Kriemhilds Rache
Germany,
1924, 140 min
Shown in 1989
CREDITS
- dir
-
Fritz Lang
- prod
-
Erich Pommer
- scr
-
Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
- cam
-
Carl Hoffman, Günther Rittau
- cast
-
Paul Richter, Maragarete Schön, Rudolph Klein-Rogge, Georg August Koch, Theodor Loos, Hans Adalbert von Schlettow
- premiere
-
U.S. Premiere Revival
OTHER
"Kriemhild's Revenge, wrongly considered as a sequel to Siegfried's Death, reveals the vast, awesome design of Die Nibelungen as reimagined by Lang and Thea von Harbou, his much-maligned screenwriter and wife. Matching style to content, it is the brutal antithesis to Part One, opposing the classical harmony and ceremonial dignity of the Burgundy court with the bestial anarchy of the Huns, whose king the inconsolable Kriemhild has married as part of her plan to exact vengeance on the murderers of her beloved Siegfried. A long, brilliantly sustained crescendo of horror, the tragic ambush of Burgundian nobles in the banquet hall, is directed with a furious virtuosity that looks forward to Kurosawa. The apocalypse even engulfs conventional audience expectations: Kriemhild's revenge is so unrelentingly inhuman it dissipates earlier sympathy for the unhappy princess. Hitler and his cronies, who embraced Siegfried's Death, apparently thought less of the second part, which proved an uncomfortable self-portrait of German decadence and barbarism."
—Lenny Borger
FACTOID #336
Bing Crosby was invited several times for an onstage tribute at the Festival, reports then-director Claude Jarman, but declined the honor. “Nobody wants to see those little things that I used to do,” he modestly replied. He did attend though, with wife Kathy and their friend, Rita Hayworth.
