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Michael (1924 film)
Encyclopedia
Michael was a silent film
released in 1924, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
, director of other notable silents such as The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928), Master of the House
(1925), and Leaves from Satan's Book
(1921). The film stars Walter Slezak
as the titular Michael, the young assistant and model to the artist Claude Zoret (Benjamin Christensen
). Along with Different From the Others
(1919) and Sex in Chains
(1928).
The film is based on Herman Bang
's 1902 novel Mikaël. It is the second screen adaptation of the book, the first being The Wings
, made eight years prior by director Mauritz Stiller
. Michael, however, follows Bang's storyline much more closely than the earlier film version.
Michael sells the painting of himself that Zoret made and gave to him as a gift, and steals and sells the sketches Zoret made of their time in Algiers
, where they first fell in love. Zoret begins work on his masterpiece: a large-scale painting of a man lying on a beach, using Algiers as a background, depicting "a man who has lost everything", as one character put it on first sight of the work.
After completing the painting, Zoret falls ill. Charles Switt sits beside Zoret on his deathbed. Switt had always loved Zoret, and has stayed with him throughout, never criticizing Michael for fear of hurting his unrequited love. Switt sends a message to Michael, telling him that Zoret is dying and to come at once, but the Countess prevents him from getting it. Zoret's last words, which also serve as the prologue to the film, are "Now I can die in peace, for I have seen true love."
, writing in December, 1926 for The New York Times
, pronounced:
He criticizes the film for what he perceived as opportunism for a German director to take a "fling at France" by filming less than favorable national figures on the screen (Zoret was purportedly based on French sculptor Auguste Rodin
). The homosexual undertones also upset reviewers, since "Michael [was] one of the very few big-budget mainstream studio productions from the silent period that [dealt] with homosexuality; although it remains implicit, it was readily apparent to many contemporaries." Hall, for example, complained that "the story is also handicapped by queer titles", because he felt Zoret and Michael only had a non-romantic relationship between teacher and protégé.
After Dreyer had further established himself as prominent director through his later films, most notably through his 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc
, widely considered a masterpiece, critics reconsidered Michael. From the perspective of auteur theory
, this film exhibits many trademark elements of Dreyer's personal directorial style, such as his use of close-up
s in a "way that... makes a tranquil picture of overwhelming feelings." It has also been suggested that the film reflects personal feelings harbored by Dreyer after a purported homosexual affair.
The film has been cited to have influenced several directors. Alfred Hitchcock
drew upon motifs from Michael for his script for The Blackguard
(1925). The film is considered an important early work in gay silent cinema.
by Eureka Entertainment Ltd. as part of the Masters of Cinema
Series on October 25, 2004 with the title Michael. Two months later on December 14, Kino International released a Region 1
version with the title Carl Theodor Dreyer's Michael. Kino International retains the copyright in the United States.
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
released in 1924, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
, director of other notable silents such as The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film produced in France in 1928. It is based on the record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti...
(1928), Master of the House
Du skal ære din hustru
Du skal ære din hustru is a 1925 Danish silent comedy film drama directed and written by acclaimed filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film marked the debut of Karin Nellemose...
(1925), and Leaves from Satan's Book
Leaves from Satan's Book
Leaves from Satan's Book is a 1921 drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Helge Nissen.-Synopsis:Satan has been cast out from hell and banished to Earth under decree of heaven. He can return, only through a series of temptations. However, for every soul who gives in to his...
(1921). The film stars Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak
Walter Slezak was a portly Austrian character actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films. Slezak often portrayed villains or thugs, most notably the German U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat , but occasionally he got to play lighter roles, as in The Wonderful World of the...
as the titular Michael, the young assistant and model to the artist Claude Zoret (Benjamin Christensen
Benjamin Christensen
Benjamin Christensen was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor both in film and on the stage. As a director he is most well known for the 1922 film Häxan and as an actor, he is best known for his performance in the film Michael , in which he plays Claude Zoret, the jilted lover of the...
). Along with Different From the Others
Different From The Others
Different From The Others is a German film produced during the Weimar Republic. It was first released in 1919 and stars Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel.The story for Anders als die Andern was written by Richard Oswald with the assistance of Dr...
(1919) and Sex in Chains
Sex in Chains
Sex in Chains , original German title Geschlecht in Fesseln, is a silent film directed by William Dieterle.-Plot:The film opens with Franz Sommer and his newlywed wife, Helene . They are going through hard times, and Sommer is without steady employment, partly due to his honest-to-a-fault nature...
(1928).
The film is based on Herman Bang
Herman Bang
Herman Joachim Bang was a Danish author, one of the men of the Modern Breakthrough.-Biography:Bang was born into a noble family of Asserballe, on the small Danish island of Als, the son of a South Jutlandic vicar...
's 1902 novel Mikaël. It is the second screen adaptation of the book, the first being The Wings
The Wings (film)
-Production background:The film was directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Egil Eide, Lars Hanson, Lili Bech, and Julius Hälsig, and was based on Herman Bang's 1902 novel Mikaël, which was the same source Carl Theodor Dreyer used for his 1924 film Michael....
, made eight years prior by director Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller
Mauritz Stiller was a Finnish-Swedish actor, screenwriter and silent film director, who was mostly active in Sweden.-Life:...
. Michael, however, follows Bang's storyline much more closely than the earlier film version.
