Kim Novak's Vertigo

Alexandre O. Philippe: Kim Novak's Vertigo (US 2025) with Kim Novak as Madeleine. Falling in his death dream: Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart).

Alexandre O. Philippe: Kim Novak's Vertigo (US 2025) with Kim Novak at home.

Country and year: USA 2025

Producer(s): Terri Piñon

Director and writer: Alexandre O. Philippe

Cinematographer: Robert Muratore

Music: Jon Hegel. Soundtrack: Bernard Herrmann: Vertigo.

With: i.a. Kim Novak, Alexandre O. Philippe

Duration: 77 min

Language: English

Format: DCP

Night Visions (NV) Maximum Halloween 3025

Hosted by Mikko Aromaa

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 9, Helsinki, 20 Nov 2025

NV 2025: "Alfred Hitchcockin Vertigo (1958) nousi vuonna 2012 ykköseksi maailman kaikkien aikojen parhaiden elokuvien äänestyksessä, jonka Britannian arvovaltaisin elokuvalehti Sight and Sound järjestää  kerran vuosikymmenessä. Surrealistisen noir-jännärin voitto oli kunnianosoitus koko lajityyppielokuvan perinteelle, jota taidehiippailuja suosivat ranking-listat usein ylenkatsovat."

"Hitchcockin magnum opusta on luettu ohjaansa nerouden ilmentymänä. Siksi genreanalyytikko Alexander O. Philippen (78/52 – Psykon salaisuudet, Lynch/Oz) päätös lähestyä klassikkoa sen pääosatähden Kim Novakin silmin tuntuu freesiltä. Novak (s. 1933) oli 1950-luvun lopussa Yhdysvaltain suosituimpia elokuvatähtiä, joka tympääntyi lopulta Hollywoodiin ja vetäytyi omiin oloihinsa keskittyäkseen maalaamiseen. Philippe käy pikakelauksella läpi päähenkilönsä uran ja keskittyy sitten pääasiaan: Vertigoon."+

"Hyvävireinen yhdeksänkymppinen muistelee eloisasti mestariteoksen syntyprosessia ja pääosakollega James Stewartin kanssa muodostunutta kemiaa. Ohjausmetodeistaan myös kritiikkiä saaneesta Hitchcockista Novak puhuu arvostavasti. Muistelun lomassa Philippe käy läpi näyttelijän aarreaittaa muistuttavaa arkistoa."

"Nyansseja ymmärtävä dokumentaristi syventyy Vertigon maailmaan seinätapetin kuvioiden tarkkuudella ja laajentaa havaintonsa oivaltavaksi analyysiksi. Tuloksena on poikkeuksellisen tarkka ruumiinavaus yhdestä kaikkien aikojen elokuvista. Kim Novak’s Vertigo on myös omaperäinen näyttelijämuotokuva ja harvinainen näkökulma Alfred Hitchcockin työskentelytapoihin." (NV 2025)

NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE:

"★★★★

“Intensely personal”

– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Feels like an act of love from the director of 78/52 and Lynch/Oz.”

– Brian Tallerico / RogerEbert.com

“Unapologetic and, right from the start, impressively unfiltered.

– Damon Wise / Deadline

“Resonates as what is today a vanishingly rare first-hand window into the joys, terrors and vagaries of Hollywood’s golden age.”

– Guy Logde / Variety

“”I needed to know that I was authentic”, says Kim Novak at one point in Alexandre O. Philippe’s affectionately revealing documentary about an actress who turned her back on Hollywood at the height of her career.  That phrase could serve as the logline for a film that is both the celebration of a remarkable woman and an attempt to connect the actress with her most iconic role – that of Judy in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It feels at times like a kind of exorcism, as the 92-year-old Novak grapples with the ghosts of the past – given prominent visual form here in the grey suit Hitchcock famously forced her to wear in the film, which she is seen handling for the first time in over half a century.”

– Lee Marshall / Screen International" – NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE

AA: Kim Novak is the subject of her own story in Alexandre O. Philippe's film historical essay Kim Novak's Vertigo. Of Philippe's former work, I have only seen last year's remarkable Chain Reactions (US 2024). Having seen these two I need to see the rest, as well.

Kim Novak's is also the voice of her story, in effect a first person narrative. It is also her story as an artist: creator of watercolours, oil and pastel paintings, photographs and poetry. She loves nature and animals. She loves to ride. We meet her as a dancer and singer in her movies.

She has undertaken cosmetic surgery but regrets the fat injections. "I should have known better, but what do you do? We do some stupid things in our lives." (Source: Wikipedia).

Novak invites Philippe to her home for an in extenso conversation. We get glimpses into her personal archives, family photo albums and movie scrapbooks. 

Memory is fragile. Three of Novak's houses have burned to the ground.

As a child she idolized Greta Garbo: "she felt what I felt... the same insecure little girl". James Stewart: "he was always himself". He never acted. "It was real to him". He projected tenderness and respect. Of more recent actors, Novak admires Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Richard Quine (Pushover, Bell, Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet, The Notorious Landlady) was an important director and mentor.

But Alfred Hitchcock was the big influence. The double performance in Vertigo, the thriller about a loss of identity, became a signature role. Vertigo was not much noticed during its first run, but its fame kept rising and reached its height 50 years after the movie was released when it was voted the best film in the world.

Included in the movie are generous helpings of clips from Novak's movies such as

1954 The French Line, Pushover, Phffft

1955 5 Against the House, Picnic, The Man with the Golden Arm

1956 The Eddy Duchin Story

1957 Jeanne Eagels, Pal Joey

1958 Vertigo, Bell, Book and Candle

1959 Middle of the Night

1960 Strangers When We Meet

1962 The Notorious Landlady, Boys' Night Out

1964 Of Human Bondage, Kiss Me, Stupid

1965 The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders

1968 The Legend of Lylah Clare

The selection is excellent, and the clipreel experience is alone worth the visit. 

It gets deeply emotional as we enter what for a cinephile is holy ground. Novak opens her personal copy of the screenplay of Vertigo, at the time still called From Among the Dead. When Madeleine's gray suit is revealed from a box that has not been opened since the film was made, Novak falls into tears.

We are in the territory of fetishism, but the experience reaches beyond that. Already at the time, it was clear that Vertigo was a project personally meaningful for its star. It is about a young woman full of life being transformed into a spectacle by patriarchal authority.

In this house of mirrors, Judy / Madeleine was lost and perished. But Novak is still haunted by the stardom experience which both elevated and entrapped her. "You start to lose who you are". "Kim Novak" was a creature of the Hollywood star system. "I did not know who Kim Novak was". "It was scary losing myself". They did not hear the little girl crying inside.

La Tour de glace / The Ice Tower (opening screening, in person: In person: Whitney Ward, Joe Coleman, Jason Diamond, Scott Gracheff, Vincent Grashaw, Lewis Teague, Can Evrenol, Bruno Forzani)

 

Lucile Hadžihalilović: La Tour de glace / The Ice Tower (FR/DE/IT 2025). Marion Cotillard as Cristina in her role as the Snow Queen.

Guests of honour lineup at the opening screening of Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3025, 19 Nov 2025. Whitney Ward, Joe Coleman, Jason Diamond, Scott Gracheff, Vincent Grashaw, Lewis Teague, Can Evrenol, Bruno Forzani, Mikko Aromaa. Photographer to the right: Juho Liukkonen. Photo: Tanja Ryhänen / Night Visions.

Country and year: France / Germany / Italy 2025

Producer(s): Muriel Merlin, Harald Steinwender

Director: Lucile Hadžihalilović

Writer: Geoff Cox, Lucile Hadžihalilović

Cinematographer: Jonathan Ricquebourg

Music: Olivier Messiaen

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, Gaspar Noé, Marine Gesbert, Lila-Rose Gilberti, Valentina Vezzoso

Duration: 117 min

Language: French

Subtitles: English: Ian Burley & Sophia T... [the names flashed by too fast]

Format: DCP

Night Visions (NV) Maximum Halloween 3025

Opening screening hosted by Mikko Aromaa.

In person: Whitney Ward, Joe Coleman, Jason Diamond, Scott Gracheff, Vincent Grashaw, Lewis Teague, Can Evrenol, Bruno Forzani.

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, 19 Nov 2025

NV 2025: "Hans Christian Andersenin Lumikuningattaresta versovassa The Ice Towerissa satu ja tosi sekoittuvat valveuneksi, josta David Lynch olisi kateellinen. Oman tyylinsä täydellistäneen auteur-ohjaaja Lucile Hadžihalilovićin suurteos on kuin eurooppalainen Mulholland Drive, kuvaus haaveiden ja pelkojen risteyksestä, jossa näkymä voi muuttua silmänräpäyksessä.  

Hadžihalilovićin elokuvat ovat mystiikkaan kiedottuja kasvukuvauksia. Berliinin festivaalin pääkilpasarjassa maailmanensi-iltansa saanut uutuus seuraa Innocencen (2004), Evolutionin (2015) ja Earwigin (2021) jälkiä, mutta astuu askeleen pidemmälle synkän fantasian maailmaan.

