Film Review: KINO 2017! Presents Fritz Lang’s “DESTINY” With A DJ
Can love conquer death? That is the question of Fritz Lang’s cinematically gorgeous film: Destiny. The 1921 film was restored for Kino 2017!, and soundtracked originally, for the event, by the acclaimed French DJ Raphaël Marionneau. This film classic is a silent film, known as one of the first movie “fairytales”; following a young woman’s course to outwit Death through three lives just so she can live the one she has with the man she loves. Yet, the addition of Marionneau’s music, without dialogue, brought a new emotional weight to the story and its characters.
Kino 2017! was dedicated to German films, new and old, that gave fresh takes to what it means to be human. From 24 Weeks to Hannah’s Sleeping Dogs, characters found themselves in unfathomable situations where the moral “high-ground” was not exactly visible. Thus, Der Mur Tod, its original, German title, was a perfect choice for the festival. For its time, it was an international success and influenced many future filmmakers to see movies, which ,at the time, were still a recent development, as a chance to say “something”. This film speaks upon the challenge between love and mortality as a young woman refuses to accept that her young, vibrant fiancé has passed. Death is hard for anyone, but when you feel like a person barely began their life before they were taken; death can become bitter. The irony of Death (played by Bernhard Goetzke), as a being is that, in this film, he, himself, is bitter at not being able to let people live beyond when The Lord deems they are done. He is the epitome of a” bad guy” who has no say in his villainy because it is his job. Marionneau’s music elevated the emotionality of this character along with the heroine, played wonderfully by Lil Dagover. As his mixes matched each setting and sentimental turn of both Death and The Heroine, while they played an unwilling versus, the audience re-discovered a classic for its vast meaning. The stakes grew as we watched the three lives that occurred to make one worth living again.
From the “flamenco” flare following Fiametta, in Italy, as she tries to save Francesco, to the arabic music that pulsed though Morocco as Zobeide tried to hide her love from Death, up until the geisha- inspired sonics that coursed through Japan asTiaotsien’s magical plot to help her man escape; music became a solid replacement for dialogue. KINO 2017! committed a brilliant idea by adding music that would amplify and modernize this classic film’s worth to a newer generation, but would not take away the beauty of silent films as ones to watch the physical tells of a moving spirit. From widening eyes to curling fingers, Lil Dagover guided you to the plight of a young woman trying to save her love, while Marionneau guided you to watch her more intently through the intensity of his brilliant set. Thus, KINO 2017! came as a festival to show Germany’s cinematic aim at human observance. For More Information On KINO 2017! Click Here.
