Der letzte Mann - F.W. Murnau (1924)
Der letzte Mann - F.W. Murnau (1924)
aka : "The Last Laugh" - "Le Dernier des hommes" - "El ultimo"
DVDRIP | 90 min | MKV-x264 720x544 | 25 fps | AC3 192 kb/s | 1.07 GB
No dialogs (some intertitles) - musical audio track | Subtitles: English - French - Spanish .srt | Genre: Drama
A masterpiece and one of best Murnau's films!
aka : "The Last Laugh" - "Le Dernier des hommes" - "El ultimo"
DVDRIP | 90 min | MKV-x264 720x544 | 25 fps | AC3 192 kb/s | 1.07 GB
No dialogs (some intertitles) - musical audio track | Subtitles: English - French - Spanish .srt | Genre: Drama
A masterpiece and one of best Murnau's films!
Director: F.W. Murnau
Writer: Carl Mayer
Germany - 1924 - b&w
Cast: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Emilie Kurz, Hans Unterkircher, Olaf Storm, Hermann Vallentin, Georg John, Emmy Wyda
The experienced doorman at the Atlantic Hotel is quite proud of his position, his responsibilities, and his uniform. One busy, rainy night, he has to take a short rest after lugging a heavy suitcase in from the rain. Unfortunately, his manager comes by during the short time when he is not performing his duties. The next day, when the doorman arrives for work, he learns that he has been replaced as doorman, and has been re-assigned to the less strenuous but purely menial position of washroom attendant. Stunned and humiliated, the old man struggles to carry on with his life.
F.W. Murnau's German silent classic Der letze Mann stars Emil Jannings as the doorman of a posh Berlin hotel. Fiercely proud of his job, Jannings comports himself like a general in his resplendent costume, and is treated like royalty by his friends and neighbors. The hotel's insensitive new manager, noting that Jannings seems winded after carrying several heavy pieces of luggage for a patron, decides that the old man is no longer up to his job. The manager demotes Jannings to men's washroom attendant, and the effect is disastrous on the man's prestige and self-esteem.
Logically, the film should end on a note of tragedy, but Murnau (either because he was ordered to by the producers or because he just felt like it) adds a near-surrealistic coda, wherein Jannings, having suddenly inherited a fortune, returns to the hotel in triumph. Der letze Mann was a bold experiment for its time: a film told entirely visually, with no subtitles save for the semi-satirical explanation of the climax. In a sense, Karl Freund's camera is as much a "character" as anyone else, commenting upon Jannings' rise and fall via then-revolutionary camera angles, jarring movements and grotesque lens distortions. Many historians credit Der letze Mann as the vanguard of the "German invasion" of Hollywood during the mid- to late-1920s.
[click to enlarge]
Der letzte Mann - F.W. Murnau (1924)