Äitinsä traagisesti menettänyt teinityttö Jeanne (Clara Pacini) ottaa hatkat sijaisperheestä, vaeltaa alppimaisemien halki kaupunkiin ja löytää lymypaikan studiohallista. Piilostaan hän näkee lapsuutensa suosikkisadun, Lumikuningattaren, muuntuvan elokuvaksi. Pääosanesittäjä Cristinan (Marion Cotillard) kylmä karisma lumoaa tytön, ja tähtinäyttelijä ottaa karkulaisen suojatikseen.

Hadžihalilović rakentaa symbolien tornia, jonka ytimessä on kysymys siitä, onko äitien sydämessä jäätä vai lämpöä. Unen sävyt nousevat upeasti rakennetusta elokuvanteon kuvauksesta. Jeannen kävellessä öisissä lavasteissa pienoismallien keskellä suruun sekoittuu taikapölyä. Huikean debyytin tekevä Pacini tuo hahmoonsa haavoittuvaisuutta. Cotillard loistaa elämää suurempana mysteerinä." (NV 2025)

NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE:

★★★★★

“A fairytale of death-wish yearning and erotic submission”

– Peter Bradshaw / The Guardian

★★★★½

“[Marion] Cotillard is at her very best”

– Jennie Kermode / Eye For Film

“Frozen meets Mulholland Drive”

– Jordan Mintzer / The Hollywood Reporter

“Casts a creepy spell that lingers and even deepens in the mind long after it’s over. As only the best spells do.”

– Ryan Lattanzio / IndieWire

“Mesmerizing — Infused with a lot of psychosexual energy”

– Elisa Guimarães / Collider 

“Countless adaptations and appropriations – among them Disney’s Frozen – have diluted the sheer weirdness of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen, a tale of good and evil that is also one young girl’s investigative quest for a missing boyfriend who has come under the influence of an older woman. In her ravishingly shot fourth feature, set in the mid 1970s, Lucile Hadzihalilovic takes the boy out of the picture. Told through the allusive frame of a female teenage runaway’s encounter with a movie star diva played by Marion Cotillard, who is shooting a new version of The Snow Queen, this is a story of womanhood at a crossroads: its two characters somehow become one, a before and an after, slowly circling, testing, and taking stock of one another.”

– Lee Marshall / Screen International – NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE

AA: Lucile Hadžihalilović's The Ice Tower is scheduled at the Night Visions film festival on the same day as the Danish Adorable Humans. Both have been inspired by H. C. Andersen: the Danish movie by four fairy-tales, including The Snow Queen (Sneedronningen, 1844, Andersen op. 68), and The Ice Tower by the same tale plus The Red Shoes (De røde Skoe, 1845, Andersen op. 72), also directly referred to in the movie poster of the film adaptation by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, GB 1948).

The Snow Queen has inspired a lot of art and adaptation. Hadžihalilović's interpretation is new and original.

It is a work of visionary poetry, enchanting in its cinematography and soundscape. With a gentle and assured approach Hadžihalilović enters the world of the young orphan and outcast Jeanne who is fascinated by the world of art, the stage, the spectacle and the fairy-tale. Ultimately, it is a quest for a home that she has never had.

The Ice Tower is a voyage in transcendental homelessness. Cristina, the Ice Queen, appears like a long needed mother figure for Jeanne, but this turns out to be a misunderstanding.

Clara Pacini as Jeanne and Marion Cotillard create unforgettable studies of solitude. Hadžihalilović is full of love to her broken and erratic characters. Something in this makes me think about A Place in the Sun.

Jonathan Ricquebourg is in charge of the haunting cinematography on the Alps. Olivier Messiaens's devout compositions enchant us on the soundtrack.

Reflet dans un diamant mort / Reflection in a Dead Diamond (in person: Bruno Forzani)

Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani: Reflet dans un diamant mort / Reflection in a Dead Diamond (BE/LU/IT/FR 2025) with Manon Beuchot as Serpentik.

Bruno Forzani introducing Reflet dans un diamant mort at the Night Visions Maximum Halloween 3025 festival, 19 Nov 2024. Photo: Juho Liukkonen / Night Visions.

Country and year: Belgium / Luxemburg / Italy / France 2025

Producer(s): Pierre Foulon

Director and writer: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani

Cinematographer: Manuel Dacosse - Super 16 mm

Music: i.a. Stelvio Cipriani, Vladimir Cosma, Bruno Nicolai, Piero Umiliani

Soundtrack: La Wally.

Cast: Fabio Testi, Yannick Renier, Koen De Bouw, Maria de Medeiros, Thi Mai Nguyen, Céline Camara, Kezia Quental

Duration: 87 min

Language: French, Italian, English, Spanish

Subtitles: English - by: Tongue Unit

Format: DCP

Night Visions (NV) Maximum Halloween 3025

In person: Bruno Forzani

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 1, Helsinki, 19 Nov 2025

NV 2025: "Ennen kaikkea menneiden vuosikymmenten viileimmille ja villeimmillle agenttiseikkailuille silmää iskevä Reflection in a Dead Diamond on vuoden tyylikkäin elokuva. Ohjaajakaksikko Hélène Cattet’n ja Bruno Forzanin täydellisen omintakeinen luomus on tauoton, kokonaisvaltainen audiovisuaalinen vyörytys, joka hivelee katsojansa kaikkia aisteja huikealla intensiteetillä."

"Kaikkein kiehtovimmasta vanhasta uutta muovaavat ohjaajat ajavat silppurinsa läpi Mario Bavan Diabolik-klassikon (1968) sekä koko joukon 1960- ja 70-lukujen euroelokuvan James Bond -klooneja. Aikakaudelta mukaan ammennetaan aineksia myös italialaisten pulp-seikkailusarjakuvien kuvastosta ja giallo-kauhusta. Jotkut kriitikot ovat lukeneet lopputuloksesta myös anime-viitteitä."

"Lineaarisen kerronnan rikkovan ja aika- sekä metatasoilla leikittelevän tarinan keskiössä on legendaarinen vakooja John D (italoelokuvan ikoni Fabio Testi), joka viettää eläkepäiviään ylellisessä rantahotellissa Rivieralla. Arvoituksellisen naisen (Manon Beuchot) kirjautuminen hotellin asukkaaksi palauttaa konkarin mieleen vanhat hyvät ajat, jolloin maailma oli täynnä vauhtia, salaisuuksia ja kauniita vihollisia. Kun nainen katoaa jäljettömiin, John joutuu kohtaamaan myös menneisyytensä demonit."

"Jo ohjaajien edellisssä elokuvissa (The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, 2013, Let the Coprses Tan, 2017) tavaramerkiksi muodostunut tinkimätön, äärivisuaalinen elokuvakieli on nyt hiottu huippuunsa. Reflection in a Dead Diamond on timantti, joka todella huutaa tulla katsotuksi mahdollisimman suurelta valkokankaalta." (NV 2025)

NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE: 

”An exquisite and flashy cinematic jewel box”

– Jordan Mintzer / The Hollywood Reporter

”[Directors Cattet and Forzani are] delivering The Old Man Bond movie we’ve always wanted, and infusing it with enough giallo and anime influences”

– Rafael Motamayor / Slash Film

”Crazy and intense”

– Ola Salwa / Cineuropa

”Cements Cattet and Forzani’s place among the best manipulators of sight and sound working today”

– Anton Bitel / Projected Figures

“If you surrender yourself to [Cattet and Forzani’s] formal explosion, you may be inclined to think Reflection in a Dead Diamond is the year’s best film.”

– Maxance Vincent / Awards Radar

“The directors are always playful, but they’ve never been this fun.”

– Philip Bagnall / Loud and Clear Reviews

”If a picture is worth a thousand words, then every shot in Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s cine-kaleidoscopic Reflection in a Dead Diamond is worth its weight in cubic zirconia. The latest eyegasm from the French couple behind The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears continues their pop-art worship of guilty-pleasure ’60s cult cinema. This time, their primary inspiration are fumetti neri, the Italian pulp comics that launched the masked Diabolik character and a stylish (if schlocky) subgenre of crime and adventure films — mostly James Bond knockoffs with giallo-vivid visuals.”

– Peter Debruge / Variety – NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE

AA: In his words to the audience, Bruno Forzani reflected on his 25 years together with Hélène Cattet: "romance came first, then film". He summed up Reflet dans un diamant mort: "Death in Venice meets James Bond".

Reflet dans un diamant mort is a super-charged genre mix of 1960s European popular cinema, a study of the pop sensibility of that decade, channelling both the original blockbusters and their low budget imitations and parodies. Besides films, it also evokes their parallel lives in comic strips. Cattet & Forzani relish on signifiers without the signified, styles without substance and characters without personality traits.

Direct art history references range from Mimmo Rotella's torn movie posters to Caravaggio's bloody murder. But perhaps most profoundly to classics of surrealism, including Belgium's own René Magritte who recycled the cover illustration of Marcel Allain & Pierre Souvestre's Fantômas, adapted into a serial by Louis Feuillade. To the supervillains of early French genre cinema belonged also Protéa by Éclair and Irma Vep / Vampira by Gaumont / Feuillade - the cinema's original female cat burglars to which Cattet & Forzani contribute their daunting Serpentik (Manon Beuchot).

In an affectionate gesture, Cattet & Forzani cast old favourites in juicy parts. Fabio Testi is the super agent emeritus John D. and Maria de Medeiros a mature incarnation of elusive womanhood.

