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[A Word from Film posters.com]
It can be difficult to find vintage
film posters, like one for "Tartuffe." The web
is a great place to find movie posters
of all kinds. Framed vintage
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Most critics of this 1925 silent feature squawked that F.W. Muranu
"butchered" Moliere's original work, but let's face it, the play -- a
warning against hypocrisy -- isn't exactly the most subtle classic in
the world. Unlike his later Faust, Murnau obviously needed to imagine
Tartuffe in a way to make it relevant to modern day, and so he
invented the bookend sequences, making it -- along with Keaton's
Sherlock Jr. -- one of the first post-modern films (in which
characters watch and are aware of films). In the wraparound sequence, a
young man tries to save his grandfather who is about to lose his fortune
to a greedy, crooked housekeeper. Since the young man is an actor, he
disguises himself and plays a traveling motion picture man, setting up a
screening of Tartuffe in hopes of convincing the housekeeper that
she's wrong. Of course, this actual Tartuffe is the film's strongest
section, with the great Emil Jannings in the title role, stiffly walking
around -- he sometimes resembles Murnau's Nosferatu -- and leering
just over the top of the Good Book. Tartuffe manages to convince a
weak-willed dupe that pleasures of the flesh are wrong, while indulging
in many of those self-same pleasures himself. All in all, it's a
relatively minor Murnau, but some sequences contain his beautifully
twisted touches.
DVD Details: The Tartuffe disc includes a new 35-minute documentary on the
life of Murnau. But best of all, Tartuffe comes packaged in an
extraordinary new box set, The F.W. Murnau Collection, which contains
Kino's Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh (1924) and
Faust (1926) as well as Image Entertainment's Tabu (1931).
For more info, visit Kino's website or
call toll-free at (800) 562-3330.
Starring: Emil Jannings, Hermann Picha, Rosa Valetti, André Mattoni, Werner Krauss, Lil Dagover, Lucie Höflich Written by: Carl Mayer, based on a play by Molière Directed by: F.W. Murnau MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 63 minutes Date: November 2, 2003
Most critics of this 1925 silent feature squawked that F.W. Muranu
"butchered" Moliere's original work, but let's face it, the play -- a
warning against hypocrisy -- isn't exactly the most subtle classic in
the world. Unlike his later Faust, Murnau obviously needed to imagine
Tartuffe in a way to make it relevant to modern day, and so he
invented the bookend sequences, making it -- along with Keaton's
Sherlock Jr. -- one of the first post-modern films (in which
characters watch and are aware of films). In the wraparound sequence, a
young man tries to save his grandfather who is about to lose his fortune
to a greedy, crooked housekeeper. Since the young man is an actor, he
disguises himself and plays a traveling motion picture man, setting up a
screening of Tartuffe in hopes of convincing the housekeeper that
she's wrong. Of course, this actual Tartuffe is the film's strongest
section, with the great Emil Jannings in the title role, stiffly walking
around -- he sometimes resembles Murnau's Nosferatu -- and leering
just over the top of the Good Book. Tartuffe manages to convince a
weak-willed dupe that pleasures of the flesh are wrong, while indulging
in many of those self-same pleasures himself. All in all, it's a
relatively minor Murnau, but some sequences contain his beautifully
twisted touches.
