Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Fritz Lang (writer)
Thea von Harbou (writer)

Release Date:

1924 (Poland)

Genre:

Fantasy | Drama | Adventure

Plot:

Siegfried, son of King Sigmund, hears of the beautiful sister of Gunter, King of Worms, Kriemhild. On his way to Worms...

Plot Keywords:

King | Dragon | Spear | Mask | Blood

Cast

Gertrud Arnold	...	Koenigin Ute
Margarete Schön	...	Kriemhild
Hanna Ralph	...	Brunhild
Paul Richter	...	Siegfried
Theodor Loos	...	Koenig Gunther
Hans Carl Mueller	...	Gernot
Hans Adalbert Schlettow	...	Hagen Tronje
Hardy von Francois	...	Dankwart
Georg John	...	Mime, der Schmied / Alberich, der Nibelung
Frida Richard	...	Die Runenmagd
Yuri Yurovsky	...	Der Priester (as Georg Jurowski)
Iris Roberts	...	Der Edelknabe
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fritz Alberti	...	Dietrich von Bern
Grete Berger	...	Hunnenweib
Erwin Biswanger	...	Giselher
Bernhard Goetzke	...	Volker von Alzey
Hubert Heinrich	...	Werbel
Rudolf Klein-Rogge	...	Koenig Etzel
Georg August Koch	...	Hildebrand
Rudolf Rittner	...	Ruediger von Bechlarn

Directed by
Fritz Lang

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Fritz Lang		writer
Thea von Harbou		writer

Produced by
Erich Pommer	....	producer

Original Music by
Gottfried Huppertz

Cinematography by
Carl Hoffmann
Günther Rittau
Walter Ruttmann

Art Direction by
Otto Hunte
Karl Vollbrecht

Set Decoration by
Erich Kettelhut
Karl Vollbrecht

Costume Design by
Paul Gerd Guderian

Makeup Department
Otto Genath	....	makeup artist

Art Department
Edgar G. Ulmer	....	set designer (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Eugen Schüfftan	....	trick photography

Production Companies

• Decla-Bioscop AG
• Universum Film (UFA)

Distributors

• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Divisa Home Video (2003) (Spain) (DVD)
• Grapevine Video (video)
• Kino Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Kinokuniya (2006) (Japan) (DVD)
• LS Video (video)
• Universum Film (UFA) (1925) (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Nibelungen: Siegfrieds Tod (Germany)
Siegfried
Siegfried's Death
Siegfrieds Tod (Germany)

Runtime:

Canada:140 min | Germany:143 min (restored integral version) | Germany:97 min | USA:100 min

Country:

Germany

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Germany:o.Al. | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Berliner Union-Film Studio, Tempelhof, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Decla-Bioscop AG

Trivia:

The dragon in the film is not a miniature. It is a full-scale puppet 60 feet long.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ti piace Hitchcock? (2005) (TV)

Superb fantasy

I saw this on the big screen with live organ accompaniment (from the original film score) last night and I'm glad I did. Most people don't know Fritz Lang for anything before *Metropolis*, but this is a film which, to my mind, matches the best of what he has done. It's incredible to see what they were able to do with the wild set design. The score was suitably intense at moments. And the story was a pretty touching one about the fall of Siegfried.

The scenes I was amazed by in particular are: the dragon-slaying sequence (which, at first, elicited laughs because of the obvious artificiality of the creature but then got sounds of pity as he lay slain with blood shooting from his torso); Kriemhild's dream sequence, which has to be the earliest example of animation I've seen (the animation and accompanying music are pretty dark and disturbed--they gave me the creeps); and the approach to Brunhilde (with an incredible sea of fire). What I've come away with is even more of an appreciation for what filmmakers were capable of in the silent period. It seems clear after a film like *Siegfried* that silent film was not an infant technology waiting for sound but was an artform of its own.

All in all, I'd say this is a must-see. It's clearly not just preparation for the "great" films of Lang to come (like *Metropolis* and *M*), but is on par with any of the best of his stuff. This and *Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler*, both Lang films which are rarely screened, should be caught if at all possible.