A very beautiful film. We may wonder how Fritz Lang managed to get to that level of quality of picture but also that width of picture with the camera of the time. But he managed at least to give the impression he had wide pictures of landscape and movement, particularly galloping horses and masses of people. The film is not in black and white as expected but in gold and black and that gives it a tremendous impact since it is color without being color. It is warm whereas white and black would have been cold. That establishes a relation with the audience that is close like some story telling at night in front of some fire in the winter. We are inside the story. Another quality is the costumes. The luxurious costumes of the Nibelungen from Burgundy and the city of Worms are strikingly imposing and even forbidding. Hagen Tronje's rough costume and extravagant helmet make him look like a barbarian, violent by principle, treacherous by nature. He is the man apart that will never be betrayed by the clan, in spite of all the misery he will bring down upon them. In the same way the Huns are shown as primitive, mostly have nude, and children are shown as systematically nude, living in some kind of huts or tents, at times troglodyte caves, though at the same time they have a palace in the "city" and that palace is in a way beautiful though rather massive and heavy but quite comparable to that of the Nibelungen in Worms which is maybe vaster and more richly decorated and has a cathedral. The restoration of the film has a lot to do with the quality of the picture but all the rest is really Fritz Lang's. The question this film brings up is the motivation of Fritz Lang when he directed and produced this film. The film goes back to the traditional Germanic more than German legend of Siegfried and his wife Kriemhild. This version is not the only one in Germanic culture with some others more Scandinavian in which Siegfried is named Sigurd. This film is centered on Burgundy seen as German and the Huns in the East. This redistributing Europe to the benefit of Germany is typical of the post World War 1 atmosphere, the desire to step over the defeat. At the same time the Nibelungen are run amok because of one of their allies who is untrustworthy, and yet they stick to him. That leads to all the Nibelungen being destroyed by the vengeful will of one of them, hence some kind of a traitor, Kriemhild herself who wants to avenge the murder of her husband, though she forgets to remember she gave the killer the information he needed to succeed. She wants at least everyone to forget. And she will get her vengeance, but she will be destroyed by one surviving member of the clan. That means the defeat comes from inside because the Nibelungen were not able to respect and protect the hero they had welcomed in their clan. You see the myth behind, the lesson to the German audience: be faithful and support your heroes. Just nine years later it is this mood that will produce Hitler and the full German support to him. The Germans did not do the same mistake as in the old days. Surprisingly enough the lesson comes from a Jew, the main victims later on. The vision of the East, the Huns, Attila, is the vision of a primitive and extremely barbaric people but yet courageous and dedicated to themselves, the Huns, with waves and waves of simple people turned warriors without weapons or equipment, dying in great number but finally overwhelming the well equipped and well trained Nibelungen. True enough the killing idea came from Kriemhild: burn them all in and out, but yet it is the Huns who did it, burning down their own palace to roast the Nibelungen inside. At the same time the motivations were clear: they wanted to avenge the killing of Attila's own son by Hagen Tronje. They were justified since Hagen Tronje killed an infant out of pure spite. We can wonder if this film, a lot more popular medium than the rewriting of the myth by Wagner's operas, though Wagner could now be heard on the radio in the 1920s and 1930s, if this film did not contribute to build the atmosphere and motivation that brought Hitler to power. One thing is sure: the film is a very compelling call to the Germans to reunite and get inspiration from their mythology or past and at the same time to unite behind their heroes not to make the same mistakes again. In 1924 Hitler was still unknown but yet the momentum that was going to bring him to power was already moving and building up. This film is one piece of the puzzle. And it's probably for that reason that we had to wait so long before getting it restored to some glory. Some historical facts of the past are at times difficult to digest by modern people.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

