Der Gang in die Nacht (The Dark Road). 1921. Directed by F. W. Murnau

Film

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Der Gang in die Nacht (The Dark Road). 1921. Germany. Directed by F. W. Murnau. Courtesy Munich Film Museum

Der Gang in die Nacht (The Dark Road). 1921. Germany. Directed by F. W. Murnau. Screenplay by Carl Mayer, adapted from the Danish screenplay The Victor by Harriet Bloch. With Olaf Fønss, Erna Morena, Conrad Veidt. Silent, with a new piano score by Richard Siedhoff. 80 min.

The earliest surviving film by F. W. Murnau is also, paradoxically, the only Murnau film for which the original camera negative exists. Working from that extraordinary material, the Munich Film Museum has produced an extraordinary restoration—a film that for the first time gives an accurate representation of Murnau’s innovative, highly expressive lighting techniques. The plot—an eminent physician (Olaf Fønss) comes under the spell of an unscrupulous dancer (Erna Morena)—finds echoes throughout the Weimar period, including Sternberg’s The Blue Angel. Conrad Veidt appears in a supporting role as a sinister painter, whose entrance eerily presages Murnau’s Nosferatu. Special thanks to Manuel Goetz. DCP.

This film accompanies To Save and Project: The 14th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation.

Past events

Mon, Nov 14, 2016, 4:00 p.m.

Education Center, Mezzanine, Theater 3

The Celeste Bartos Theater
Sun, Nov 13, 2016, 1:00 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

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