dr Caligari! Krauss' unique approach to the fiendish Scapinelli has him literally bending over backwards to appear perversely 'different'. But his make-up is a little too thick for such a sophisticated film. His performance alone is creepy enough, without the need for the thickly painted eyebrows and beard. Personally, Scapinelli is just as good in the 1913 version, even though he appears less and usually in long-shot. The scene where money pours from his sleeve is, for instance, is more cleverly done in the earlier version, in a single long take.

The story is much the same, though there's the exciting addition of a formal sabre duel, with Veidt impressively doing much of his own swordplay. Also, Scapinelli leaves less to chance in this version, shaping several 'coincidences' (like redirecting an entire foxhunt) to keep the poor student on his downward spiral. A surprising example being his huge shadow reaching up a giant wall to tip the balance of fate.

Although the interiors are realistically styled, the streets of Prague are expressionistic, in keeping with previous German films of the fantastic.

Director Henrik Galeen worked with Wegener on Alraune and also the first Golem (1915), as well as writing the 'adaption' of Dracula for Murnau's Nosferatu, famously without the permission of Bram Stoker's estate. But his experience doesn't explain the poor continuity in some key scenes, like when Scapinelli first meets Balduin. It's shot from several angles circled around the two men, but the close-ups repeatedly betray the absence of the other actor in an overly fast-cutting scene.

While the 1913 version seems ahead of its time, this one seems a little behind. But it's worth seeing the fuller, more intricate take on the story, and especially to see Krauss and Veidt reunited after The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.



Here's a trailer made to promote the DVD release of The Student of Prague (1913) on YouTube...

These Alpha Video DVDs from the US are a reasonable way to assess these films, and they're the only way to see them! I was sorry to discover that no other DVD versions are available, not even in Germany. I hope that because of their historical credentials that this will change and both films will get remastered like many other German silent horrors. Note that the cover art on the Wegener version uses a photo of the actor much older than his character appears in the film.

The Student of Prague was remade with sound in 1935, again in Germany, starring Anton Walbrook (Viktor/Victoria, Gaslight, The Red Shoes). But I can't find it anywhere...

There's more, interesting reference information about The Student of Prague (1913) at FilmReference.com. The German Films archive site lists the film as running 57 minutes.

Another review of the Alpha Video 1926 version is here at SilentEra.com, as well as a great list of silent movies out on home video.

My article on the Golem movies made after Paul Wegener is here.

THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX (2008) - an impressive catalogue of chaos

THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX

(2008, Germany, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)

From the producer of Downfall, is this shocking recreation of ten years of terrorist activity in West Germany, between 1968 and 1978.

This was such a controversial subject that I mistakenly thought it was going to be a small-scale, low-budget affair. I didn't realise that, riding on the success of Downfall, producer Bernd Eichinger had teamed up with life-long friend, director Uli Edel, to make an impressive re-staging of real-life events, using many of the original locations.

The film is a powerful and astonishing reminder of the time, when popular ideals of left-wing politics were more influenced by revolutionary rebels such as Che Guevara. In Germany, a small group of middle-class radicals are spurred into direct action when a prominent voice of the left is gunned down in the street.

Another death, at the hands of a policeman during a public riot, further radicalises Ulrike Meinhof, a political journalist who gets drawn into the outlawed group, to become one of the masterminds and idealogists behind their tactics and targets.


I was overwhelmed by the scale of the havoc wrought by the RAF (Red Army Faction), also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. The story follows their lives from before their descent into violent extremism, to their eventual incarceration and public trial.

As the leaders of the RAF get arrested or killed, the remaining members vow revenge, and continue the chaos, linking up with Arab terrorists at a time when an international terrorist coalition was being established...

I sympathised with their initial ideals, which was partly a protest against the many Nazis still in local government at the time. But the unanswered mystery is how quickly they moved into armed robbery, assassination and bombing campaigns. A short journey from political ideals to terrorism, with an obvious parallel to today, though the film doesn't get heavy-handed with 'messages'. For instance, one of their targets is portrayed as a random innocent, yet it doesn't even mention that he was formerly a member of the SS, a hardline Nazi.


The whole film is an education, or the start of one, but without throwing too much information at you, like Oliver Stone's breathless JFK (1991). While detractors of the film complain about what the film has left out, it's up to the audience to learn more.

