On the night of Sunday, 13 November 2022, the Murnau Foundation in cooperation with UCM.ONE will present the film “Phantom” by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau at midnight in the Babylon cinema in the center of Berlin. The silent film from 1922 celebrates its 100th premiere in Berlin on this date. The film will be accompanied by the house organist Anna Vavkjlina on the only cinema organ from 1929 that has been preserved in its original location in Germany.
The literary model for Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau‘s “Phantom” was created by the writer and playwright Gerhart Hauptmann. Gerhard Hauptmann turned 60 on November 15, 1922 The “Phantom” film adaptation was considered the German film industry’s official contribution to the “Hauptmann Year“. The film premiere on 13 November 1922 in Berlin’s Ufa-Palast am Zoo was thus given the status of a “respectable cultural event”. Gerhard Hauptmann himself wrote an appreciation of the cinema for the programme booklet.
Tickets can be purchased via the following link: Silent Movie at Midnight
UCM.ONE, in collaboration with the Murnau Foundation, is releasing the film “Phantom” on the 100th anniversary of its premiere as a Limited Mediabook (re-scanned in HD, Blu-ray+DVD+24-page booklet) as well as on selected download portals.
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“After Nosferatu, The Phantom represents a clear evolution of Murnau’s talent.” (themoviewaffler.com)
“It’s been less than a decade since The Phantom, long thought lost, was rediscovered and restored. It’s overshadowed by its more famous predecessor, but even if it’s not the landmark Nosferatu it is, it should be seen.” (battleshippretension.com)
“F.W. Murnau’s Phantom, released the same year but shot after Nosferatu, is not a fantasy film as its title suggests, but it sometimes approaches that genre for its recurring expressionist aesthetic and some “Murnauscher” thematic elements. The various monochrome tones of the picture were explicitly chosen by Murnau, who, however, wanted the dream and nightmare visions to remain in pure black and white.” (Francis Moury, juanasensio.com)
“Perhaps the most interesting feature of Phantom is that the main thematic nodes are all resolved through immediate visual gimmicks, i.e. fully functional on the narrative level and at the same time on the symbolic level.” (David Bax 2015 / garden-of-silence.com)
“Phantom, a poignant drama about unfortunate choices and the tragedy of a life lived in the shadow of failure.” (cinegrandiose.com)
More information about the movie: Phantom