Plot
A famous painter named Claude Zoret falls in love with one of his models, Michael, and for a time the two live happily as partners. Zoret is considerably older than Michael, and as they age, Michael begins to drift from him, although Zoret is completely blind to this. When a bankrupt countess comes to Zoret to have a portrait made — with the real intent of seducing him and swindling his money — she finds Michael to be more receptive to her advances. At her lead, the two quickly become a couple and she immediately begins using Michael to steal from Zoret. When Zoret discovers what has been going on, he is crushed and his work suffers terribly.Michael sells the painting of himself that Zoret made and gave to him as a gift, and steals and sells the sketches Zoret made of their time in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
, where they first fell in love. Zoret begins work on his masterpiece: a large-scale painting of a man lying on a beach, using Algiers as a background, depicting "a man who has lost everything", as one character put it on first sight of the work.
After completing the painting, Zoret falls ill. Charles Switt sits beside Zoret on his deathbed. Switt had always loved Zoret, and has stayed with him throughout, never criticizing Michael for fear of hurting his unrequited love. Switt sends a message to Michael, telling him that Zoret is dying and to come at once, but the Countess prevents him from getting it. Zoret's last words, which also serve as the prologue to the film, are "Now I can die in peace, for I have seen true love."
Cast
- Walter Slezak as Michael
- Benjamin Christensen as Claude Zoret
- Nora Gregor as Countess Lucia Zamikow
- Robert Garrison as Charles Switt, journalist
- Max Auzinger as Jules, principal steward of the house
- Didier Aslan as Duke de Monthieu
- Alexander Murski as Mr. Adelsskjold
- Grete MosheimGrete MosheimMargaret "Grete" Mosheim was a German film, theatre and television actress of Hungarian Jewish ancestry.-Early life:Mosheim was born in Berlin, Germany on 8 January 1905...
as Mrs. Alice Adelsskjold - Karl FreundKarl FreundKarl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...
as LeBlanc, art dealer - Wilhelmine Sandrock as Widow de Monthieu
Crew
- Carl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor DreyerCarl Theodor Dreyer, Jr. was a Danish film director. He is regarded by many critics and filmmakers as one of the greatest directors in cinema.-Life:Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark...
- director, adaptation and screenplay - Erich PommerErich PommerErich Pommer was a German-born film producer and executive. He was involved in the German Expressionist film movement during the silent era as the head of production at Decla, Decla-Bioscop and from 1924 to 1926 at Ufa responsible for many of the best known movies of the Weimar Republic such as...
- producer - Karl Freund - cinematography
- Rudolph MatéRudolph MatéBorn in Kraków , Maté started in the film business after his graduation from the University of Budapest. He went on to work as an assistant cameraman in Hungary and later throughout Europe, sometimes with noted colleague Karl Freund...
- cinematography - Herman BangHerman BangHerman Joachim Bang was a Danish author, one of the men of the Modern Breakthrough.-Biography:Bang was born into a noble family of Asserballe, on the small Danish island of Als, the son of a South Jutlandic vicar...
- original novel "Mikaël" - Thea von HarbouThea von HarbouThea Gabriele von Harbou was a German actress, author and film director of Prussian aristocratic origin. She was born in Tauperlitz in the Kingdom of Bavaria.-Early work:...
- adaptation and screenplay - Hans Joseph Vieth - original music
- Hugo HäringHugo HäringHugo Häring was a German architect and architectural writer best known for his writings on "organic architecture", and as a figure in architectural debates about functionalism in the 1920s and 1930s, though he had an important role as an expressionist architect.A student of the great Theodor...
- costume design, set design
Critical reception and legacy
Initial responses to the film included some major objections. Film critic Mordaunt HallMordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for The New York Times, from October 1924 to September 1934....
, writing in December, 1926 for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, pronounced:
"Chained" is a dull piece of work, redeemed only by some artistic scenes and Benjamin Christensen's able portrayal of Claude Zoret, an artist...The actress cast as a princess does not screen well, and Walter Slezak, who figures as the youth, gives a stilted, amateurish impersonation.
He criticizes the film for what he perceived as opportunism for a German director to take a "fling at France" by filming less than favorable national figures on the screen (Zoret was purportedly based on French sculptor Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
). The homosexual undertones also upset reviewers, since "Michael [was] one of the very few big-budget mainstream studio productions from the silent period that [dealt] with homosexuality; although it remains implicit, it was readily apparent to many contemporaries." Hall, for example, complained that "the story is also handicapped by queer titles", because he felt Zoret and Michael only had a non-romantic relationship between teacher and protégé.
After Dreyer had further established himself as prominent director through his later films, most notably through his 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film produced in France in 1928. It is based on the record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti...
, widely considered a masterpiece, critics reconsidered Michael. From the perspective of auteur theory
Auteur theory
In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...
, this film exhibits many trademark elements of Dreyer's personal directorial style, such as his use of close-up
Close-up
In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...
s in a "way that... makes a tranquil picture of overwhelming feelings." It has also been suggested that the film reflects personal feelings harbored by Dreyer after a purported homosexual affair.
The film has been cited to have influenced several directors. Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
drew upon motifs from Michael for his script for The Blackguard
The Blackguard
The Blackguard is a British-German drama film directed by Graham Cutts and starring Jane Novak, Walter Rilla, and Frank Stanmore. Its German title is Die Prinzessin und der Geiger...
(1925). The film is considered an important early work in gay silent cinema.
Home media release
The film was released in Region 2DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
by Eureka Entertainment Ltd. as part of the Masters of Cinema
Masters of Cinema
The Masters of Cinema organization began as a website dedicated to the most well-regarded film directors in the world. Founded by a diverse international group of like-minded film enthusiasts: Jan Bielawski, a mathematician; Doug Cummings, a graphic artist and freelance critic; Trond Trondsen, a Ph.D...
Series on October 25, 2004 with the title Michael. Two months later on December 14, Kino International released a Region 1
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
version with the title Carl Theodor Dreyer's Michael. Kino International retains the copyright in the United States.