European Epic Films of the Early 1920s
Leaves from Satan‘s Notebook, Die Nibelungen, Battleship Potemkin
Oct 10, 2008
Prior to World War I, European filmmakers, particularly the Italians and French, had led the way in production of epic motion pictures, such as Quo Vadis? and Cabiria. However, the war and its immediate aftermath severely curtailed European production for several years. When it finally did recover, it was led by directors from Denmark, Germany, and the Soviet Union.
Leaves from Satan’s Notebook (Blade af Satan’s Bog - 1921)
Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer, most noted for his later masterpieces The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, and Day of Wrath, was obviously influenced by D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance in this tale of the workings of evil. The result was a film that, despite its flaws, showed that young Dreyer was a director with great potential.
Like Intolerance, the film is divided into four separate stories set, respectively, during Christ’s trial and crucifixion, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution, and the Russo-Finnish war of 1918. In each episode, a major character is actually the devil in disguise who, unlike most portrayals, is actually a troubled being seeking redemption.
Although the film is masterful in a technical sense and features good acting, it is also slow paced and definitely not for all tastes. It is also heavy handed and overly preachy in many places. Still, for film buffs, it is interesting to see an early work from a highly respected director.
Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Both 1924)
Austrian born Fitz Lang had a long and successful directing career in both Germany and America. Early in his career, he made these two films based on the 13th century Norse epic poem about the Teutonic warrior, Siegfried. The first movie centers around his nearly invincible powers, his battles with numerous creatures and the evil Valkyrie princess, Brunhilde, and his love for the princess, Kriemhild. The movie ends with his death.
The sequel is a more focused film and less of a magical fantasy than Siegfried. Instead it tells of Kriemhild’s thirst for revenge against those responsible for Siegfried’s death and is an exploration of humanity‘s dark side. Together the two films are five hours in length and, although slow moving in spots are still worth watching today for its impressive visual effects and battle scenes.
These two films, plus Lang’s later work, Metropolis, were among Adolf Hitler’s favorite movies. Ironically, Lang’s hatred of Hitler and Nazism, were the main reasons for the director’s defection to the United States in the early 1930s.
Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potemkin - 1925)
Technically, this is not a true epic since its running time is just slightly over an hour. However, it can be included among epic films because of its innovations in editing, use of montage, and truly outstanding camera work. It is also is a superb example of how art can be combined with propaganda, a technique later perfected by Leni Riefenstahl in Nazi Germany.
When Sergei Eisenstein was commissioned by the Soviet Government to create a movie celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the 1905 Revolution, he decided to concentrate on one incident. That incident was the mutiny of Russian sailors aboard a battleship laying just off the Black Sea port of Odessa. Its most memorable and chilling scene is the Cossack massacre of the city’s residents when they declare their support for the sailors.
Some of Potemkin’s characters are outrageous caricatures, the story highly fictionalized, and the film itself outdated, but it still should be watched at least once by true movie buffs, if for no other reason than the slaughter sequence on the Odessa Steps. This episode has been imitated many times since, most notably in the “baby buggy” scene in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987).
Related article: European Epic Movies from the 1910s
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