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5.6/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.6/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Der Herrscher remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have a high tolerance for grand, operatic acting and mid-30s German melodrama, Der Herrscher is a total trip. You’ll probably hate it if you need your movies to move fast or if you find Emil Jannings’ style of "acting with his entire face" a bit much. It is definitely for the crowd that enjoys watching a powerful man slowly lose his grip on reality.
The whole thing hinges on Jannings as Mathias Clausen. He plays a guy who builds everything, owns everything, and suddenly has nothing when his wife kicks the bucket. It is heavy. The guy practically breathes authority, even when he’s falling apart.
There is a specific scene after the funeral where the silence in the house is so thick you can practically feel the dust settling. It goes on way longer than most directors would allow today, but it works. You watch him just… existing. It’s not about the plot anymore, it’s about the sheer weight of his furniture.
Also, the way his family starts circling him like sharks once they smell his grief is brutal. They are all so polite and so vicious at the same time. It reminded me a bit of the suffocating family dynamics in Her Forgotten Past, though this one feels much more rigid, like everyone is acting on a stage even when they’re in the kitchen.
The cinematography is surprisingly claustrophobic. They keep framing him against these massive, ornate walls that make him look like a prisoner in his own mansion. It’s not subtle, but it’s effective.
It’s not a movie you watch for fun. It’s a movie you watch to feel a bit drained by the end. The final act feels like it’s trying to be a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, but it keeps tripping over its own need to be important. Still, I’d take this over the empty spectacle of something like Monsters of the Deep any day of the week.
Just don't expect it to be easy. Sometimes it’s just a guy sitting in a chair, looking like he’s about to explode. Sometimes, that’s enough.