The Baader Meinhof Complex presents a fast-paced tour of the gangs' actions and many victims. There's also been criticism that it portrays them as quite a sexy bunch, attractively rebellious, mostly young women with a weakness for mini-skirts. I was briefly seduced by their cause, but then repeatedly repelled by their militaristic solutions. I found this no more problematic than the many gangster movies that equate guns, power, sex, and money. Considering the amount of guns and ammo out there, it's surprising that there hasn't been more mayhem like this.

The film has just come out in cinemas in the US, and is already on DVD in the UK. Two short documentaries illuminate the intentions and of the director and the producer, as well as showing the extensive nature of the making of the film.

This review on SFgate says it all much better than me.

Watch the trailer and you'll want to see the film...

RAUMPATROUILLE (1966) - Germany's SPACE PATROL

RAUMPATROUILLE

(1966, West Germany, TV, Space Patrol))

'The fantastic adventures of the Spaceship Orion'

Some sixties sci-fi that used to look futuristic, now doesn't. But those retro-predictions now provide glimpses of alternate futures of varying optimisms. I've now seen most of what the fifties and sixties offered and am currently in the mood for black-and-white TV shows, like Fireball XL5. There are still a few films from the period that I haven't seen - I only recently caught Planeta Bur from Russia, for instance.

So, if you want to see spaceships taking off from an underwater base via a whirlpool, ironclad beehive hair-dos, space cardigans, and invading aliens (called Frogs), you're in luck. Raumpatrouille (literally Space Patrol) was the first major German sci-fi TV show. It threw a big budget at huge sets and major special effects. As a result of the cost, it only ran for seven one-hour shows, but achieved a unique look - another future that never was. A future where spaceships are spacious, and unnecessarily huge. When Earth is no longer divided up into countries (and, apparently, everyone is now German).

My introduction to the show was through the lounge music par excellence of Peter Thomas, also famous in Germany for his TV themes and krimi movie scores. A European answer to Vic Mizzy, his enthusiastic and eccentric electric tunes aimed at being catchy enough to turn into hit singles. During the lounge revival of the 1990s, several CDs featured his work and the soundtrack for Raumpatrouille even got its own CD release. Not to be confused with the American Space Patrol TV series of 1950, or the British Space Patrol puppet series of 1963, the German series was released on DVD in 1999, and I had to see it.


Now, I've just bought the German three-disc boxset, of 2005 (pictured at top). The first two discs are exactly the same as the 1999 2-disc release (pictured here), which also had all seven episodes, remastered 5.1 audio, plus a few extras. The difference now being a third disc, with additional extras and a 2003 'movie', condensing the series into a single 90 minute storyline. Because of the series' kitsch value in Germany, this re-edited 'redux' adds newly shot scenes of a newscaster setting the scene and filling in the story gaps, but for laughs. It's an easy target to lampoon, but viewers could easily work out for themselves that the hairstyles and dance moves look bizarre. This unwelcome additional footage is intrusive but fairly brief.


The best aspect of the movie version is that it is subtitled in English. Amazon.de lists the 2005 boxset as having English subtitles, but these only appear on the movie condensation, and unfortunately not on the individual episodes. At least we can now it's possible to understand the important plot points of the series. Usefully, this movie version, sometimes called 'the producers cut' is also available as a separate release (pictured here).

The series was digitally remastered for the DVDs and looks brand new. It appears to have been made on 35mm film, but some of the visual effects appear to have been composited electronically - this could either have been pioneering work, or recently added. In any case, there's much to admire. The spaceship is as impressive for its manoeuvrability as its design, though the enemy Frog ships are less convincing as they dart about. Any rare personal appearances by the Frog aliens are ethereal. A haunting effect, seen as barely humanoid, sparkling shadows.


The huge, solid sets, alive with built-in lighting, backlit plastic, and shiny surfaces date from when silver in sci-fi was compulsory. The spaceship interior features control panel designs that defy description and gravity, much like the floating multi-armed robots (see below). The centrepiece is the commander's impressive circular table-top viewscreen, displaying intricate navigational information, (stop-frame animation and back-projected into the set, presumably from below).


But for many, watching the series without subtitles won't be tempting, especially when it's so talky, but the 1999 boxset is now sold for under 10 euros - that's seven hours of future Euro retro, people.

In Germany, the story of the Spaceship Orion and its crew lived on in over 100 paperback novels. The popular Perry Rhodan was more famous for a similar space adventure premise, and ran into hundreds of novels (and two movies, which are also rare outside Germany).


