Destiny (aka ‘Der mude Tod’, 1921) was eighth film for FritzLang, one of the luminaries of silent-era film-making. He made his directorial
debut in 1919 (the first two of his films are lost). His first successful film
was ‘The Spiders Part I: The Golden Sea’ (1920). But it was from the
influential expressionist movie Destiny, Lang started to deeply focus upon his
favorite visual and thematic motifs (which later became his trademark elements). Mr.
Lang’s films repeatedly hover around themes of life, love, salvation, death,
and afterlife. From a visual standpoint, he deftly employed expressionistic
imagery to attune to the emotions of his characters. Lang’s visual concepts and perfect execution
proves us why silent films provide greatest visual experience than many of the
sound pictures. The surreal and mythical quality found in Destiny were later
found in vast proportions in his future silent masterpieces like Dr. Mabuse
(1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), and Metropolis (1927).
The German Expressionist movement mostly delved in horror
and crime genres and the making of Destiny alleged to have caused its shift towards fanciful realms. Moreover, the film is now accompanied with tagline
‘The movie that inspired Hitchcock and Bunuel’. Destiny didn’t enjoy commercial
success immediately after its release. Swashbuckling American hero Douglas
Fairbanks bought the film’s American rights in order to liberally borrow scenes
for his ‘The Thief of Baghdad’ (1924). Structurally, Lang’s movie was inspired
by D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916 – which was also a big commercial failure
and had more complex structure than Destiny) and Carl Dreyer’s Leaves from
Satan’s Book (1920). Lang and his wife/co-scriptwriter Thea von Harbou designed
the story by foraying through mythological works and tales of Brothers Grimm. Although
the film has influenced many great masters of cinema through its visual
specter, its story line is very simple. In fact, Destiny makes up for one of
Lang’s most accessible work (he made 46 movies including post-silent era classics like M, Fury, The Big Heat and few very dry art
movies).
The film was digitally restored by using fragments of
various prints. The orchestral score by Cornelius Schwehr impeccably sets up
the mood to experience the haunting visuals. The film opens with an interesting
subtitle: ‘A German folk story in 6 verses’, indicating the traditional
folklore structure. From a narrative standpoint, each divided verses neatly
formulate the fanciful story. The central tale is set in European rural town,
where a young happy couple (Walter Janssen and Lil Dagover) traveling in a
stage coach meet a tall, mysterious stranger (Bernhard Goetzke). A short
flashback reveals that the intimidating stranger has taken up residence in the
small town near the cemetery. He chipped off the initial resistance of the
local Councillors to sell the land by paying with gold. Once the municipal sold
the land, the stranger builds a towering wall with no visible entrance. The Councillors are left to gossip in the town’s favorite local inn -- the Golden
Unicorn. The couple and the stranger arrive to the inn, where soon the young
woman’s fiance disappears along with the stranger.
The woman soon finds the secret behind the stranger’s huge
wall. She comes across ghosts and spirits approaching near the wall and her
fiance is part of the group. The woman is rescued by an old apothecarist. Later, the young woman drinks vial of poison with the hope of seeing her
fiance. However, the tall stranger says that her time hasn’t yet arrived. She
begs the stranger or grim-reaper or death to give back her fiance, citing the Bible
verse “love is stronger than death”. The death takes her to his domain – a huge
room filled with candles of different size. The flickering candles symbolize
the life burning away in each person. In a special effect that’s reminiscent of
George Meiles’ camera trick, the death moves the flame from the candle upwards
which dissolves into the body of a naked child that soon vanishes in order to indicate
that the child has passed away. Furthermore, moved by the woman’s appeals the
weary death puts forth a challenge: three people are soon destined to die in three
different realms and death asks her to save them, if possible, through love. The
narrative then leads to three separate stories, set in a Muslim country, Renaissance-era Italy, and mythical China (Maurice Tourneur, who largely
influenced Lang, made a classic silent movie titled ‘The Blue Bird’ (1918)
which also had similar enjoyable flights of fantasy).
What’s astounding about Lang’s silent films are the visual
scale and details which even the modern film-makers couldn’t dream of achieving,
despite all the state-of-the-art technologies. The shot of death’s humongous
room with candles and the giant door-less wall is really an enchanting
achievement for its time. The artifice in the three miniature fantasy tales plus
its racial stereotyping seems largely out-dated, but even in those scenes
the geometrical precision in the staging continues to fascinate us. Furthermore,
each of these exotic tales has distinct sets and costumes (for the Arabic tale
the inter-titles are presented in pseudo-Arabic style). Set
designers Walter Rohrig and Robert Herth were responsible for creating the
majestic abstract imagery of expressionist movement (their works include
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926), etc). One
of Lang’s trademark imagery (also confirms to expressionist movement’s imagery)
that originated in ‘Destiny’ is staircases, clocks, and bridges -- the elements
which indicate the character’s passage or journey (external as well as
internal). Of the three fantasy tales within the central story, my favorite one
is the Chinese magician’s tale. Although all the three tales are about star-crossed
lovers stricken by fate, the Chinese one had many intriguing special effects: for
example, the march of miniature soldiers and surrealistic shot of old magician
transformed into a cactus. Director Lang also experimented on lot of shots in
the movie. The best among them is the final visualization of a burning house shot at
night time.
Apart from the awesome visual style, the film’s enduring
appeal resides in the humans’ persistent fight or negotiation (and eventual
loss) with unappeasable death. The lovers (Dagover and Janssen) in the central
tale reprise similar roles in the three fantasy tales, while daunting death play the role of villainous fate. The performances of lovers are easily
forgettable, but Goetzke’s personification of death is so powerful. This character later
served as inspiration for Bengkt Ekerot’s popular portrayal of death in Bergman’s
The Seventh Seal (1957). Goetzke’s eerie presence, hard stares, and tired
external features precedes other haunting faces of the era (like Max Schreck
(Nosferatu), Emil Jannings (Faust), Maria Falconetti (Passion of Joan of Arc),
Peter Lorre (M), Boris Karloff (Frankenstein), etc). In the Senses of Cinema
article on Destiny, Mr. Michael Koller describes Goetzke’s performance through
these spellbinding words: “When Goetzke stares blankly at the camera, an eerie
extra-diegetic element is added to the film. Goetzke is staring at the
audience, but also into the void that is eternity and death……….Death’s
loneliness is palpable and frightening. And truly unforgettable.”
Trailer
Fritz Lang’s Destiny (98 minutes) is a remarkable classic of
German Expressionism. It’s got lot of emotions and innovative aesthetic motifs
which must relish silent-film lovers. It’s one of the earliest cinematic works
to entertain us through the splendid art form and also makes a valid statement
about humanity.
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