Siegfried and Fafnir.dv

An excerpt from Fritz Lang's silent film, The Nibelungen, with music synchronized by John Helmer Fiore

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Siegfried
• Wagner
• Fritz Lang
• Nibelungen
• John Fiore

[FireEyedMaidOfWar]

Well. I suppose that it is always hard to have a movie based on a great epic and so I should not be too stern with poor Monsieur Lang! Though the movie is a masterwork with solemn music, amazing acting, a very impressive scenery and brilliant filming; but then again: This is the Song of the Nibelungs and like all attempts to made a movie based on the Iliad are bound to fail; so Monsieur Lang should have just chosen a part of the epic like the Greek tragedians did with Homer.

[FireEyedMaidOfWar]

Well. I suppose that it is always hard to have a movie based on a great epic and so I should not be too stern with poor Monsieur Lang! Though the movie is a masterwork with solemn music, amazing acting, a very impressive scenery and brilliant filming; but then again: This is the Song of the Nibelungs and like all attempts to made a movie based on the Iliad are bound to fail; so Monsieur Lang should have just chosen a part of the epic like the Greek tragedians did with Homer.

[FireEyedMaidOfWar]

And I dislike some of the actors: Hagen should be more the grey-haired heroic warrior of the saga and not the sly weaklings as he is shown here; Siegfried is alright with me, but that is only because I don’t fancy this hero that much; Kriemhild is well chosen and so is Brunhild, the bard Volker is of course my favourite character of the saga and here he is at least acceptable; but King Gunther is misplaced; and that Hagen’s brother Dankwart is missing is not to be endured!

[FireEyedMaidOfWar]

While I wonder of Monsieur Lang would have been able to make such an epic version as a dialogue film instead of a silent movie; and can’t help to think of a version of the Nibelungs made like a combination of Lord of the Rings and Peter Brook’s Mahabharata; and they should have depicted Attila and his Huns more closely to the saga, which shows the scourge of God as a wise and mighty king (modelled after the medieval Hungarian kings), being caught in the cunning scheming of Kriemhild.

[Cynhilde]

There is no more sublime experience for one suffering from the Wagnerian disease than to have the honor of attending one of Maestro Fiore's showings of the Fritz Lang silent film The Nibelungen, lovingly synchronized and "cleaned up" visually by him. How wonderful that this scene is now available to enjoy again.