Film Details

Germany has Bayreuth, but Cleveland has a new digital restoration of Fritz Lang's epic film version of the medieval Nordic legend that inspired Wagner's "Ring Cycle." This two-part silent fantasy, the most elaborate and expensive German movie of its day, was co-written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou, with music by Gottfried Huppertz. (The three would also collaborate on Lang's next film, Metropolis.) Siegfried, the saga's magical first part, follows the pure, fearless titular hero as he slays a dragon and asks for the hand of Princess Kriemhild. The nightmarish second part, Kriemhild's Revenge (shown tomorrow night), chronicles the cataclysmic destruction wrought by the now blood-thirsty Kriemhild after she is grievously wronged by a rival tribe. With color tints and a new recording of the Huppertz score.