In this piece of metacinema we sometimes witness the filming of the film itself. The cartoon violence is relentless, and the film pursues shock value in divertissement mode.

Watching this in 2025 I feel a fatigue in gratuitous violence. Our daily news feed is full of Russian atrocities in Ukraine and rampages of IDF baby-killers and brutal settler violence in Palestine. Excuse me for not being entertained.

Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans

 

Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro: Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans (DK 2025).

Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro: Yndige mennesker / Adorable Humans (DK 2025).

Country and year: Denmark 2025

Producer(s): Thomas Gram Veyssiere, Frederikke Greve, Elena Arndt, Michael Kunov, Frederik Carlsen, Kasper Juhl, Frida S. Klüver, Lene Rasmussen, Michael Panduro

Director and writer: Anders Jon, Kasper Juhl, Michael Kunov, Michael Panduro

Cinematographer: Tobias Scavenius, Fredrik A.G. Sundbye

Music: Ida Nørby

Cast: Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt, Mille Maria Dalsgaard, Mie Gren, Peter Høgsbro, Sus Wilkins, Marinus Refnov, Mie Gren, Adam Ild Rohweder, Iben Skau

Duration: 117 min

Language: Danish

Subtitles: English

Format: DCP

Night Visions (NV) Maximum Halloween 3025

Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, 19 Nov 2025

NV 2025: "Hans Christian Andersenin maailmankuuluja satuja on tuotu valokankaille lähinnä siloteltuina Disney-versioina. Samalla on unohdettu, että kirjailijan tuotannossa oli myös paljon synkempiä aineksia. Tanskalaisantologia Adorable Humans nostaa esiin Andersenin HC-potentiaalin.

Neljä modernisoitua tarinaa vyöryttää seksiä, rockia ja visvaista väkivaltaa.

Kuollut mies kertoo vanhustenhoitajasta, joka rakastuu hulluun naiseen ja ignoroi himopäissään kuolemansairaan asiakkaansa kohtalokkain seurauksin. Äidin tarinassa massaonnettomuudesta selvinneen pojan syyllisyys henkiinjäämisestä kasvaa hengenvaarallisiin mittoihin. Lumikuningatar-klassikon brutaalisssa variaatiossa mielenterveysongelmista kärsivä nainen saa mystisen peilin, jota naamioitunut muukalainen hamuaa itselleen.  

Night Visions -veteraani Michael Panduron (Nasum: Blasting Shit to Bits – The Final Show) osio Hammassärkytäti kertoo luomisblokista kärsivästä rokkarista, joka turvautuu mystikkotätinsä apuun. Se ei tule ilmaiseksi.

Tanskalaiset näyttävät, miten indie-elokuvaan saadaan näyttäviä tuotantoarvoja. Inhojen efektien ja seksuaalisten halujen kimara pyyhkii Andersenista Disney-glitteriä – missaamatta silti satusedän ihmisluonnosta tekemiä oivalluksia." NV 2025

NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE:

”This is Denmark in its purest, most savage cinematic form — bleak, stylish, unnerving, and absolutely relentless.”

– Saul Muerte / Surgeons of Horror

”Solid practical effects and a wonderful overall production”

– Karina Adelgaard / Heaven of Horror

”Put the kiddies to bed because this Danish anthology of Hans Christian Andersen adaptations is decidedly not for them. Adorable Humans is abundant with sex, drugs, and yes, rock and roll — not to mention no shortage of violence — with each segment deserving of the description ”macabre.” Boasting top-notch acting and impressive directing and technical aspects throughout, this portmanteau offering should be considered must-see viewing for fright-fare devotees of the weird and the wild. —

Adorable Humans is dark and features plenty of jaw-dropping gore and practical effects work. If you’re in the mood for classic fairy tales revised for modern-day horror aficionados, you need to see this anthology.”

– Joseph Perry / Horror Fuel – NV 2025 QUOTATION MONTAGE

AA: The world's first H. C. Andersen horror anthology? It is a promising option. If the name "H. C. Andersen" had not been mentioned, I would not have guessed that there is a connection. In this movie, H. C. signals both "Hans Christian" and "Hard Core".

The four films are original and disturbing, and they evoke rather Stephen King than H. C. Andersen. This is no time for hygge. Generous helpings of gore and splatter are on display.

I was particularly curious about the second episode, Michael Kunov's The Story of a Mother / Historien om en Moder (1847), a favourite of Vincent van Gogh and Fritz Lang, an inspiration for Der müde Tod. Kunov's interpretation ends with the original quote "And Death went away with her child into the unknown land". But this is a completely different story of a boy suffering from the death of his father and all his schoolmates having died in a horrible bus accident. Powerful and enigmatic.

The first episode, Anders Jon's The Dead Man / Dødningen, et Fyenske Folke-Eventyr (1835), Andersen Opus n:o 2,  takes us to the world of hospice but also sado-masochism.

The third episode, Kasper Juhl's The Snow Queen, is based on Sneedronningen, et Eventyr i Syv Historier (1844), a fairy-tale that has inspired an extraordinary amount of art, including in Finland Päivi Hartzell's movie The Snow Queen (FI 1986) and Tuomas Kantelinen's ballet The Snow Queen. The Frozen phenomenon is not based but obviously inspired by it. Tonight we will see Lucile Hadzihalilovic's La Tour de glace, also part of this legacy. This episode takes us to a quest through a loss of faith and broken mirrors.

In the fourth and last episode, Auntie Toothache, Michael Panduro channels the fairy-tale Tante Tandpine (1872), Andersen op. 199, into a rock singer's ordeal through a dentist's chair. The evil witches in this omnibus movie display female agency also in sexual life, preferring to be on top.

Sex meets death in these tales which are also pain endurance tests.

Daniel Kehlmann: Lichtspiel / The Director (a novel)

Daniel Kehlmann: Lichtspiel / The Director. Hamburg: Rowohlt Verlag, 10 Oct 2023.

Daniel Kehlmann: Ohjaaja / Lichtspiel. Helsinki: Siltala, 2025. Finnish translation by Tuulia Tipa.

A book presentation and discussion organized by Goethe-Institut Finland.

Participants: Tuulia Tipa (translator), Antti Alanen (film historian), Jukka Koskelainen (author, translator).

Hosted by: Lena Kingelin (Goethe-Institut). In the presence of: Tapio Riihimäki (National Audiovisual Institute, promoting the G. W. Pabst retrospective at Kino Regina).

Saarikoskimatto, Central Library Oodi, Töölönlahdenkatu 4, 00100 Helsinki, 18 Nov 2025.

Daniel Kehlmann's acclaimed novel Lichtspiel / The Director has been published into Finnish in an outstanding translation by Tuulia Tipa, known to pursue challenging projects with devotion.

Lichtspiel is topical. In 1933, two thousand German film artists and professionals were banished from the industry by the Nazi administration. They went into exile in France, England and Hollywood.

This year, a similar threat of authoritarian oppression is growing in the United States. Kehlmann evokes the ubiquitous sense of menace in a dictatorship. Little hints such as "it could get worse" carry existential dread.

G. W. Pabst was already abroad when Hitler took power. He was filming in France and stayed there. He visited also Burbank, invited by Warner Bros., a co-producer of his Brecht-Weill The Threepenny Opera adaptation. Although collaboration between Pabst and the gritty WB does not sound theoretically impossible (Warner excelled both in social issue movies and hard-boiled musicals), clashes in screenwriting, casting and editing were insurmountable. 

After finishing A Modern Hero (a film better than its reputation), Pabst continued filming in France until 1939. His native Austria had ceased to exist since the Anschluss. Armed with US passports and tickets to America, the Pabst family paid a final visit to Georg Wilhelm's widowed mother in their Steiermark castle. Right then the Second World War broke out, and the ways out were blocked. Later also traffic through Italy was blocked. Determined to pursue a Hollywood career, Pabst was trapped.

Finally, he directed two movies under the Nazi administration for Bavaria Filmkunst in Munich-Geiselgasteig: Komödianten and Paracelsus. They are interesting and decent films, with accents defying Nazi ideology. Nevertheless, the films were tarnished, not because of what they were but because of the context of exhibition.

During my preparation for today's discussion I understood the Goebbels genius in Nazi propaganda. Only 1-3 per cent of the feature-length fiction movies during his reign were Nazi propaganda. Yet, all promoted the Nazi cause. How come? Because the screenings started with Nazi newsreels with inflammatory militarist and antisemitic content. Good films locked audiences which were exposed to those brilliantly crafted newsreels. As far as I know (to be confirmed), the newsreels were obligatory: you could not enter the screening without seeing them first.

G. W. Pabst hated Nazism and after the war directed an anti-Nazi trilogy: Der Prozess / The Trial (a film about the persecution Jews in the 1880s, starring the great Jewish actor Ernst Deutsch, returning from exile), Der letzte Akt / Hitler: The Last Ten Days (the first German-language film about Adolf Hitler, telling the same story as Der Untergang / Downfall much later) and Es geschah am 20. Juli / It Happened on July 20th, the story of the Stauffenberg conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, later covered by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie).

Pabst never lost his talent, but after the Weimar Republic he never again found such a sympathetic cultural ambience. He always loved Germany, its humanistic and generous tradition. Had he made it back to Hollywood, he might have had to struggle for years but maybe accomplished a career similar to Douglas Sirk or Fritz Lang. Or Michael Curtiz. It is possible to imagine Pabst as a director of Casablanca for Warner Bros. Bad command of English did not prevent Curtiz from success. Neither should that have been the case with Pabst.

