1/22/2024 0 Comments Images of waxworks movie![]() ![]() ![]() Indeed, if the adventures of the caliph are rather comical, the other two are much darker. Here, these three stories are not of similar length: the Baghdad plot takes up half the film and that of Jack the Ripper is very short, the remaining time – between these two stories – is left for the Russian plot.īesides the duration, these three parts do not have the same color. But with Lang, it was already tragedy that took precedence, Death ( Bernhard GOETZKE) offering illusory chances to the young man to save his fiancée. In addition to Wiene's The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1919), we feel the influence of Fritz LANG in this film where three stories follow one another with the couple's mistreated love as a common thread: in The Three Lights (1921), the great Fritz had shared his plot by inserting three “historical” episodes, one of which took place in the Middle East. We will be told three stories around these legendary characters, where each time the poet and the young woman will be present, and each time in love with each other. Quickly, the plot: a poet (Dieterle) is hired by a showman and his daughter (Olga Belajeff) to write an epic context for their wax figures, and in particular for the three main ones: the caliph Haroun-Al-Rachid (Jannings ), Ivan the Terrible (Veidt) and Jack the Ripper (Krauss). If I also tell you that we also find William DIETERLE (who is still called Wilhelm) and Georg JOHN (in a very small role, but nonetheless, he is there), you will have an idea of the film whose I'm going to talk to you. Paul LENI (assisted by Leo Birinski), with this film, achieves the feat of bringing together in the same film the cream of the German actors of the time: Emil JANNINGS, Veidt and Krauss on the same poster, it makes you water. But make no mistake, we are not in Caligari, even if certain visual elements also make us think of it. Especially since we find Conrad VEIDT and Werner KRAUSS. Of course, the title reminds us of a Robert WIENE film. And the others are based on the madness of the main character who leads his victims into a real waking nightmare. *** If the first story is farcical, it relies a lot on the sensuality of the actress who drives the men around her crazy. ** For the record, the marvelous takes place in a universe where magic is the norm while the fantastic sees the supernatural arise in a realistic world, even though all three characters actually existed. * The third wax figure of the film is played by another major player in this movement, Emil JANNINGS. In (very) minor mode, the principle of wax statues which come to life also brings to mind "La Nuit au musà © e" (2006) and its suites. There is no doubt that these films were a major source of inspiration for Michel OCELOT, whose "Princes and Princesses" (1998) and " Les Contes de la nuit 3D" (2011) are based on the same principles. Not just because there are three stories, but because the main characters project themselves into them. As for the structure of the plot, it is borrowed from another important film of this time, "Les Trois Lumières" (1921) by F ritz LANG. Tales and legends with marvelous (in the first case) or fantastic (in the second and third) tones ** which lend themselves well to an expressionist treatment * **. They also have their incredible sets with the distorted perspectives that in the film of Paul LENI and Leo BIRINSKY also have the advantage of variety since it consists of three stories located in three different places: Baghdad of the Thousand and One Nights, Russia of Ivan the Terrible and The London of Jack the Ripper. And they don't just have the funfair, Werner KRAUSS, Conrad VEIDT * or their "cabinet" ^^ in common. According to film historians, it constitutes one of them. "The Cabinet of Wax Figures" is a German expressionist film which follows on from Robert WIENE's famous film, "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1919). ![]()
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