DESTINY (Der Müde Tod) (Repost)

Fritz Lang DESTINY (Der Müde Tod)
Directed by Fritz Lang
Germany 1921, 35mm, b/w, silent, 79 min.
With Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Bernhard Götzke

Subtitled “a german folktale in Six Parts,” this atmospheric, Expressionist-influenced work employs elaborate set design, lighting, and special effects that prefigure the brilliant architectural flare of Lang’s later films. Combining historical spectacle, melodrama, and fantasy, the story follows a tale of two lovers whose future together is dimmed when Death (Bernhard Götzke) materializes and snatches the young man (Walter Janssen) . The young woman (Lil Dagover) contemplates suicide when Death challenges her with a deal that she can hardly refuse: There are three candles, each representing a human life. As each candle is extinguished, someone dies. But if one candle stays lighted, the boy will be spared and survive. She travels in time to three alternative methaphorical and metaphysical “destinies”: the Arabian nights of ninth-century Baghdad, a carnival in seventeenth-century Venice, and a mythical Chinese imperial court as she frantically searches for someone to give up their life once the boy's is spared.