...

We discussed the question of bio-fiction.

Having read the publicity blurbs (full of glaring errors and misunderstandings about real people) I had decided not to read the novel, but because of the Goethe-Institut invitation I did. The English and Finnish blurbs are based on the Rowohlt original.

Daniel Kehlmann writes fiction. Artistic freedom is unlimited. But I question Kehlmann's decision to use names of real people. Kehlmann inserts prominent distortions to telegraph that this is fiction. There are also surreal exaggerations to underline this.

I blame Rowohlt publicity for promoting the novel as factual. It is not. You cannot trust anything in it. Basic premises and important details have been altered. Rowohlt should announce clearly that this is not a book about real people and the facts are altered.

I sympathize for the Pabst family who are justified to feel offense for defamation and smear. Not so much because of the novel, although there are dog whistles and insinuations which have been spelled out in the publicity blurbs and reviews in which fiction replaces fact.

To sum up: I admire Kehlmann's account of life under a dictatorship. But because he uses real names and alters everything, I feel a headache on every page. I have been in the presence people whose names appear in the novel, including Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder. Nothing about them in the book makes factual sense. And it does not make sense to try to make sense, because this is fiction.

There are excellent books on G. W. Pabst, such as The Films of G. W. Pabst edited by Eric Rentschler and the mighty G. W. Pabst volume published at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival, edited by Wolfgang Jacobsen. They are about films. Solid compact biographical texts have been written by Hans Michael Bock for the Berlin Film Festival volume and for CineGraph.

G. W. Pabst and Robert Bresson belong to the rare giants of film art of whom no biography has yet been written. Would Olaf Möller write the definitive Pabst biography?

...

G. W. PABST BLOG REMARKS:

Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (DE 1925) 1972 ZDF Tonfassung Luft & Labenski

Die freudlose Gasse / The Joyless Street (DE 1925) 2012 Munich print

Geheimnisse einer Seele / Secrets of a Soul (DE 1926) Bundesarchiv print, GCM Canon Revisited 2016

Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney / The Love of Jeanne Ney (DE 1927)

Abwege / The Devious Path (DE 1928) Munich print 1997 GCM

Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (DE 1929) Munich print 2008 Helsinki

Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box (DE 1929) Criterion 2024, Eureka! 2024

Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (DE 1929) 1997 restoration Bundesarchiv / SDK / Taurus

Westfront 1918 (DE 1930)

Don Quichotte / Don Quixote (FR/GB 1933) version française

A Modern Hero (US 1934)

Komödianten / The Comedians (DE 1941)

Paracelsus (DE 1943)

Geheimnisvolle Tiefe / Mysterious Shadows (AT 1949) 2018 Munich restoration

Der letzte Akt / The Last Ten Days (AT 1955) vintage Finnish Film Archive print

Pabst wieder sehen / Revoir Pabst (DE 1997) ARTE documentary by Wolfgang Jacobsen, Martin Koerber, René Perraudin

Don Quichotte (1933, version française)

G. W. Pabst: Don Quichotte (FR/GB 1933) avec Chaliapine (Don Quichotte) and Dorville (Sancho Panza).

G. W. Pabst: Don Quichotte (FR/GB 1933). The final image. From the bonfire in which the ingenious hidalgo's library is burning emerges like a Phoenix the front page of the book about his own story. My screenshot from YouTube. 

Titre original : Don Quichotte / Titre anglais : Don Quixote / The Adventures of Don Quixote (English title in Finland) / Don Quijote (Finnish title)

    FR/GB 1933. Une production de Vandor-Nelson Film, Paris. PC: Vandor-Film (Paris), Nelson (London). P: G. W. Pabst. Directeur de la production : Constantin Geftman.

    Réalisateur : G. W. Pabst, assisté par Jean de Limur (V.O.) et John Farrow (V.A.). Scénariste : G. W. Pabst et Paul Morand d'après El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605, segunda parte 1615) de Cervantes. Dialogues : Alexandre Arnoux. Photographie : Nicolas Farkas - noir et blanc.  Pellicule Kodak. Tirage G. M. Film. English version: Paul Portier.  AD: Andrej Andrejew. Costumes d'après les maquettes : Max Pretzfelder.  Exécution de costumes : Maison Karinsky. Ombres chinoises : Lotte Reiniger. Musique originale : Jacques Ibert. S: J. Dell. Camion d'enregistrement "Braunberger-Richebé". System Western-Electric. Montage : Jean Oser. Assistant: Herbert Rappaport.

    Distribution: Version française

Fédor Chaliapine : Don Quichotte

Dorville : Sancho Panza

Mady Berry : Femme de Sancho

Renée Valliers : Dulcinée

Mireille Balin : la nièce de Don Quichotte

René Donnio : Carrasco

Jean de Limur : le duc

Arlette Marchal : la duchesse

Génica Athanasiou : la servante d'auberge (comme Génica Anet)

Vladimir Sokoloff : le roi des Gitans

Charles Martinelli : Chef de Police

Charles Léger : Le Curé

Léon Larive : l'aubergiste

Pierre Labry : 2me aubergiste

Mafer : Le Roi

    Version anglaise

Feodor Chaliapin : Don Quixote

George Robey : Sancho Panza

René Donnio : Carrasco (comme Donnio)

Renée Valliers : Dulcinea

Emily Fitzroy : la femme de Sancho Panza

Sidney Fox : Maria, la nièce du duc

Miles Mander : le duc de Fallanga

Wally Patch : le roi des Gitans

Oscar Asche : le chef des gendarmes

Lydia Sherwood : la duchesse de Fallanga

Frank Stanmore : le prêtre

    82 min

    Three original language versions: French, English and German.

    Pays du tournage : France. Loc: Nice. Studios G.F.F.A. Nice.

    Genre : Drame

    Dates de sortie : Belgique : 16 mars 1933 - France : 7 avril 1933

    Helsinki premiere : 3 Nov 1935 Royal - released by Kosmos-Filmi Oy at 2280 m

    A 82 min French version (Le Comptoir Français Cinématographique) with Spanish subtitles viewed on YouTube at home in Helsinki, 4 Nov 2025

G. W. Pabst directed three language versions: 

Don Quichotte in French (82 min)

Don Quixote in English (80 min and 73 min)

Don Quijote in German (120 min). This version is missing. The year was 1933, and the film was not released in Hitler's Germany. In Austria, the French version was released on 2 Feb 1934.

AA: 

Habent sua fata libelli - books have their destinies (Terentianus).

G. W. Pabst's Don Quichotte is both based on a novel and about the novel. It is a meta-film about a meta-novel, the novel from which a direct lineage exists to the self-awareness and intertextuality of the modern novel.

The film starts from the moving pages of the original edition of Cervantes's novel. Via the magic of Lotte Reiniger's Chinese shadows, silhouette figures emerge from the pages and come to life in the incarnations of Chaliapin as Don Quixote and Dorville as Sancho Panza.

Pabst's adaptation is highly condensed but full of energy and panache. This is not a stately homage, nor made with a Classics Illustrated approach, fast-forwarding through "highlights from Don Quixote". This is a character-driven interpretation with a great cast in profoundly moving performances.

Don Quijote has inspired many great artists from Daumier to Picasso to memorable visual art, but perhaps all plays are doomed to fail in their attempt to do justice to Cervantes. Don Quijote, which I only know in the Finnish translation of J. A. Hollo, is great literature, and the joy of language is of the essence. 

Don Quijote is a celebration of the power of language and a revelation about the curse of language to lead us astray and lead to madness. A perfectly topical subject in the world of today. A performance of Don Quijote tends to emphasize the superficial action (battles with wineskins, sheep flocks and windmills) which is funny in its own right but of secondary importance in the last instance.

In the transition from silent cinema to sound, Pabst reinvented himself in many ways: as a director of triple sound versions, and boldly integrating music and song in his storytelling, most prominently in Die 3-Groschen-Oper. Having cast Chaliapin, he takes full advantage of the talent of the legendary singer, turns his adaptation into a musical and commissions a rousing score from Jacques Ibert who also composed the theme song. This is an inspired solution to a story in which the protagonist is the playwright of his own legend.

Pabst was a great director of women, and he preferred female parts with agency, but not so much here. Mady Berry is impressive as the wife of Sancho, but the character of Dulcinea is disappointing and does not give Renée Valliers much to do. Dulcinea the lady love is an illusion, a bit like Madeleine in Vertigo. Pabst would have been the perfect director to convey the comedy and tragedy of loving a dream image, but this time the opportunity is missed.

The Renaissance ambience of Cervantes is genial, conveyed in lavish detail. The vitality of the sun-drenched world of 17th century Spain has been reconstructed in Nice. The next time Pabst covered the Renaissance in Paracelsus, a portrait of the friend of Erasmus and the model of Faust, a mythical figure comparable with Don Quixote.

In the finale the knight-errant is caught by the authorities in a cage and transported back to his home village in La Mancha. There huge volumes of his expensive library are consigned to a bonfire. The vision shocks Don Quijote and he dies of heartbreak. 

The film had been shot in 1932. Its premiere took place a week after the first book burnings of the Nazi administration in Germany (7 and 8 March, 1933).

