For the TVC 15: A German Expressionism Sexxtravaganza

[Ichirou]

Came out this week, don't know if you have it (though I'm sure you already own Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I've personally never heard of the other films in this set).

[Eric P]

hands of orlac is good, secrets of a soul is good but i haven't heard of warning shadows

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."

interesting

[TVC15]

I will look for this.  My current copy of Caligari was only like 5 bucks, so no big deal