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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you have a thing for old German movies where everyone looks like they just woke up from a fever dream, you should probably watch Masken. It is worth your time if you appreciate mood over actual logic.
People who need explosions or fast talking will absolutely hate this. It moves like molasses in a cold basement.
I watched this on a rainy Tuesday and it felt right. The movie is from 1929, which is that weird transition period where cinema was trying to figure out if it wanted to keep its mouth shut or start blabbing. 🤐
The plot is... well, it's about masks. Both the physical kind and the ones people wear on their souls, I guess.
There is this one scene where a character is just staring at a wall. For like, a long time. It felt like two minutes but was probably thirty seconds.
I found myself looking at the wallpaper in the background instead of the actors. It had this busy, dizzying pattern that probably looked great in a theater back then but just makes me feel a bit twitchy now.
Oscar Homolka is in this. He has one of those faces that just looks like it belongs in a black-and-white frame. Even when he isn't doing much, his eyes are doing about ten different things at once.
The way the light hits his forehead makes him look like a statue. It’s almost more interesting than the crime he's involved in.
Rudolf Meinert, the director, really liked his shadows. There is a shot of a staircase that looks like it was borrowed from a nightmare. 🌙
It reminds me a little bit of the visual weight you see in Vidocq. Everything feels heavy and slightly damp.
I noticed a small hair on the lens during a close-up of Trude Berliner. It was distracting for a second, but then it kind of added to the charm of watching something this old.
The masks themselves are genuinely creepy. They don't look like cheap party store stuff; they look like they were carved out of someone's bad memories.
There’s a strange moment in a hallway where two characters pass each other and they both do this little half-hop. I don't know if it was scripted or if they both just tripped on the rug. 🤨
It’s these little human accidents that make these old films feel alive. You don't get that in the polished stuff they churn out now.
The pacing is definitely a struggle. About halfway through, I found myself wondering if I’d missed a major plot point because everyone started acting very urgent for no clear reason.
It’s not as tight as something like La bataille. It wanders off into these side stories that don't really go anywhere.
Jean Murat shows up and he's fine, I guess. He doesn't have that weird magnetic energy that Homolka brings to the screen.
I liked the way the film handles the idea of being trapped. Not just in a room, but in a life you didn't really choose.
There is a shot of a window reflecting the street outside that is probably the most beautiful thing in the whole movie. It lasts about five seconds too long, though.
I actually stopped the movie to go make a sandwich during a particularly long sequence of someone walking down a corridor. When I came back, they were still walking. 🥪
Does the ending make sense? Not really. But by the time it gets there, you’re so hypnotized by the flickering lights that you don’t really care.
It feels like a movie made by people who were very tired but also very inspired. If that makes any sense at all.
If you're looking for a crisp narrative, go watch something else. If you want to feel like you've spent an hour in a smoky 1920s parlor, this is the one.
It's imperfect and messy. The costumes are a bit too big for some of the actors, especially Hans Schickler. He looks like he’s wearing his dad’s suit in one scene.
But man, those shadows. They stick with you. 🎬
I’ll probably forget the names of the characters by tomorrow. But I won’t forget the way the villain looked when he finally took that mask off.
IMDb —
1923
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