The camera remains in a long close-up of the burning pages. Like a phoenix, from the conflagration emerges the title page of Don Quijote.

...

Sinopsis (Wikipedia)

La película comienza con el gran héroe español Don Quijote de la Mancha, que lee con entusiasmo libros sobre los buenos viejos tiempos de la caballería y, como resultado, decide emprender sus propias aventuras como noble caballero. A su lado está su fiel servidor Sancho Panza, a quien promete tesoros incalculables, y que luego se convierte en su escudero. Don Quijote le pide a un comediante ambulante que participa en una representación teatral en una venta que lo nombre caballero. Don Quijote ve al malabarista como el noble caballero literario Amadís de Gaula y no se da cuenta de que al actor, pronto le resulta divertido presentar al flaco caballero como un viejo tonto a su divertida audiencia teatral. La gente común de la taberna se divierte mucho cuando Don Quijote se expone al ridículo con su actitud caballeresca. No se hace más creíble el hombre que acaba de hacerse caballero cuando declara también como su reina de corazones a una simple doncella de esta venta y, la llama Dulcinea del Toboso.

Junto a Sancho Panza, sale a cabalgar, hacia sus aventuras en su caballo Rocinante. El objetivo de sus acciones es eliminar las injusticias de este mundo y desafiar a los malvados. Un día, Don Quijote acepta la invitación del duque de la provincia, y se aloja en su casa. Para hacer que Don Quijote entre en razón y sacarlo de sus casillas, la sobrina del duque le pide a su tío que desafíe a Don Quijote a un duelo, en un torneo de caballeros para derrotarlo. Cuando Don Quijote se entera de que lo están engañando, se enfada y se marcha altivo. Luego, finalmente encontró oponentes "dignos": a veces es un rebaño de ovejas, a veces molinos de viento, que le parecen un ejército de gigantes malvados. La aspa de un molino de viento eleva a Don Quijote tan alto en el aire que tiene que intervenir la autoridad para liberar al caballero de la triste forma de su situación. En el proceso, Don Quijote resulta gravemente herido.

Ya basta, piensan los bien intencionados, y traen de vuelta a su casa al anciano, enfermo física y psíquicamente. En la marcha, a través de los vecinos de su pueblo natal, se expone al ridículo de su comunidad natal en una jaula. En su casa, se destruyen sus sueños con el incendio de su biblioteca. Profundamente conmocionado, Don Quijote muere. Después de todo, el último libro también fue víctima de las llamas. Pero este último libro, que cuenta su propia historia, resurge como un ave fénix de las cenizas y vuelve a la vida. Acaba de nacer la leyenda de Don Quijote, el noble caballero.

Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) (1997 restoration Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv / Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek / Taurus-Film)

Arnold Fanck & G. W. Pabst: Die weisse Hölle vom Piz Palü / The White Hell of Pitz Palu (DE 1929). Photo: Hans Casparius. Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-13954 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

L'Enfer blanc du Piz Palu / Prisonniers de la montagne / Valkoinen helvetti / Lavinen (Swedish premiere title) / På fjället i storm (Swedish reissue title).
    DE 1929 H. R. Sokal-Film GmbH (Berlin). Produzent: Henry Sokal. Aufnahmeleitung: Heinz Landsmann.

    Regie: Arnold Fanck, G. W. Pabst. Regie-Assistenz: Paul Falkenberg, Mark Sorkin. Drehbuch: Arnold Fanck, Ladislaus Vajda. Idee: Arnold Fanck. Kamera: Sepp Allgeier, Richard Angst, Hans Schneeberger – 35 mm, s/w, stumm. Standfotos: Hans G. Casparius. Bauten: Ernö Metzner. Musik: Giuseppe Becce (Kino-Musik – 1935), Willy Schmidt-Gentner (1929), Ashley Irwin (1998). Schnitt: Arnold Fanck, Hermann Haller.

    Darsteller

Gustav Diessl / Dr. Johannes Krafft, der Alleingänger

Leni Riefenstahl / Maria Majoni

Ernst Petersen / Hans Brandt

Ernst Udet / Flieger Udet

Mizzi Götzel / Maria Krafft

Otto Spring / Bergführer Christian Klucker

Kurt Gerron / Mann im Salon

    7 Akte, 3330 m. ZDF Arte 1998 edition: 133 min

    Dreharbeiten: Januar 1929 – Juni 1929. Bernina (Bernina Massiv – Schneeregion) and Engadin, Kanton Graubünden, Switzerland.

    Erstverleih: Aafa-Film AG Sonderverleih (Berlin)

    Uraufführung (AT): 11.10.1929, Wien [13 Kinos]

    Finnish premiere: 18 Aug 1930

    1997 restoration Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv / Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek / Taurus-Film. 1998 Musik: Ashley Irwin. Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. Conductor: Frank Strobel.

    2013 dvd release: Zweitausendeins, "Der Deutsche Film", 1/1929. 

    ZDF Arte edition © 1998 viewed on YouTube at home in Helsinki, 3 Nov 2025.

NB. The spelling "Pitz" of the English title is incorrect.

AA: Arnold Fanck is at his most magnificent in The White Hell of Piz Palü. He was in charge of the exteriors while G. W. Pabst covered the interiors.

It is a story of hubris and nemesis. The veteran mountain guide Christian Klucker (Otto Spring) warns the newlyweds: don't be foolhardy. But they are, and Maria Krafft (Mizzi Götzel) falls to the abyss. Johannes Krafft (Gustav Diessl) becomes "a ghost of the mountains" for the rest of his life, trying to find the icy grave of his beloved. 

Four years later, another couple, engaged to be married, visit the mountains: Maria Majoni (Leni Riefenstahl) and Hans Brandt (Ernst Petersen). They are intrigued by Johannes and join him as he is about to scale the formidable north wall of Piz Palü ("the pale mountain"). Six students from the University of Zürich try the same, but they get killed in an avalanche.

A tragic romance which also belongs to the cinema of attractions and is also a nature film, sport film and an action thriller. As always in Fanck, the aesthetic category is the sublime. The nature is awesome, breathtaking, overwhelming, lethal, catastrophic. This is also a Kantian film: the destiny of the human reason is to pose itself questions that transcend its own limits.

Most enduringly, Piz Palü is a work of visual poetry. The notorious wind dangerous for Alpinists called der Föhn. The shadows of the clouds, the melting snow, the breaking glaciers, the caves and the ravines, the ice flowers on the frozen windows, the torches of the search party illuminating the snow at night. The dance of the glowing clouds often on benevolent display. But the heavenly apparitions can suddenly turn into lethal snowstorms. 

Memorable visual details include the "wooden bird" crafted by Johannes with his knife for Maria Majoni for better tinder. And the extended close-up of the snow melted by Maria that turns into boiling water for the tea. Also the parachutes delivered by Ernst Udet carrying champagne for the newlyweds and provisions for the survivors. Shot by the veterans Sepp Allgeier, Richard Angst and Hans Schneeberger, Piz Palü is photogenie all around. So much that it is like magic and borders on the phantasmagoria and the cinefantastique. It also gets close to the mythic.

Arnold Fanck was not the greatest director of actors, but G. W. Pabst contributes nuance and detail to the characters. The humoristic approach to the question of the single bed for three. How Hans rolls Maria Majoni from the cold wall to the warmest spot. How Maria's head turns on Johannes's hand while asleep. In the morning he gently releases his hand without waking her up. Pabst conveys the strange dreams and emotions of the night with tender restraint. We sense the undercurrents, but this is not a triangle drama. Thanks to Pabst, Piz Palü might be Riefenstahl's finest movie as an actor. In the finale they achieve a remarkable extreme close-up where Riefenstahl's face is both enigmatic and revelatory, free from her usual self-control.

On the other hand, the doomed lovers Maria and Johannes Krafft stay forever young in their icy graves. Liebestod.

After Hitler's rise to power, Die weisse Hölle der Piz Palü was released in a shortened version from which for instance Kurt Gerron was eliminated. Later he was murdered in Auschwitz.

I saw this film and this handsome restoration for the first time. I am grateful for the care taken in this edition, complete with the original art titles. The most memorable of them is "Allein" ("Alone") 

expressing Johannes's original plan to take the North Face.

...

HANDLUNG (deutsche Wikipedia)

Maria Krafft, die Frau des Bergsteigers Dr. Johannes Krafft, stürzt wegen der Leichtfertigkeit des Paares in eine Gletscherspalte am Piz Palü und stirbt.

Einige Jahre später: Das frischvermählte Paar Hans Brandt und Maria Maioni begibt sich ebendort auf eine Bergtour. Sie quartieren sich in der einsamen Diavolezza-Berghütte ein. Der befreundete Kunstflieger Udet wirft für sie eine Flasche Sekt zum Feiern mit dem Fallschirm ab. Die erhoffte Einsamkeit wird durch das Auftauchen des Bergführers Christian und von Dr. Johannes Krafft vereitelt. Krafft, der den Tod seiner Frau nicht verwunden hat, besteigt immer wieder den Piz Palü und versucht die Nordwand alleine zu bezwingen, was ihm aber schon zweimal misslungen ist. Maria fühlt sich zu dem schweigsamen Mann hingezogen. Seine verunglückte Frau hieß ebenfalls Maria.

