Der Rote Reiter: A relic that is mostly just dusty

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you’re a completionist for 1930s German cinema or you have a weirdly specific obsession with period dramas that move at the speed of a dying snail. If you want action or tight writing, look elsewhere. If you want to see how they framed a shot before everyone became obsessed with shaky-cam, then sure, go for it. But most people? They'll be bored stiff.

The whole thing feels like it's trying to be some grand, sweeping epic, but it keeps getting stuck in the mud of its own dialogue. There are moments where the actors look like they are waiting for a bus that never shows up. It reminds me a bit of the pacing issues in Præsten i Vejlby, though that one had a bit more punch to its mystery.

There’s this one sequence near the middle—you'll know it because the music suddenly swells way too loud—where the protagonist is just walking through a hallway. He walks for an eternity. It’s supposed to be heavy with tension, but I just found myself counting the patterns on the wallpaper.

Oddly specific observations:

• The lighting in the tavern scene is so dramatic it’s almost funny. Shadows everywhere. Like they were afraid of the sun.
• I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background of the marketplace scene is just eating a piece of bread for the entire duration of the shot. He really commits to it.
• The horse in the opening scene has more screen presence than half the cast.

I can’t help but think about how much lighter this would feel if they just cut about twenty minutes of people staring at horizons. The acting is very much of the time—lots of grand gestures and faces that say, "I am feeling a Great Emotion." It’s not necessarily bad, just exhausting to watch for ninety minutes straight.

It’s not quite as disjointed as The Cohens and the Kellys in Africa, but it shares that same feeling of a movie that doesn't quite know when to quit. Still, there’s a weird charm to the cinematography. It’s grainy, sure, but there’s a texture to the film that you just don't get with modern stuff. 🎞️

Would I watch it again? Probably not. Am I glad I saw it? Maybe just to see what the fuss was about back then. It’s a curiosity, nothing more.