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6.5/10
Archivist John
Senior Editor
A definitive 6.5/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Salamander remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you’re looking for a relaxing evening, Salamander isn’t it. This is a movie for the people who find the intersection of 1920s Soviet propaganda and weird biology fascinating. If you hate films where the villains are basically caricatures who hide in the shadows of churches to plot against science, you’re going to find this unbearable. But for the rest of us, it’s a bizarre, clunky, and strangely affecting piece of history.
Bernhard Goetzke plays the lead, Professor Zange. He has this incredibly long, mournful face that makes him look like he’s already mourning his career before anything even happens. He’s meant to be a hero of the people, but he spends most of the movie looking like he needs a very long nap. His performance is actually quite grounded, which makes the rest of the movie feel even more insane by comparison.
The plot is a total distortion of what happened to Paul Kammerer, a real scientist who killed himself after being accused of faking his data. Here, though, it’s not a mistake or a desperate assistant—it’s a full-blown conspiracy involving a priest and a prince. The scene where they meet in the dark sacristy to hatch their plan feels like it was ripped out of a gothic horror movie. It’s so over-the-top that it’s hard not to laugh. The priest literally decides that Zange’s discovery will destroy the power of the Church, so he has to be stopped. It’s about as subtle as a brick to the face.
There’s a specific shot during the big university meeting where Zange is presenting his findings. He’s so proud, and the lighting is all bright and optimistic. Then, someone dips the salamander into a jar of water. The way the ink clouds the water is actually a great visual moment. It’s simple, but it’s the exact moment his life falls apart. The silence of the film makes the "uproar" that follows feel even more chaotic, even if the extras in the crowd look like they’re just waving their arms around because someone told them to.
The movie takes a very dark turn after he’s kicked out. We see him begging on the streets, and for some reason, he has an experimental monkey with him. The monkey just follows him into misery. It’s such a weird, specific detail. Why the monkey? It adds this layer of pathetic sadness that feels almost too manipulative, but seeing a guy in a tattered coat sharing his last crumbs with a primate is hard to look away from. It reminds me a bit of the heavy-handed pathos you see in Punin i Baburin, where the misery is just piled on until you can't take it anymore.
The pacing gets really weird toward the end. One minute he’s in a miserable attic about to end it all, and the next, a Russian student is rushing in with a message from Lunacharsky. Lunacharsky, by the way, wrote the movie and plays himself in it. It’s the ultimate "self-insert" move. He literally shows up to save the day through the power of Soviet bureaucracy.
The final shot is a train heading east. There’s a massive streamer that reads "To the land of liberty." It’s the kind of blunt-force ending that makes you realize you haven't been watching a character study, but a very long recruitment poster.
Is it a good movie? Not in the traditional sense. The editing is jumpy, and the villains are cartoonish. But the chemistry between Goetzke and the world around him—especially that monkey—is strangely memorable. It’s much more interesting than some of the more polished, empty dramas of the same era, like Lure of Ambition. It has a specific, desperate energy that you only get from people who truly believe the movie they’re making is going to change the world.
One last thing: keep an eye on the costumes. The "prince" assistant looks like he’s wearing a uniform three sizes too small, which only adds to the feeling that the whole production was just barely holding it together. It’s those little imperfections that make it worth the watch.
IMDb —
1924
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