Am nächsten Tag begibt sich das Paar gemeinsam mit Krafft auf den Weg zur Nordwand des Piz Palü. Eine Gruppe von bergunerfahrenen Studenten folgt ihnen, doch werden sie von einer Lawine in die Tiefe gerissen. Keiner der jungen Männer überlebt.

Hans, dem Marias offensichtliche Zuneigung zu Krafft zunehmend missfällt, möchte beweisen, dass auch er „ein Mann“ ist und übernimmt trotz Kraffts Warnung die Führung der Gruppe. Als er abstürzt, kann er gerade noch aufgefangen werden. Krafft bricht sich bei Hans’ Rettung ein Bein. Hereinbrechende Stürme, Steinschlag und Lawinen sowie Kraffts und Brandts Verletzungen machen einen Abstieg unmöglich. Auf einem Felsvorsprung harren die Vermissten drei Tage und Nächte aus. Hans erleidet einen Zusammenbruch und muss gefesselt werden, damit er sich in seiner Verwirrung nicht in die Tiefe stürzt. Dr. Krafft überlässt Hans seine wärmende Jacke. Der Flieger Udet entdeckt das Trio schließlich, doch die an Fallschirmen abgeworfene Verpflegung verfehlt ihr Ziel. Aber er kann den Bergrettern die Position der Verunglückten zeigen.

Krafft legt sich in einiger Entfernung in den Schnee, wo er erfriert. Der ausgesandte Rettungstrupp findet das Paar und bringt es ins Tal. Christian findet Kraffts Notizbuch, in dem er die Nachricht hinterlassen hat, dass man ihn nicht suchen solle.

Paracelsus (2015 Kino Lorber blu-ray)

G. W. Pabst: Paracelsus (DE 1943) with Werner Krauss.

DE 1943 Bavaria Filmkunst GmbH (München-Geiselgasteig). Produktionsleitung: Fred Lyssa. Aufnahmeleitung: Willy Laschinsky.

    Regie: G. W. Pabst. Regie-Assistenz: Auguste Barth: Drehbuch: Kurt Heuser. Kamera: Bruno Stephan – 35 mm, 1:1,37, s/w. Kamera-Assistenz: Herbert Stephan. Bauten: Herbert Hochreiter, Walter Schlick. Kostüme: Herbert Ploberger. Schnitt: Lena Neumann. Ton: Emil Specht. Musik: Herbert Windt. 

    Darsteller: Werner Krauß (Paracelsus), Mathias Wieman (Ulrich von Hutten), Annelies Reinhold (Tochter Renata Pfefferkorn), Harald Kreutzberg (Gaukler Fliegenbein), Peter Martin Urtel (Famulus Johannes), Fritz Rasp (Magister), Josef Sieber (Knecht Bilse), Harry Langewisch (Reicher Handelsherr Pfefferkorn), Herbert Hübner (Reichsgraf von Hohenried), Rudolf Blümner (Buchhändler Froben), Karl Skraup (Chirurg), Franz Schafheitlin (Erasmus), Erich Dunskus (Wirt), Victor Janson (Bürgermeister), Hilde Sessak (Schankmädchen), Egon Vogel (Urias), Arthur Wiesner (Rossarzt), Franz Stein (Arzt), Hans von Uritz (Hauptmann), Bernhard Goetzke (Oskar Höcker), Maria Hofen (Klaus Pohl), Joachim Wedekind.

    2916 m / 106 min

    Dreharbeiten: 7.7.1942 – Oktober 1942.

    Erstverleih: Deutsche Filmvertriebs GmbH (DFV) (Berlin).

    Berliner Erstaufführung: 6.5.1943, Berlin, Roxy-Palast Friedenau.

    Not released in Finland.

    Material: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv / Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung.

    Digital mastering 2K: CinePost.

    Kino Lorber blu-ray 2015.

    Viewed at home, Helsinki, 2 Nov 2025.

AA: Directed by G. W. Pabst, Paracelsus appears as a continuation to the great legacy of Weimar cinema. The most obvious link is the cast. In the title role is Werner Krauss, whom we remember as both Dr Caligari and the patient in Pabst's Geheimnisse einer Seele. Fritz Rasp was a Pabst regular in Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney, Tagebuch einer Verlorenen and Die 3-Groschen-Oper. Further familiar Weimar faces include Mathias Wieman, Victor Janson and Bernhard Goetzke.

Of Weimar artists, Paracelsus comes closest to Murnau. The model for the mythical Renaissance figure of Faust was Paracelsus. Both Murnau's Faust and Nosferatu include sequences of the Black Plague.

The intensity and drive is higher than in Pabst's previous film The Comedians. In several sequences and scenes he is at his best. Paracelsus is well directed, the mise-en-scène is dynamic, and there is vitality in the performances. A joy of creation can be felt. This is a lavish historical biopic with high production values, but it is never boring or crushing under the weight of its own ambition.

Historical accuracy may have been sacrificed for panache, but I am happy to discover among the characters Paracelsus's contemporary Erasmus of Rotterdam, a voice of humanism in a movie made in a year of deepest Nazi terror.

I appreciate Pabst's sympathy for the suffering of the poor and marginalized in the opening and the finale. This vision is the opposite of the Euthanasia Project of the Nazis and the Superman ideology. The heart of Pabst and Paracelsus is with the weak and the suffering, not with the powers-that-be. "Mich braucht das Volk".

I also empathize with the joy of Paracelsus for the opportunity to teach. He is energized by the young people's passion to learn. The sequence at the Basel University is a celebration of the joy of teaching. The principles of Paracelsus are unorthodox. "The highest is love". This reminds me of Freud and could be a clandestine reference to him. "The enemy is death".

Paracelsus is an admirer of female beauty. Pabst is yet again a director of a unique female performance: Annelies Reinhold as Renate. The first exchange of looks between Renate and Famulus Johannes is memorable. And when Paracelsus sees Renate for the first time, he is also stunned and sees in Renate a reminder of God's design. Renate is a joy to behold but not primarily an object of gaze. Her agency is crucial.

The anthology piece is the dance of death, complete with flagellants. The sequence conveys genuine joy while dancing on a volcano. The Grim Reaper sharpening his scythe belongs to the lasting shock images of German cinema. Paracelsus was in production during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Paracelsus is a biopic about a controversial healer during a pandemic, an epic poem about love and death, combining visual power and a sense of humour.

The visual quality of the blu-ray is polished with a slightly strange graininess in the image.

...

Handlung (deutsche Wikipedia)

Mitteleuropa zu Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts. Der durch die Lande reisende Basler Arzt Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, genannt Paracelsus, hat in einer freien Reichsstadt Halt gemacht. Seine Heilungsmethoden, Vorläufer der ganzheitlichen Medizin, sind seinen ärztlichen Kollegen suspekt und ein Dorn im Auge. Denn anders als diese, für die die medizinischen Lehren der Fakultäten heilig und unumstößliches Gesetz sind, entwickelt er eigene Theorien in der Heilkunde, die auf praktische Erfahrungen, Forschungen und Erkenntnissen beruhen. Für ihn steht der Mensch als Ganzes im Vordergrund seiner Betrachtungen und Analysen, und mit seinen daraus resultierenden Behandlungsmethoden hat Paracelsus im Spätmittelalter beachtliche Erfolge aufzuweisen.

Als es ihm gelingt, den von allen Ärzten aufgegebenen Buchhändler Froben zu heilen, ist seine Lehre in aller Munde. Das Volk achtet und schätzt ihn, und dementsprechend steigt die Anzahl seiner Feinde unter den konventionell praktizierenden Medizinern rasant. Darunter fällt auch der Handelsherr Pfefferkorn: er verübelt Paracelsus, dass dieser die Stadttore aus Seuchenschutzgründen schließen ließ, um den drohenden Einzug der Pest zu verhindern. Neid und Missgunst schlagen Paracelsus immer stärker entgegen, seine mächtigen Gegner beschuldigen ihn der Scharlatanerie. Vor allem der bisher tonangebende Mediziner der Reichsstadt, der Magister, der dem armen Froben soeben ein Bein amputieren wollte, ehe Paracelsus eingreifen und ihn vor dem rückständigen Kurpfuscher retten konnte, reift zu seinem ärgsten Feind heran. Denn Paracelsus hat nach diesem Erfolg den Magister in dessen Position abgelöst.

Da kommt es seinen Widersachern nur allzu gelegen, dass der engste Mitarbeiter von Paracelsus, der ehrgeizige Famulus Johannes, bei einem eigenmächtigen Heilungsversuch ohne Wissen von Paracelsus ein noch unerprobtes Elixier seines Lehrers verwendet. Der damit behandelte, erneut erkrankte Froben stirbt infolgedessen. Paracelsus‘ Widersacher sehen jetzt ihre Chance gekommen, den verhassten Kollegen ein für alle Mal loszuwerden. Sie lassen den unschuldigen Arzt einsperren, auch wenn Paracelsus von den einfachen Menschen, der Stadtbevölkerung, längst als Erlöser betrachtet wird. Mit Hilfe des Gauklers Fliegenbein, der zu den erfolgreich behandelten Paracelsus-Patienten gehört, kann der verkannte Arzt dem Gefängnis entfliehen. Paracelsus geht wieder auf Wanderschaft und heilt fortan, in aller Bescheidenheit lebend, die kranken Menschen, denen er auf seinen Reisen begegnet. Selbst ein Angebot des Kaisers, als Leibarzt an dessen Hof zu kommen, schlägt Paracelsus aus. Er wolle fortan nur noch dem einfachen Volk dienen.