I've not seen any other German sci-fi, except for Star Maidens (1976), a co-production with the UK, where more was spent on hair-styles than special effects. Again, the soundtrack was the series' most memorable legacy.


Do you want to know more?

There are some great stills and memorabilia on this English Peter Thomas site, and there's this extensive German Raumpatrouille fansite - the Starlight Casino.


Here's the opening of episode two, including the original theme tune, on YouTube...

...and here's a recent remix of the theme tune, with clips from the show...

BOMBER & PAGANINI (1976) - uniquely black comedy

BOMBER & PAGANINI
(1976, West Germany)

Why do films become obscure?
Britain's BBC2 used to run interesting European films in late night slots in the 1970's and 1980's, some of which I'd like to see again. This one in particular caught my eye because of its bleak, black humour and huge dollops of irony. While I'm trying to limit Black Hole reviews to recommendations of must-see films, this is more of a simple acknowledgment of a good film that's become obscure (outside it's own country). Maybe this will help someone out there troubled by their own vague memories of thirty years ago.


It also makes me wonder where these films go, why do they become obscure, or even completely disappear? Black & white films and silent movies are rarer on TV than they used to be. These now have to be actively hunted down rather than discovered by channel-hopping. I've learnt that films can suddenly become hard to see. 'Obscure film heaven' is a dusty shelf somewhere...


Anyhow, wanting to see this particular vague memory again wasn't so easy - I couldn't remember it's name or even the country where it was made. For years, I've been searching for a Polish film about a guy in a wheelchair and a blind guy playing football - only recently I found out it was German, out on DVD, and had nothing to do with football! I saw it on a black-and-white TV, so I was surprised that it was actuall shot in colour. The DVD has no English translation, but I couldn't wait any longer.


The set-up is simple: Bomber and Paganini are two inept crooks who attempt a jewel heist by cracking a safe. But stupidity and acetylene torches don't mix - Bomber winds up blinded, and Paganini loses the use of his legs. After a lengthy stay in the prison hospital, they reluctantly team up again, out of necessity. Paganini can see for both of them and needs Bomber to push his wheelchair. But while inside, they've been usurped from their sleazy nightclub headquarters, their only remaining allies are a few prostitutes they used to pimp, and Bomber's mother. This all may sound a bit Farrelly Brothers, but while the characters are slightly stylised, it still feels grubbily real.


The hapless duo initially struggle to make any sort of money, resorting to ridiculous penny-pinching schemes. The film meanders through several random escapades before eventually focussing again on a grand scheme for them to regain all that they've lost, and revenge themselves.


While it's full of wry observational humour, it doesn't get tempted by any slapstick humour for easy laughs. There's some great moments of physical comedy, but their disabilities are believably portrayed, particularly Paganini struggling along without the use of both legs and one arm, shrunken dejectedly into his wheelchair, partly lost inside a huge coat. He somewhat resembles a weaselly version of Robert Carlyle. Bomber reminded me more of an oafish Jean Reno (perhaps it was his Leon glasses).


The two actors also appear to perform most of their own stunts, which involve a variety of high-speed wheelchair crashes. Both actors are still working today - you may even have seen Bomber (Mario Adorf) as 'Consalvi' in Dario Argento's, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970), and glimpsed Paganini (Tilo Prückner) as 'Night Hob' in The Neverending Story (1984), also shot in Germany. They're supported by an wide cast of character actors as the other slightly surreal low lifes.


Much of the film appears grittily real because of the large amount of outdoor and location filming, though it's all impeccably photographed and subtly well lit. The DVD certainly doesn't make the film look its age.


Bizarrely this German DVD (available here) includes a rambling trailer that's dubbed into English, though there are no subtitles or dub on the main feature. While this indicates it must have had an English release (somewhere), the only non-Germans with love for this seem to be those who also saw it TV in the UK.


There are a few more black and white photos from the film on the Crazy Media site - click on the small thumbnail at top right, labelled 'Screenshots'.

ANATOMIE 2 (2003) - thrills but no chills

ANATOMY 2
(2003, Germany, Anatomie 2)

A new way to build muscles...

Anatomy (2000) was a stylish and unusual thriller. Stefan Ruzowitzky returned to direct this sequel, approaching the central premise of the first film from the other direction, rather than repeat himself. Instead of Heidelberg, we’re in a huge hospital in Berlin, here a young doctor is invited to join the inner circle of renegade surgeons.

