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Arthur Robison's Expressionist Thriller
WARNING SHADOWS
From the 35mm Restoration by the Cineteca del Comune di Bologna, the Cinémathèque Française and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung
German expressionist cinema was at its height in the 1920s, and few films embodied the movement as much as Warning Shadows. Directed by Arthur Robison, this classic tale of psychological horror remains his best known work, celebrated for its outrageous visual style and notorious for its attempt to make a purely visual feature film - in other words, a film with no intertitles (except, of course, the opening credits).
A mysterious traveler and illusionist who performs shadow puppetry arrives to provide some entertainment at an otherwise routine dinner party. The host of the party is already mad with jealousy over the presence of his wife’s four suitors, but when the puppet show begins, passions overtake reason and reality is not what it appears to be. Shadows, reflections and silhouettes are the dominant imagery, and the film boasts the extraordinary camerawork of Fritz Arno Wagner, the German cinematographer who is renowned for his work with Fritz Lang (Spies, M) and F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu).
Although this marks the first time the film has been released on DVD in the United States, Warning Shadows has long been considered a landmark work by champions of the German cinema. Lotte Eisner, in her book "The Haunted Screen," declared that director Robison "handles phantoms with the same mastery as his strange illusionist," while Siegfried Kracauer, in "From Caligari to Hitler," simply stated that Warning Shadows "belongs among the masterpieces of the German screen."
Germany 1923 85 Min. Color Tinted 1.33:1
Directed by Arthur Robison
Concept and Design by Albin Grau
Edited by Rudolf Schneider and Arthur Robison
Cinematography by Fritz Arno Wagner
With Fritz Kortner, Ruth Weyher, Gustav von Wangenheim
Music composed and performed by Donald Sosin
Restoration and Preservation:
L'Immagine Ritrovata
Licensed from Transit Films on behalf
of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau-Stiftung
©1923 Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau-Stiftung
Renewed by Notice of Intent to Enforce a
Copyright 1996 under the Uruguay Round Agreements
Act by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau-Stiftung, Germany |