Komödianten / The Comedians

 

G. W. Pabst: Komödianten / Comedians (DE 1941). Käthe Dorsch (Caroline Neuber), Hilde Krahl (Philine Schröder), Henny Porten (Duchess Amalia von Weissenfels).

DE 1941 Bavaria Filmkunst GmbH (München-Geiselgasteig). Produzent: Hans Schweikart.

    STAB

    Regie: G. W. Pabst. Drehbuch: Axel Eggebrecht, Walther von Hollander, G. W. Pabst – Vorlage: aus dem Roman Philine von Olly Boeheim. Kamera: Bruno Stephan – s/w – 1:1,37. Bauten: Julius von Borsody, Herbert Hochreiter. Kostüme: Maria Pommer-Uhlig. Musik: Lothar Brühne. Schnitt: Ton: Emil Specht (mono). Rudolf Grisebach.

    BESETZUNG

Käthe Dorsch: Caroline Neuber

Hilde Krahl: Philine Schröder, ihre Schülerin

Henny Porten: Herzogin Amalia von Weißenfels

Richard Häussler: Baron Armin von Perckhammer, ihr Neffe

Gustav Diessl: Ernst Biron, Herzog von Kurland

Friedrich Domin: Johann Neuber, Carolines Ehemann

Ludwig Schmitz: Müller, der Hanswurst

Lucy Millowitsch: Demoiselle Lorenz

Bettina Hambach: Victorine, Komödiantin

Walter Janssen: Koch, Komödiant

Viktor Afritsch: Graf Paul Teuchan, Armins Onkel

Kurt Müller-Graf: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Harry Langewisch: Professor Gottsched

Arnulf Schröder: Klupsch, Ratsherr in Leipzig

Hans Stiebner: Schröder, Philines Vormund

Kurt Stieler: Kammerherr der Herzogin

Erich Dunskus: General beim Herzog v. Kurland

Karin Evans: Vera

Janne Furch: Komödiantin

Ullrich Haupt: Komödiant

Nikolai Kolin: betrunkener Russe

Leopold von Ledebur: russischer Feldmarschall

Ernst Legal: Leibarzt der Zarin

Reginald Pasch: russischer Begleiter

Erna Sellmer: Amme Armins

Alexander Ponto: Kohlhardt, Komödiant

Sonja-Gerda Scholz: Die ‘Feigin‘, Komödiantin und Köchin

    3013 m / 111 Min

    Dreharbeiten: 21.10.1940 – April 1941 München und Salzkammergut.

    Uraufführung: 5.9.1941 Berlin, Ufa-Palast am Zoo.

    Festival premiere: 14 Sep 1941 Venice Film Festival.

    Not released in Finland.

    Rarefilmsandmore.com dvd.

    Dvd viewed at home, Helsinki, 2 Nov 2025.

Bonus: "Deutsche Wochenschau 10". Apparently a Die Deutsche Wochenschau compilation from June through October, 1941, ending with footage from DW 580/1941: Die Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 580, 43, 1941. Z.: 16.10.1941; 451 m - Ton

AA: There is Nazi propaganda on this Rarefilmsandmore dvd – the bonus material, a compilation version of Die Deutsche Wochenschau from June through October 1941 covering the irresistible enthusiasm of all Europe to join the biggest war campaign in history, Hitler's Feldzug nach Osten – Operation Barbarossa. This newsreel is a passionate call to join it. Final victory on the Nazis' arch-enemy, the Bolsheviks, is unavoidable. It is fascinating to study the synopsis of the original newsreels DW 564-580*. Many entries detail Holocaust subjects, but they have been edited out of this compilation. This edition climaxes on an electrifying passage on the Finnish-German Waffenbrüderschaft in Lapland, in Salla, the White Sea and the Onega Bay. I don't think I have ever seen this before. Cinematically the newsreel is excellent. I am reminded of Siegfried Kracauer's assessment of Nazi war newsreels in From Caligari to Hitler. He found them superior to the ones by the Allies, because they were drawing on the great secret of the Weimar period in creating purely visual cinema. In the service of a war of destruction against all that was valuable in Weimar culture.

I was surprised to see the much vilified Komödianten. The film is not what its critics claim it to be. I am a journalist by profession, and a critic, and try to be wary of delusions and biases in our profession. We create scapegoats, join persecutions and participate in smear campaigns. We are cowards and bully victims perceived too weak to defend themselves. Such as dead people. Once someone has been smeared and denigrated and nobody comes to the defense, s/he is fair game. Confirmation bias galore.

G. W. Pabst seems like a prime example of the "fair game" dilemma. Anything can be said, and nobody defends him.

In authoritarian countries, propaganda films are usually not very popular, because most people hate propaganda. Most films are innocuous entertainment, devoid of anything obviously subversive. Musicals, comedies, fairy-tales, adaptations of classics and historical subjects are in demand. Film-makers also generally find propaganda assignments repulsive. They prefer neutral subjects.

In the Third Reich, Werner Hochbaum, Willi Forst and Helmut Käutner created films that were decent and conveyed the spirit of humanity and dignity even during the darkest years. I would argue that G. W. Pabst stayed that way also. He certainly hated his situation and tried to protect his freedom for instance by filming in Munich instead of Berlin.

The Comedians is a case in point. It is the story of the birth of a national theater in Germany. The protagonist is a historical figure, the theatre director and actor Caroline Neuber (1697-1760), also known as "die Neuberin". The dramatic contrast is based on her opposition to the lowbrow slapstick farce incarnated in the buffoon figure of the Hanswurst. 

Neuber wants high art, elevation of the theatre and serious commitment. The film story introduces authentic historical figures such as Lessing, the founder of the modern craft of the dramaturge, busy with Emilia Galotti, and an Empress of Russia (probably Catherine I).

Having just seen A Modern Hero I detect in The Comedians the familiar pattern of the woman as the center of gravity and men who are fickle and fraudulent.

Neuber has to stay independent from the wiles of men and politicians such as Ernst Biron, the Duke of Courland, who compares art and politics: "both want to rule the wills of people". A former lover of the Empress, he now wants to marry Neuber. He loves strong women, but Neuber knows that he would crush her. "Die Flamme wieder spüren". They feel the flame but stay away from each other.

Ernst Biron is played by Gustav Diessl, Pabst's acteur-fétiche. He appeared in Abwege, Die Büchse der Pandora, Die weisse Hölle der Piz-Palü, Westfront, Die Herrin von Atlantis, Komödianten and Der Prozess. Always intense, always special.

I felt that on a dream level, Neuber is Pabst and Duke Biron is Goebbels.

Komödianten is a tragedy. Neuber never gives up. She is crushed and dies abandoned in the gutter. It is a story of a victory in defeat. She becomes immortal as the spiritual mother of the German theatre, an inspirer of Lessing and the art and craft of dramaturgy globally.

It's a man's world of brutal violence, but the victory of the spirit belongs to the women.

I am grateful for Rarefilmsandmore for access to this film. The visual quality: like a low definition teletranscription.

...

HANDLUNG AUS DEM DEUTSCHEN WIKIPEDIA

Deutschland, 18. Jahrhundert: Die Schauspielerin Caroline Neuber, genannt die Neuberin, leitet eine eigene Bühnentruppe. Ihr Ziel ist, die hohe Kunst, das ernsthafte Theater durchzusetzen. Doch bedauerlicherweise ist die Figur des Hanswursts – ihrer heißt mit Realnamen Müller – im Deutschland des 18. Jahrhunderts die populärste Person eines jeden Theaterstücks, und dessen Aufgabe ist es, durch komische und anzügliche Bemerkungen inmitten eines jeden Stücks die Menschen zum Lachen zu bringen. Da sie ihn der ernsten Kunst als abträglich empfindet, fasst die Neuberin sich ein Herz und entlässt ihn trotz aller Beliebtheit aus dem Ensemble. Von nun an lässt der Erfolg der Neuber-Truppe rapide nach, und erste Kollegen wandern ab – vor allem zum Hanswurst Müller, der jetzt seine eigene Schauspieltruppe auf die Beine stellen möchte.

Die Neuberin will mit Disziplin und kulturellem Auftrag unbedingt die ernsthafte Theaterkunst in deutschen Landen durchsetzen. Dieser Weg ist steinig und hart. Zu ihrer Truppe ist unlängst die junge Philine Schröder gestoßen, die bereits mit kleinen Rollen bedacht wird. Sie floh einst vor ihrem Vormund, der sie verkuppeln wollte. Sie ist verliebt in den für seine Frauengeschichten bekannten Baron Armin von Perckhammer, der es aber mit ihr ernst zu meinen scheint. Da Schauspieler zu dieser Zeit einen schlechten Ruf genießen, ahnt er, dass seine mächtige Tante, die Herzogin Amalia von Weißenfels, gegen eine als unstandesgemäß empfundene Ehe massiv Einspruch erheben dürfte. Vielmehr will die Tante Armin mit seiner Cousine Vera, der Tochter ihres Bruders, des Herzogs von Coburg, verheiraten. Doch Philine will nicht von ihrem Armin lassen, und so wird sie eines Tages auf Befehl der Herzogin verhaftet.