The members of this secret society are experimenting on themselves with synthetic implants as well as performance-enhancing drugs. But it's not for the sake of life-saving advances in medicine, but to score academic prizes and lucrative drug patents. Also using methods completely against their codes of ethics, the foundations of their professions and the law. None of them can afford to get caught.

We follow the intern, Dr Hauser (Barnaby Metschurat), as he leaves his wheelchair-bound brother, who’s suffering from a muscular wasting disease, to go and work in the capital city. There's a cleverly edited montage as he starts his gruelling shift work in the casualty department.

But when he bends the rules to save the life of a little girl, he attracts the attention of the renegade researchers who think he might want to join their secret clique. The initiation test involves an overly thorough examination from Viktoria, in an echo of the bizarre sex scene in Anatomie.

The surgeons have used implants to enable each member of their inner circle to achieve different feats, while Viktoria excels at cocktails of medication to support the group’s various enhancements. They persuade Hauser to try implants for himself and his legs are tuned up - very useful when he's playing soccer. But while artificial super-powers are very seductive, it’s not a good idea if anyone changes their mind and wants out, and that's not the only catch...


Plotwise, this branch of the secret society was pretty slack in its methods and forever dangerously close to keeping its secrecy. No wonder Franka Potente (in a cameo role) wasn’t on their heels sooner.

It's an inventive story, but too unlike the first, making it a thriller with a little gore, less horror and less sex. Though there’s curiously still plenty of man-flesh on display. It’s fun while it lasts, but runs out of surprises by the end.

Anatomy 2 is on DVD in the US and UK from Columbie Tristar.

ANATOMIE (2000) - gutsy German thriller

ANATOMY
(2000, Germany, Anatomie)

Go up the lab, and see what's on the slab...

Franka Potente is reason enough to watch this slick slasher from Germany. The actress scored an international success with Run Lola Run (1998), then starred in Antomie before a short run of Hollywood parts - in Blow (2001) opposite Johnny Depp, The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004). She also starred in another horror, Creep (2004) in the UK.

Paula and Gretchen are two medical students who get the chance to study anatomy at an old revered college in picturesque Heidelburg. But while they dissect dead bodies during the day, two masked maniacs are using the same high-tech facility at night to carefully cut up victims while they're still alive.


(These scenes reminded me of the unfortunate runner in Scream and Scream Again (1970) who wakes up without a leg, then another leg, then his arms).

As the two roommates start to get popular with the male students, Paula starts to suspect that something nasty is going on in the college...


This is gripping and enjoyable while it lasts, but the climax arrives a little too quickly, leaving enough loose ends for a sequel (in 2003).

The special effects all look exactly like the squishy nastiness, though it's far less bloody than I anticipated. Plasticised bodies that look like those made famous by Dr Gunther Von Hagens, are used as exhibits in the research wing of the college. I felt they were under-used by the director and would have liked a closer look at these extremely creepy replicas. For instance, a huge set of shelves decked out with skulls deserved far more attention.


To ease the tension, and almost dissipate it, there are one too many scenes of upbeat college life, with an intrusive pop soundtrack - indeed Paula’s roommate Gretchen is played my German singer Anna Loos, who gets an unlikely sex scene on a metal dissection table.

Franka Potente ensures the character of Paula is as realistic as the medical mayhem around her. Benno Fürmann is also impressive as the self-obsessed muscle-boy, Hein. Fürmann has a long list of credits in Germany, but recently appeared as Inspector Detector in Speed Racer.


Anatomie avoids most of the cliches of modern horror, using more Hitchcockian suspense and a steadily-unfolding story, which is all the more creepy for remaining in the realm of the very possible.

What makes it different from American horror is the mixture of nudity, sex and death. Most of the corpses are young and good-looking, adding a necrophilic edge to the flesh on display.


The UK DVD from Columbia Tristar is presented in anamorphic 2.35 widescreen, and has plenty of extras (including an Anna Loos pop video and interesting interviews).

MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (1958) - remake of the classic

MADCHEN IN UNIFORM
Germany, 1958

German region 2 PAL DVD (Galileo)

I was searching for DVDs of the 1931 version of Madchen in Uniform (recently reviewed here), when I discovered this colour remake was already out. The 1931 adaption of this rather brave German novel was about the relationship between a teacher and a student at a girl’s boarding school. It dealt with lesbian characters in a matter-of-fact way that’s commendable even today. Though the 1958 version appears to be slightly cagier about the relationship. It's still a very early example of the sympathetic portrayal of lesbian characters.

