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| Die Nibelungen, Part 1: Siegfried |
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| Originally released: 1924 |
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Lang's most grandiose undertaking, a two-part epic retelling of
Teutonic legend, opens in a rhapsody of sculpted flesh and patterns of
light, combined with impressive model work as Siegfried battles the
dragon Fafnir. By and large, however, this first episode is monolithic
in style, and a trifle stolid with it. Lang's obsessively patterned,
geometric compositions transform actors in architectural features:
this is, in Siegfried Kracauer's words, "the complete triumph of
the ornamental over the human." Lang's mythic fatalism is here at
its most clear cut, with the result that this is not among his subtlest
films.
Alex Jacoby
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