UFA's Die Nibelungen films have suffered from a problem common to Metropolis, King Kong and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in that they are motion picture classics that also happen to have been favourites with Adolf Hitler. While those others I mentioned tend to be overlooked as coincidences – evidence of nothing more than that sometimes even fascist dictators have taste – the Nibelungen pictures have fared a little worse because of the significance of the legend to German nationalism, as typified in the opera by the German anti-Semite Wagner.However, while the Nazis may have been able to project their racial ideology onto the original story, Fritz Lang's direction of the motion picture version actually breaks with the heroic nationalist reinterpretation. Wagner's opera was calculated to be exciting and rousing. Screenwriter Thea von Harbou would eventually become a nazi stooge, and probably intended a similar effect for the film. The original poem Nibelungenlied though is not intrinsically nationalistic – it is simply a folk tale in a similar vein the King Arthur legend or the Iliad, and Lang recognised this fact. Like those ancient sagas from which it is drawn, his version is lacking in any kind of emotional manipulation, yet is rich in pageantry and poetic imagery. In Die Nibelungen we in fact have a perfect example of how a director's formal technique can shape the tone of a film.Throughout the picture, Lang takes a cool, detached approach to the material. There are few close-ups or point-of-view shots. We know that Lang was not averse to these techniques – look at his previous picture, Dr Mabuse, where the title character is often staring straight into the lens, as if to hypnotise the audience. Let's also compare the dragon slaying scenes from Die Nibelungen and the Douglas Fairbanks Thief of Bagdad (directed by Raoul Walsh). The important difference here is not who had the best dragon (and to be fair they are both pretty naff), but how they are filmed. For the Fairbanks legend to work, you have to get swept up in the action, and Walsh places the camera at the hero's back as he delivers the fatal blow, bringing the audience in for the kill too. Siegfried's fight is staged almost identically yet Lang just matter-of-factly shows it happen, even giving us the dragon's death indirectly with a shot of its tail flopping to the ground.All this is not to say that Lang did not have respect for the Nibelungen story. He had great reverence for it, but again purely in the form of an old legend – an artefact of a bygone era, not something that a modern audience can or should try to relate to, but something profound and beautiful nonetheless. Lang reflects this in the overall look of the picture, forming neat, painterly tableau, encouraging exaggerated, theatrical acting and giving the overall picture a stylised sense of rhythm. Ironically he brings it close to opera in tone, although of course this version was in no other way like Wagner's.Lang's distinctive visual style pervades Die Nibelungen. So far, Lang had made striking use of interiors, but Siegfried's story mostly takes place outdoors. There are no rolling vistas here though. Lang creates a claustrophobic landscape out of crowding forests and overbearing rock formations. In earlier Lang films we can already see how his sets and shot compositions seem to form patterns and paths to hem in the characters and even control their movements, but now the actors almost seem to become part of the scenery. Take for example a shot about two-thirds of the way through, when Brunhild is framed between two curtains – the pattern on her dress matches that on the curtains. Throughout his career Lang first and foremost shoots the sets – the actors are merely a part of them.This thoroughly Langian interpretation of the Nibelungenlied may have brought a tear to the eye of Hitler and Goebbels, but the emotional connection to the material can only have existed in their heads. To the majority of viewers, this picture and its sequel do not encourage any kind of romantic or heroic feeling. They are in a way more of an illustration than a story in their own right. While this detached style does not make for gripping viewing, the films do have an aesthetic beauty to them that makes them watchable.

Upon completing his epic crime film "Dr Mabuse", Fritz Lang embarked on a quest to bring Germanic legend Das Niebelungenlied to the screen. So colossal was the undertaking that it required two films, of which "Siegfried" is the first.Young heroic Siegfried kills a dragon and bathes in its blood, gaining immortality (save for a fatal weak spot). His quests make him into a powerful figure and allow him to court the beautiful princess Kriemhield. But her weakling brother only approves the lovers' union if Siegfried agrees to help him deceive the beautiful Valkyrie Brunhield into falling in love with him. When she eventually discovers this treachery, the humiliated amazon vows sets forth a cycle of revenge that will create tragedy on an epic scale.There's no way to avoid comparisons: "Die Niebelungen" is the Lord of the Rings of its day, and easily one of the most staggering epics in the history of movies. The scale, extras and the pioneering dragon-slaying scene all make for enduring cinema. Fritz Lang's alluring visuals push it even further: his awesome depiction of the rigid codes of honor that are the undoing of his characters imbues the film with a mood and atmosphere whose influences are incalculable. "Die Niebelungen" can also be read as one chooses, tribute to German heroism or to the trappings and tragedy of "honor". Hitler for one was so impressed with the film that he used an alternate edit of the film as propaganda, playing to Wagner's Niebelungen opera (which Lang actually loathed!). To be fair, though the original score can not hope to reach the mythical heights of Wagner's opera, it is still a considerable achievement.Though he would revisit the crime genre with the slick "Spies" and practically invent modern science-fiction with "Metropolis", none of Lang's silent films would reach this level of excellence. "Siegfried" of course can only fairly be judged when seen right before the second half of the saga: "Kriemhield's Revenge", in which formality makes way for chaos and petty jealousy and revenge turn to violence on a biblical scale.Anyone with even a passing interest in the silent era or film as a whole should avidly seek this out. Kino on Video have a very decent double DVD edition. I wholeheartedly recommend it.Edit (October 2010): As I add these words, Eureka have released a stellar BluRay of this saga which is just mind-blowing (reviewed by dvdbeaver, for the curious). If you've never seen this film yet, lucky you. Go straight to HD!

For those of you who don't know about it, "The Nibelungenlied" is to German literature what "Beowulf" is to English literature. The story of Siegfried, a warrior who must help a prince win a princess, was made into an ultra-cool movie by Fritz Lang. Most people might imagine 1920's cinema as primitive by today's standards, but this was a very good technical production. Whether it's Siegfried (Paul Richter) slaying a dragon, or becoming invisible to help the prince win a contest, every part of the movie has something neat.A strange irony to this movie was what it almost did for Fritz Lang. Adolf Hitler loved the movie and used "The Nibelungenlied" to represent a "strong Germany". Joseph Goebbels asked Fritz Lang if he would like to make propaganda films for the Nazis. Fritz Lang said that he would think about it and quickly fled the country (in the United States, he continued turning out famous movies). Lang's wife, Thea Von Harbou, stayed in Germany and worked for the Nazi propaganda machine.No matter. It's a great movie.