It tells almost the same story, but the characters are less innocent about the matter, and recognise that a same-sex relationship means unheard of scandal. Everyone senses that lesbian love is dangerous to admit to, and panics accordingly. The original film was less judgemental because it was skirting the issue more, and became more romantic as a result. In black and white, it also looked more beautiful. The colour version has a tough time making the boarding school look drab, dressing the sets and all the girls in grey.

There’s a better sense that everyone is trapped in the school, within high walls, iron gates and bars on the windows. The headmistress is made of iron too, iron willed, unrelenting in her quest for discipline as the ‘be all and end all’ to the country’s problems (set at the turn of the century). Her tough stance, set against the schoolteacher’s progressive, ‘firm but fair’ attitude is the story’s strength, and the conflict is more energetically debated and dramatically dealt with, than the earlier film.


The romantic relationship seems less scandalous between teacher and student because there is less ambiguity about it. The girl, Manuela, is besotted with her teacher, and definitely in love with a woman. But her teacher, Elisabeth, has been misunderstood, and has more of a motherly love for all her pupils. This dodges the issue somewhat, but clarifies the teacher’s character. The scandal however remains and leads to an exciting, but not necessarily fulfilling, climax.

It’s interesting to contrast the two films, but I still need to read the novel before assessing if either film has been faithful. The 1958 version is very accessible and still looks like a modern production. The cast is superb, with Therese Giehse especially fearsome as the headmistress.

Lllli Palmer, as the teacher, is always good at playing strong characters, and has acted in German and English. Born in Prussia, she appeared in British films as early as 1936 (after fleeing the Nazis early on), but later returned to live in Germany before finally settling in the US. She notably appeared as an overtly lesbian schoolteacher in The House That Screamed (La Residencia), a marvellous Spanish horror film that I’ve already written about. It appears to be a ‘riff’ on her role in Madchen. You might also have seen her in The Boys From Brazil (1978).

But it’s Romy Schneider who shines here, and is still mourned in Germany as one of their most beloved actresses. She passed away at the age of 45, ironically even before Lilli Palmer. Her roles are so full of life, even in the English language comedy, What’s New Pussycat? (1965), a sexy romp (scripted by Woody Allen) where she is trying to marry Peter O’ Toole and tear him away from his busy life of bachelorhood.


This German DVD (pictured at top) marks almost fifty years since the film was made. The print was obviously in fairly poor shape, as a lot of electronic restoration has made the picture a little smeary in places. But the bright colours compensate and the soundtrack is very clear. The picture aspect is an acceptable 4:3 and the English subtitles are very readable, but don’t always translate visible text. The only extras are five other, quite racy trailers for Romy Schneider films that are also available on DVD. Amazon.de is a good place to find all of them.

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Not on DVD: MADCHEN IN UNIFORM (1931) decades ahead of MEMENTO MORI

MADCHEN IN UNIFORM
(1931, Germany, Girls in Uniform)

This isn’t the kind of film that I normally mention in the Black Hole, but by the end of it, I felt like it was worth mentioning for the similarities with Memento Mori (reviewed here), which I’d also seen recently.

In both films, the setting is a girls boarding school, the story never leaves this location, the girls (and presumably the filmmakers) have anti-establishment sentiments, there’s a pivotal lesbian relationship, attempted suicide (also by jumping from a great height), overly strict teachers, and a hysterical-schoolgirl chaotic climax.

All that’s missing is the ghost story. And for a 70 year-old German film, it’s so ahead of its time that it’s still progressive today!

In fact, more progressive than the South Korean Whispering Corridors series, where the lesbian subplot could be read as causing the deaths and unhappy hauntings. In Madchen in Uniform, the other girls don’t even give them a hard time, but rally round in defence. When one girl is victimised by the headmistress for declaring her love, the rest of the dorm propose to help her - using a boycott, going over the head’s head to complain, and finally an all-out revolution!

For the most part it’s a mix of humour and drama, centred on the girls and their relationships with the different teachers, particularly their favourite who many of them have a crush on. A new girl, Manuela, has something more than a crush… When her feelings are discovered, scandal rocks the school.

