Fritz Lang & German Expressionism

December 7, 2018–February 23, 2019

Our tribute to this essential director presents his German films alongside other enthralling works of German Expressionist cinema.

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  • Metropolis

  • Dr. Mabuse the Gambler

  • M

  • Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

  • F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu

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Past Films

  • Metropolis

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1926

    The Complete Version

    Friday, December 7 7 PM

    Evil leaders, enslaved citizens, the orgiastic super-rich, and messiah robots populate Lang’s dystopian classic. Now over ninety years old, and still one of the most essential, influential science fiction films of all time.

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  • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

    Robert Wiene
    Germany, 1920

    4K Digital Restoration

    Sunday, December 9 4:30 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    The quintessential German Expressionist film translates narrative and psychology into stunning set design.

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  • The Last Laugh

    F. W. Murnau
    Germany, 1924
    Saturday, December 15 6 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    A proud hotel doorman falls from grace in Murnau’s classic of German Expressionism, whose roving camerawork and hallucinatory imagery “changed the way that movies were made” (Dave Kehr).

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  • Faust

    F. W. Murnau
    Germany, 1926
    Friday, December 28 7 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Murnau’s version of the Faust legend is a masterwork of chiaroscuro lighting, and helped redefine what black-and-white cinematography could accomplish. Emil Jannings stars as a subtly mischievous Mephistopheles.

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  • The Spiders, Part 1: The Golden Lake

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1919
    Sunday, December 30 3 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Lang’s extravagant globetrotting serial moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to Peru and Asia as an adventurer battles the worldwide criminal gang known as The Spiders, led by femme fatale Lio Shia.

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  • The Spiders, Part 2: The Diamond Ship

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1919
    Sunday, December 30 4:45 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    The continuation of Lang’s sensational serial, a time capsule of European exotica.

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  • Harakiri

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1919

    Restored Print

    Wednesday, January 9 7 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Lang’s version of Madame Butterfly changes the title character from geisha to noblewoman, and was one of the first European films to depict Japanese culture. “Refreshingly stereotype-free, the film demonstrates that silent film can rival opera in emotional impact” (Tom Vick).

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  • The Golem

    Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
    Germany, 1920

    Digital Restoration

    Thursday, January 10 7 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    A rabbi in medieval Prague conjures a monster to protect his people from destruction in this visually astounding retelling of the Golem myth, shot by gifted cinematographer Karl Freund (The Last Laugh; Metropolis).

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  • Destiny

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1921

    Digital Restoration

    Sunday, January 13 1 PM
    Bruce Loeb on Piano

    Lil Dagover stars as a woman who tries to save her lover from “the weary Death” in this Expressionist fantasy said to have influenced both Douglas Fairbanks and Alfred Hitchcock.

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  • Nosferatu

    F. W. Murnau
    Germany, 1922

    Digital Restoration

    Friday, January 18 8:30 PM
    Bruce Loeb on Piano

    Still among the most unnerving and poetic of horror films, investing the natural world with eerie incandescence. Max Schreck’s vampire is unforgettable—a living death, a walking ruin.

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  • M

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1931

    Digital Restoration
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    This film is also screening on Wednesday, February 13, 3:10 PM as part of our series In Focus: Writing for Cinema featuring speakers David Thomson and Michael Ondaatje.

    Sunday, January 20 2 PM

    A precursor to American noir, Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where there are few moral distinctions between organized crime and organized law enforcement. With Peter Lorre in his definitive performance.

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  • Metropolis

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1926

    The Complete Version

    Thursday, January 24 7 PM

    Evil leaders, enslaved citizens, the orgiastic super-rich, and messiah robots populate Lang’s dystopian classic. Now over ninety years old, and still one of the most essential, influential science fiction films of all time.

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  • The Nibelungen, Part I: Siegfried’s Death

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1924

    Digital Restoration

    Saturday, February 2 4:30 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Lang’s two-part superproduction of the thirteenth-century saga that also inspired Wagner’s Ring cycle is a triumph of studio artifice. “Stunning . . . very highly recommended” (Chicago Reader).

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  • The Nibelungen, Part II: Kriemhild’s Revenge

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1924

    Digital Restoration

    Sunday, February 3 3:30 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    In its second part, Lang’s epic becomes a terrifying study of barbarism.

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  • M

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1931

    Digital Restoration
    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    This film is also screening on Wednesday, February 13, 3:10 PM as part of our series In Focus: Writing for Cinema featuring speakers David Thomson and Michael Ondaatje.

    Friday, February 8 8 PM

    A precursor to American noir, Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where there are few moral distinctions between organized crime and organized law enforcement. With Peter Lorre in his definitive performance.

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  • Spies

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1927

    Digital Restoration

    Saturday, February 9 4 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    The head of an international bank doubles as a criminal mastermind in Lang’s compelling thriller. “Granddaddy of decades of intrigue epics, Spies, in its rigorous austerity, remains the most modern of the bunch” (Village Voice).

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  • Asphalt

    Joe May
    Germany, 1929
    Sunday, February 10 4 PM

    A gorgeous petty thief seduces a straitlaced beat cop, and soon both are over their heads in trouble, in Joe May’s technically astounding proto-noir.

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  • Woman in the Moon

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1929

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    Saturday, February 16 7:30 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    Lang’s final silent film takes viewers to the moon and back in a fantastical exploration of space travel. Abstract animation pioneer Oskar Fischinger helped create the special effects.

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  • Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Part I: A Portrait of Our Time

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1922
    Sunday, February 17 1 PM
    Judith Rosenberg on Piano

    A vicious portrait of post-WWI social breakdown (in fabulous art deco settings). A fiendish mastermind gifted with sinister hypnotic powers, “Mabuse is history’s secret agent” (J. Hoberman).

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  • Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, Part II: Inferno, a Play of People in Our Time

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1922
    Sunday, February 17 4:30 PM
    Bruce Loeb on Piano

    In Part II, Mabuse descends into madness, but we haven’t seen the last of him!

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  • Liliom

    Fritz Lang
    France, 1934
    Friday, February 22 4 PM

    Charles Boyer gives a winning performance as a self-centered carousel operator in this inventive fantasy touched with melancholic poetry.

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  • The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

    Fritz Lang
    Germany, 1933

    Imported 35mm Print

    Saturday, February 23 4:30 PM

    From an insane asylum, the evil Mabuse carries on his international terrorism. Lang shapes an anti-Nazi allegory in the form of a thriller.

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