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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you have a couple of hours and a soft spot for grainy German silent films, you should probably give this a look. It is mostly for people who like watching faces more than complicated plots.
If you can’t stand long silences or black and white melodrama, you’ll probably hate every second of it. 📽️
I found myself watching this because of Henny Porten. She has this way of taking up the whole screen without even moving her hands much.
In this one, she’s the mistress and the power dynamic with her staff is just... uncomfortable. Not in a bad way, just in a "wow, social classes really sucked back then" way.
The servant, played by Alexander Sascha, has these eyes that look like he’s either about to cry or start a small fire. Most of the movie is just him standing in corners looking at her.
It’s actually quite funny if you think about it too much. He is just... always there.
I noticed one scene where the lighting hits a vase in the background. It’s so bright it almost hurts to look at while the actors are talking.
The cinematographer must have been really proud of that vase. 🏺
There’s a lot of walking in halls. People in 1929 really liked walking down hallways very slowly to show they were thinking.
It reminds me a bit of the heavy tension in The Captive God, but way more domestic and less sweaty.
Fritz Kampers shows up and he’s always a delight to see on screen. He has a very loud face.
Even without sound, you can tell he’s probably the loudest person in the room. He moves with so much energy compared to everyone else.
I don’t really get why Mary Kid’s character does half the things she does. She enters a room, looks confused for a second, and then just leaves.
Maybe I missed a title card because I was looking at the furniture. 🤷♂️
The writing by Friedrich Raff and Georg Engel feels a bit heavy-handed. They really want you to know that being rich is lonely and miserable.
We get it, guys. The big house is a cage.
The costumes are great though. Lots of heavy fabric that looks like it would be incredibly itchy in real life.
I spent about five minutes wondering how they actually washed those dresses back then without ruining them. Probably lots of scrubbing.
There’s this one part where a character is reading a letter. The camera stays on the letter for so long I actually read the whole thing twice.
My German isn't even that good but I had plenty of time to figure it out. The pacing just stops dead there.
The movie gets slightly better when they finally go outside. The interior scenes feel a bit like a stage play where the actors are afraid to knock over the props.
But once they hit the gardens, the movie breathes a little. You can almost feel the fresh air through the film grain.
Igo Sym is there too, looking very polished. He has that classic movie star hair that absolutely never moves.
Even in a light breeze, that hair is solid. It must have taken a lot of product.
Is it a masterpiece? Probably not. It’s a bit messy and the ending feels like they realized they were running out of film and needed to wrap it up fast.
But there is something about the way Porten looks at the camera in the final act. It’s like she’s tired of the whole story herself.
I felt that. Sometimes a movie just captures a specific kind of exhaustion perfectly.
If you liked the vibe of La grande passion, you might find this interesting enough for a Sunday watch. It has that same "everyone is very sad in fancy rooms" vibe.
Overall, it’s a decent way to spend an afternoon if you like film history. Just don’t expect a fast pace or anything like a modern thriller.
It’s a slow burn that sometimes just... smolders without ever catching fire. But the smoldering looks pretty nice.
IMDb —
1917
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