Henny Porten

  • Eugen York – Das Fräulein von Scuderi AKA The Young Woman of Scuderi (1955)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaEugen YorkGermany

    The setting is Paris under the reign of Louis XIV, the Roi Soleil. Cardillac, a goldsmith, is rightly regarded as a master of his craft. His pieces of jewellery are first-class works of art and so he has great difficulty parting from them, especially because he knows that one precious piece is only the price the beaux and gallants at the royal court have to pay for one amorous night with an aristocratic Lady. Whenever the goldsmith fails to talk a customer out of buying a piece, he waylays him in the dark of night… Cardillac is a merciless killer. The hopes of the lovers dashing off to their rendezvous are thoroughly disappointed: Instead of finding their way into their sweetheart’s arms, they end up stabbed to death by a goldsmith pathologically hankering after his own jewellery. Read More »

  • Ewald André Dupont – Das alte Gesetz AKA This Ancient Law [+extras] (1923)

    1921-1930DramaEwald André DupontGermanySilent

    Baruch Mayr, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor. Due to this behaviour his father bans him from his family. Baruch, who joined a small burlesque troupe is discovered by an Austrian Erzherzogin (archdutchess) who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated jew. Read More »

  • Ewald André Dupont – Das alte Gesetz aka This Ancient Law (1923)

    1921-1930DramaEwald André DupontGermanySilent

    Baruch Mayr, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor. Due to this behaviour his father bans him from his family. Baruch, who joined a small burlesque troupe is discovered by an Austrian Erzherzogin (archdutchess) who introduces him to the director of the most important Theater in Vienna, the Burgtheater. Baruch receives a contract there and becomes more and more an assimilated jew. Read More »

  • Robert Wiene – I.N.R.I. AKA Crown of Thorns (1923)

    1921-1930DramaGermanyRobert WieneSilentWeimar Republic cinema

    Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    By the director of Cabinet of Dr.Caligari, this is the Passion embedded in a contemporary story. An anarchist jailed for an attempted assassination is told the Passion story by the prison chaplain, who seeks to convince him that it is better to sacrifice ones own life than take the life of ones enemy. The framing story, taken from a novel, is believed to have been intended to give the Biblical story an anti-Bolshevist propaganda function. In any case, it was added without the knowledge of the actors in the Passion story, who included some of the major stars of the period Asta Nielsen as Mary Magdalene, Henny Porten as Mary, Grigori Chmara as Jesus, and Werner Krauss as Pontius Pilate -bampfa.berkeley.eduRead More »

  • Ernst Lubitsch – Kohlhiesels Töchter AKA Kohlhiesel’s Daughters (1920)

    Comedy1911-1920Ernst LubitschGermanySilent

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Somewhere in Southern Bavaria Xaver wants to marry Gretel, but her father Kohlhiesel wants his elder daughter Liesel to marry first. The problem is, nobody wants to marry her, because she’s too brutal. Seppel suggests, that he should marry Liesel first, get rid of her and then he can marry Gretel…Read More »

Back to top button