Post Description

NERVES (1919)



Studio: Edition Filmmuseum

DVD Release Date: September 12, 2008


Director: Robert Reinert


Description
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Film history tends to give the impression that German cinema was non-existent before The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Anything made previous is practically impossible to see and of the directors working at the time only those who went on to produce major works, and find international acclaim, remain known: Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Paul Wegener, Joe May, and so on. As a result many film fans are likely to draw a blank when it comes to Robert Reinert, the mind behind Nerven.

Nerven remains a truly startling piece of work, beginning with one of the most highly strung opening sequences you?ll ever see: pre-Caligari expressionism without recourse to painted sets; intertitles that seem to offer up the voices inside the heads of those on-screen; a dazzling array of smoke, naked bodies and stunning recreations of World War I trenches swelling with the dead. There is a point to this, namely that Reinert, over the course of the picture and with utmost seriousness, is investigation the post-war climate in Germany, one driven by paranoia, misery and the nerves of the titles. The prologue merely serves to set the scene, though the general outlandishness continues throughout ? for Reinert taking your own material seriously didn?t necessarily equate to a sober style.


Format: PAL

DVD Size: 6.73 GB -- Exact Untouched Copy

Runtime (main feature): 110 minutes

Type: Black and White (tinted)

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 | Non-Anamorphic

Sound (main feature): silent (score in DD2.0)

Subtitles: German intertitles with optional English subtitles


DISC FEATURES:

# Bilder von der Volksbewegung in Munchen Newsreel (1919, 3 mins).
# Munchen im Zeichen der Raterepublik Newsreel (1919, 11 mins).
# Side-by-side Comparison of Different Fragments.
# Poster Gallery.