Tartuffe (1925)

Original title

Herr Tartüff

Directed by

F. W. Murnau

Genre

drama film, silent film

Country

Germany

Runtime

1h 14m

Rated

15

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 76 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young actor screens a silent film to warn his grandfather about a conniving housekeeper. The film within the film tells the story of Tartuffe, a hypocrite who deceives a wealthy man and threatens his family.

stagedcautionaryclassicalmanipulativetensestylizedquiet

What happens

Tartuffe (German: Tartüff) is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. It was directed by F. W. Murnau, photographed by Karl Freund and written by Carl Mayer from Molière's original play. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. Set design and costumes were by Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig. The film stars Emil Jannings as Tartuffe, Lil Dagover as Elmire and Werner Krauss as Orgon. Based on the play Tartuffe, the film retains the basic plot, but Murnau and Mayer pared down Molière's play, eliminating most of the secondary characters and concentrating on the triangle of Orgon, Elmire and Tartuffe. They also introduced a framing device, whereby the story of Tartuffe becomes a film-within-a-film, shown by a young actor as a device to warn his grandfather about his unctuous but evil housekeeper. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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