Nach einem Theaterauftritt stellt die Herzogin Caroline Neuber dem Herzog von Kurland, Ernst Biron, vor. Beide verlieben sich ineinander, obwohl die Neuberin noch verheiratet ist. Der Herzogin ist diese Mesalliance wie auch die sich anbahnende, aber vorerst verhinderte zwischen Baron Armin und Philine Schröder mehr als nur ein Dorn im Auge. Als die Neuberin argumentiert, dass die seriöse Schauspielkunst einen Menschen auf ein und dieselbe gesellschaftliche Stufe mit dem Adel stelle, ist der Bruch mit der standesbewussten Herzogin perfekt. Sie entzieht der Neuber-Truppe jegliche Unterstützung, gibt aber immerhin Philine frei. Caroline ist bald pleite, als ihr der Herzog von Kurland ein gut dotiertes Engagement nach Sankt Petersburg vermittelt. Doch nachdem sie erkennen muss, dass sie an der Seite ihres hochadeligen Geliebten als Künstlerin zum Scheitern verurteilt ist, flieht sie mit ihrer Truppe zurück nach Leipzig.

Doch dort erhält sie keine Auftrittsgenehmigung und muss sich nun mehr schlecht als recht mit Auftritten in Gartenlokalen durchschlagen. Als sie mit einem Stück über die Verbannung der Hanswurst-Figur aus dem zeitgenössischen Theater gastiert, kommt es zu einem regelrechten Tumult. Am Ende steht die Auflösung der Neuberin-Truppe, und die Künstler gehen getrennte Wege. Zurück an Carolines Seite bleiben nur noch ihr treuer Ehemann und ihre gelehrige Schülerin Philine. Die junge Nachwuchskünstlerin reist daraufhin heimlich nach Weißenfels ab und versucht dort, bei Herzogin Amalia, ein gutes Wort für Caroline Neuber einzulegen. Die Herzogin sagt ihre Unterstützung zu, doch als man auf der Suche nach dem Ehepaar Neuber ist, sind beide verschwunden. Die Herzogin lässt im gesamten Land nach den beiden suchen. Desillusioniert, verarmt und entkräftet stirbt Caroline Neuber in den Armen ihres Mannes. Nunmehr zeigt sich auch die Herzogin bestürzt und gibt sogar ihren Segen für die Vermählung von Philine mit Baron Armin. Doch die junge Nachwuchskünstlerin fühlt sich dem unausgesprochenen Vermächtnis der Neuberin verpflichtet und will sich fortan nur noch der hohen Kunst widmen. Die Gründung eines Deutschen Nationaltheaters, ganz ohne Hanswurste, ist beschlossene Sache.

...

* Findbücher zu Beständen des Bundesarchivs: Band 8: Wochenschauen und Dokumentarfilme 1895-1950 im Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, neuarbeitet von Peter Bucher. Koblenz, Bundesarchiv 1984, Nachdruck 2000. pp. 132-134.

A Modern Hero (2018 Warner Archive Collection dvd)

G. W. Pabst: A Modern Hero (US 1934). Jean Muir (Joanna Ryan Croy) and Richard Barthelmess (Pierre Radier / Paul Rader).

 

US © 1934 Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. 

    D: G. W. Pabst. Dialogue D: Arthur Greville Collins. SC: Gene Markey & Kathryn Scola – based on the novel (1932) by Louis Bromfield. Cin: William Rees – b&w – 1:1,37. AD: Robert M. Haas. Cost: Orry-Kelly. M: Heinz Roemheld (n.c.). Conductor of Vitaphone Orchestra: Leo F. Forbstein. S: mono. ED: James Gibbon.

    C: Richard Barthelmess (Pierre Radier / Paul Rader), Jean Muir (Joanna Ryan Croy), Marjorie Rambeau (Mme Azais), Verree Teasdale (Lady Claire Benston), Florence Eldridge (Leah Ernst), Dorothy Burgess (Hazel Flint Radier), Hobart Cavanaugh (Henry Mueller), William Janney (Young Pierre Croy), Arthur Hohl (Homer Flint), Theodore Newton (Elmer Croy), J. M. Kerrigan (Mr. Ryan), Maidel Turner (Aunt Clara Weingartner), Mickey Rentschler (Young Pierre as a Child), Richard Tucker (Mr. Eggelson), Judith Vosselli (Mrs. Eggelson), Theresa Harris (Leah's maid).

    71 min

    Production ended 20 Dec 1933.

    Distribution companies: Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ; The Vitaphone Corp.

    U.S. premiere: 3 April 1934.

    Not released in Finland.

    A Warner Archive Collection dvd released in 2018.

    Dvd viewed at home, 2 Nov 2025.

AA: In Die 3-Groschen-Oper / The Threepenny Opera (DE 1931) G. W. Pabst worked for Warner Bros. Pictures GmbH (Berlin), which produced the movie in collaboration with Tobis. In 1933 the film was banned by the Nazis, who destroyed the negative and all prints they could get their hands on. When Hitler rose to power Pabst was in France directing a series of internationally co-produced films.

In 1933 Pabst was invited to direct for Warner Bros. in America. Though known for his criticism of the Hollywood studio system, Pabst accepted the invitation. The Burbank experience was unhappy for all involved. The director of The Joyless Street and The Threepenny Opera might have had a connection with the hard-boiled Warner Bros. studio style, but the match failed. Pabst did not accept the screenplay nor the casting, but he directed the assignment dutifully and professionally. Pabst as the editor of his own films was known as the master of "the invisible cut". He cut in movement, achieving a smooth continuity. Warner Bros. imposed its own signature staccato edit to the movie.

What the priorities were for Warner Bros. we can read from the poster above. The name above the title is Richard Barthelmess. Below the title: Louis Bromfield. Further below: Jean Muir. The rest is in small print.

Richard Barthelmess is never at home in his role as Pierre Radier / Paul Rader, which is kind of the point of the film. But he never feels at home in his own skin. He is a stranger in his own life. He is insincerity incarnate.

The film belongs to the female cast. The greatest performance is by Marjorie Rambeau as the mother of Pierre / Paul. Jean Muir is excellent as Joanna, Pierre's first love and the mother of his son. Florence Eldridge impresses as Leah, the wealthy widow. Finally there is the refined Dorothy Burgess, the daughter of a financier. All Pierre betrays, and by so doing he betrays himself the most.

The women speak truth to Pierre, but he does not listen to them. "You are a real love child". "Being a woman ain't much fun". "I'm sorry for any woman who gets mixed with him". "He ain't the same person". "Is the past always finished?" 

The plot involves a crash course of history from the breakthrough of the automobile to World War One to the Roaring Twenties and the Wall Street Crash. This brings to mind The Roaring Twenties the movie. Other associations include Back Street and The Power and the Glory.

Pabst juxtaposes the circus world with the Wall Street world. The sympathy for the circus world is the most affecting aspect of the movie next to the four leading female performances.

But A Modern Hero is an unfulfilled film. A studio hack might have turned a better result. Pabst refused to be a hack, and Warner Bros. refused him the freedom he required.

The dvd is based on a straight digital transfer of materials of variable quality, including perhaps 16 mm or telecine sources. It is perfectly watchable but a long way from Pabst's Weimar glory.

SYNOPSIS FROM AFI CATALOG ONLINE:

Circus bareback rider Pierre Radier meets small town woman Joanna Ryan, and they have a brief affair, which leaves her pregnant. Although Pierre offers to marry her, Joanne refuses, preferring to marry a more stable local man who knows about her pregnancy. 

Pierre has long wanted to leave the circus, even though his alcoholic mother, Madame Azais, advises against it. When Henry Mueller, the circus handyman, asks Pierre to join him in a business venture, Azais refuses to lend Pierre the necessary money. 

While secretly visiting Joanna after the birth of her baby son, Pierre meets Leah Ernst, a wealthy widow who falls in love with him. Pierre begins an affair with Leah and she lends him the money to open a bicycle shop with Mueller. The shop is a big success, but Mueller is not satisfied. He designs an automobile, which catches the eye of financier Homer Flint. 

To cement the deal, Pierre marries Flint's daughter Hazel after ending his relationship with Leah. He also becomes an American citizen, changing his name to Paul Rader. Together Flint and Pierre start an auto factory. 

When he is playing golf one day, Pierre meets his son, Pierre Croy, who is now a young boy. He asks Joanna to allow him to adopt the boy, but she refuses, convinced he will have a better life on the farm.

Pierre continues to amass money, and when World War I starts, he diversifies into munitions. He sends his son gifts, and when Pierre, Jr. is old enough, sends him away to school. His marriage to Hazel is not a success, and soon he is spending his time in New York visiting with his son and a series of attractive women. 

Carried away with a sense of his own importance and invulnerability, Pierre invests his and Flint's money in stocks. After his son is killed driving the car he gave him for his birthday, Pierre's life starts to fall apart. 

Hazel discovers Pierre, Jr's parentage, and finally ends her marriage. Pierre loses all his money in stock speculation as well as that of his father-in-law. 

Joanna blames Pierre for the death of her oldest son. Penniless and friendless, Pierre seeks out his mother, who is now making a living as a fortune-teller. They plan to return to Europe, where Pierre hopes he will be worthy of her.