Today, I guess there’d be much more focus on the motivations and consequences of the teacher, who kisses all her girls goodnight, and counters the headmistress's wishes by treating them all humanly and fairly.

The head is in favour of strictness, discipline, and getting the girls ready to make lots of babies strong enough to be soldiers! Considering that this is Germany before WWII, it’s prophetically worth rebelling against!

There have been a variety of stories about the German censors insisting on a fatal, unhappy ending for the film, but I’ve not seen this confirmed satisfactorily.

Gay-themed movies in early German cinema were allowed to be astoundingly open before Adolf rose to power. As early as 1919, Conrad Veidt (star of Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and The Thief of Baghdad) appeared in Anders als die anderen (Different from the Others) about gay blackmail – 40 years before Britain dared tackle the subject in Victim. Also, the first film version of Victor and Victoria was made in Germany in 1933, fifty years before Julie Andrews put trousers on in Victor/Victoria.


Considering the historical importance, and the fact that it’s still both powerful and entertaining today, makes for another not-on-dvd mystery. The last home video releases I can find are on VHS in both the US and UK (both pictured). It's not even on DVD in Germany! But the 1958 remake is (starring Lilli Palmer and Romy Schneider), which I'm looking forward to watching soon...

If you want to read a lot of academic exuberance about the 1931 film, try this article on Jump Cut.

OK, don't worry, now I'll go back to films with blood and ghosts...

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HOTEL (2004) - Lynchian German mystery

HOTEL
(2004, Austria/Germany)

Reviewed from the Thai PAL DVD (Mangpong)

(UPDATE July 2010 - Hotel is now out on region 2 DVD in the UK)

Note that this is not the 2001 Mike Figgis comedy, starring Max Beesley!

Once again I was drawn to a film by the TwitchFilm website, which teased me with the poster. I found it on DVD in Thailand, one of the few countries it’s been released in. I went into the film knowing nothing more about it than the cover art and the images in the DVD menus.

Young, blonde Irene (Franziska Weisz) starts a new job at a large hotel deep in a German forest. As she slowly gets to know the other staff, she discovers that her predecessor has disappeared and the police are still investigating. Is there a murderer in the hotel, or is the answer connected to the local legend of a witch who lived in the nearby Devil’s Cave?

The many worrying shots of pitch blackness in the surrounding woods and in the cave brought to mind The Blair Witch Project, which could just be the mental trap that the director, Jessica Hausner, wanted to lead viewers towards. The disconcerting sound design adds a layer of tension to almost every scene, reminded me of Eraserhead. Not something that happens very often, as that David Lynch film is pretty unique. The awkward and cold characters who also work at the hotel added to the Lynchian feeling.

The film’s theme could easily be darkness. The hotel manager likes to keep unneeded lights turned off. The outside of the hotel is kept dark, thick curtains keep light in, meaning that once anyone steps outside the hotel, they’re standing in almost pitch blackness. Strangely, characters walk into the woods and enter the Devil’s Cave without even using a torch. Irene keeps walking into darkened corridors… They all seem to welcome the dark.

The mood is also generated by the intensely colourful and contrasty cinematography, with some disconcerting handheld camerawork and the occasional dizzying, swooping tracking move to keep the viewer off-balance. Even though we see most of the film through Irene, it’s not as if we get to know her terribly well. Even when she literally lets her hair down at the local pub (which plays deafening techno music), she’s still looks pretty reserved. We get clues about her and what’s going on all through the film, and then… 

After watching it, I was scrabbling around to work out “what just happened?”. I looked to the trailer and thought I found a few more clues, or were they red herrings? The film is far more subtle than I’d anticipated, offering a very Lynchian film which you can carefully analyse for answers, or just enjoy the ride, which I did. The whole film constantly keeps you in suspense, from almost the very start. It’s ultimately enjoyable as a moody experience, rather than a story, despite making you think it might have one.

Tantalisingly, this film was cut by the director by around 7 minutes (after it’s initial festival screenings) – I’d like to see these missing scenes for more clues. But next time I’ll be ready for the ending. 3am would be a good time to watch this film – for it’s downbeat setting and mood. Then you’d think that you had succumbed to sleep and missed the end of the story.

Apparently the Hong Kong DVD of Hotel is only in Stereo, while my Thai DVD has the German soundtrack in 5.1 surround, which really added to the experience. The picture is non-anamorphic widescreen, with good English subtitles. You can get one here from eThaiCD.