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Based on Herman Bang’s 1902 novel of the same name, Dreyer’s film is a fascinating fin-de-siècle study of a “decadent” elderly artist (Benjamin Christensen) driven to despair by his relationship with his young protégé and former model, Michael (Walter Slezak). With suffocatingly sumptuous production design by renowned architect Hugo Häring (his only film work), this Kammerspiel, or “intimate theatre”, foreshadows Dreyer’s magnificent final film Gertrud, by forty years with its “Now I may die content, for I have seen great love” epigraph.Michael was scripted by Dreyer with Fritz Lang’s wife, Thea von Harbou (Metropolis, M, etc). It stars the director Benjamin Christensen (Häxan); Walter Slezak (Hitchcock’s Lifeboat); Nora Gregor (Renoir’s The Rules of the Game); Mady Christians (Ophüls’ Letter from an Unknown Woman); and Karl Freund (who also shot Metropolis) in his only ever appearance as an actor. Freund lensed most of Michael too, but left to work on Murnau’s The Last Laugh, and Rudolph Maté (The Passion of Joan of Arc) took over.The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Carl Th. Dreyer’s Michael for the first time ever on Blu-ray, from a new 2K restoration.
Original Release
09/26/1924
US Release
12/14/1926
Links
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Walter Slezak | Michael / Eugène Michael |
Benjamin Christensen | Claude Zoret |
Nora Gregor | Princess Lucia Zamikoff / Fürstin Lucia Zamikoff |
Alexander Murski | Mr. Adelsskjold / Herr Adelsskjold |
Grete Mosheim | Mrs. Alice Adelsskjold / Frau Alice Adelsskjold |
Didier Aslan | Duc de Monthieu / Herzog Monthieu |
Robert Garrison | Charles Switt - Journalist / Kunstkritiker Charles Switt |
Max Auzinger | Jules - Majordomo / Jules - Majordomus |
Karl Freund | LeBlanc - Art Dealer / Kunsthändlr LeBlanc |
Wilhelmine Sandrock | Widow de Monthieu / Herzoginwitwe Monthieu |
Directors
Writers
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Herman Bang, Thea von Harbou
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Walter Slezak | Michael / Eugène Michael |
Benjamin Christensen | Claude Zoret |
Nora Gregor | Princess Lucia Zamikoff / Fürstin Lucia Zamikoff |
Alexander Murski | Mr. Adelsskjold / Herr Adelsskjold |
Grete Mosheim | Mrs. Alice Adelsskjold / Frau Alice Adelsskjold |
Didier Aslan | Duc de Monthieu / Herzog Monthieu |
Robert Garrison | Charles Switt - Journalist / Kunstkritiker Charles Switt |
Max Auzinger | Jules - Majordomo / Jules - Majordomus |
Karl Freund | LeBlanc - Art Dealer / Kunsthändlr LeBlanc |
Wilhelmine Sandrock | Widow de Monthieu / Herzoginwitwe Monthieu |
Eugène de Klotz | Baron |
Mady Christians | Frau |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Erich Pommer | Producer |