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Schloss Vogelöd



One of the earliest (and eeriest) works by the legendary filmmaker F. W. Murnau, Schloß Vogelöd: Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses [Castle Vogelöd: The Revelation of a Secret, frequently referred to as The Haunted Castle] provides a vital glimpse into the development of the uncanny-suffused expressionistic style that became Murnau’s hallmark and legacy.

A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness’s late husband?

With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau’s own Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, this languorous mood-piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director’s later breakthroughs. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present F. W. Murnau’s Schloß Vogelöd on DVD in the UK for the first time.

Special Features

• Original German-language intertitles with newly translated English-language subtitles
• The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films, a 31-minute video piece by Luciano Berriatúa on the early works of Murnau
• A 32-page booklet containing a newly translated vintage essay on the film by critic Charles Jameux, and writing on the film by Lotte H. Eisner

Any chance that the surviving reel of Murnau's MARIZZA, GENANNT DIE SCHMUGGLER-MADONNA (1922) might be included on this release as a bonus?

~Roger

If only for the truly magnificent title?

MichaelB wrote:If only for the truly magnificent title?

It is indeed a magnificent title. But we won't be including this on our release.

ck.

Any updates on the features on this?

SCHLOSS VOGELÖD aka THE HAUNTED CASTLE
A film by F. W. Murnau
1921
Germany
82 minutes
1.37:1 original aspect ratio

One of the earliest (and eeriest) works by the legendary filmmaker F. W. Murnau, Schloss Vogelöd: Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses [Castle Vogelöd: The Revelation of a Secret, often referred to as The Haunted Castle] provides a vital glimpse into the development of the uncanny-suffused expressionistic style that became Murnau's hallmark and legacy.

A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness's late husband?

With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau's own Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, this languorous mood piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director's later breakthroughs. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present F. W. Murnau's Schloss Vogelöd on DVD in the UK for the first time.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Original German-language intertitles with newly translated English-language subtitles

• The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films, a 31-minute documentary featurette by Luciano Berriatua on the early works of Murnau

• An illustrated booklet containing a newly translated essay on the film, vintage writings on Murnau, and more!

Looks great (but I couldn't help but be a tad disappointed when I saw no Kalat commentary)! Love your Murnau and Lang works and I would love for you to release the few remaining silents that are left from the pair.

We did try for Kalat. Unfortunately, he couldn't fit it into the short window of time we had.

Ahh, that's too bad. Good to know you value his commentaries as highly as many of us do.

We value his commentaries very highly. I think he's done eight for us in the last couple of years!

Kalat is simply great, so give yourself and him a little bit more of a time window and get the rights for "Der Gang in die Nacht"; and you could also use the chance to put the "Marizza"-fragment on that one. Then all our Murnau problems would be solved

Tommaso wrote:Kalat is simply great, so give yourself and him a little bit more of a time window and get the rights for "Der Gang in die Nacht"; and you could also use the chance to put the "Marizza"-fragment on that one. Then all our Murnau problems would be solved

What about the restored Der brennende Acker?

Ahm yes, I always tend to forget about that one because of the Grapevine (?) disc and the arte broadcast floating around. But of course, this should definitely be released by MoC, too.

We can only dream! I said in the Facebook/Twitter thread only last night that I would love for them to release the few silent titles that are left from Murnau and Lang.

Didn't someone mention that there was a Liliom restoration coming out in Italy soon or maybe it's just a rehash.
edit Here it is
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Yes Nick & Craig, you guys would be heroes indeed if you could get Der Gang in die Nacht out in restored form. It's the only extant Murnau that I haven't seen. . . because I haven't bothered to watch the grotty analog sourced piece of fuzz that seems to be all that's available among trading groups. And I do really want to see that film-- it's a pivotal film in FW's development, showing the influence of Stiller and the Swedes in general via his use of natural landscape and lots of location work, which figures so prominently in Nosferatu. It wasn't until I saw Sir Arne that I realized how profoundly the Swedes affected Murnau's sensibility, especially during those early years.

TMDaines wrote:We can only dream! I said in the Facebook/Twitter thread only last night that I would love for them to release the few silent titles that are left from Murnau and Lang.

Murnau yes, Lang...well, not all of them. "Das wandernde Bild" is really a weak film, "Vier um die Frau" is better, but still pretty average early 20s fare. "Harakiri" would be nice, though. But don't believe in the 'big names', and I'll keep repeating this until some listens: what the world really needs is Grune, Pick, Schwarz and Gerlach on dvd. More important than any unreleased Murnau and Lang by a long distance.

I'm wondering how much extant Paul Leni is out there, too.

I can't believe Mutter Krause hasn't rec'd a formal English friendly release.

Jessner, too. Some of those sleazy Reinert's from the teens (Opium comes to mind) would sure be welcome.

The question is how well all these films are preserved and whether they have already received a restoration. In the case of "Opium", I doubt it (but would be happy to be proven wrong), but Gerlach's "Grieshuus" definitely has been restored; same for Schwarz' "Nina Petrowna". Perhaps all this is too 'niche' for MoC, but Kino or divisa surely should have bitten by now; but it seems that their most adventurous days are over (side-effect of the Blu craze? or the general economic situation these days?)

There is actually conclusive scientific evidence, derived from experiments conducted on a handful of forum guinea pigs, that everyone that sees Nina Petrowna absolutely loves it. Imagine what would happen if this thing were unleashed on the world at large!

A revolution in the writing of silent film history, countless labels trying to emulate its success with similar, though less important releases (among which Schwarz' "Melodie des Herzens" would get at least some minor trophies in the yearly polls in forums such as this), and mass demonstrations at the headquarters of FWMS asking for worldwide theatrical re-runs of all the treasures they hide from the public.

AlexHansen wrote:Beaver

Fantastic job. It's such a pity there's only two of you companies out there reguarly tackling Weimar cinema with such high standards.

I do wonder if sales of these things would be better if the box called the film by its English title. I mean Schloss Vogelod or The Haunted Castle...

Orlac wrote:I do wonder if sales of these things would be better if the box called the film by its English title. I mean Schloss Vogelod or The Haunted Castle...

But it does... :-s