Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total

Trivia
The dragon in the film is not a miniature. It is a full-scale puppet 60 feet long.

Goofs
The tip of the spear Siegfied is killed with exits through the chest. Since Siegfried is invulnerable except at the entry point this should not be possible. The same impossible chest wound is shown later to be the one bleeding when the murderer enters the room.

Crazy credits
Karl Vollbrecht receives a credit as "Erbauer des Drachens" -- 'dragon builder'.

Alternate versions
A 2012 restoration project completed by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung has been released by Kino Lorber on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Both "Die Nibelungen: Siegfried" (1924) and "Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge" (1925) are included. The film's running times differ from other versions at 149 minutes and 131 minutes, respectively. This can be attributed to the fact that the restoration utilized some footage from different takes of scenes and slight adjustments were made to the 'frames-per-second' rate perhaps to present a more realistic flow of the action.

Connections
Edited into Fritz Lang, le cercle du destin - Les films allemands (2004)

User reviews42

Review

Featured review

10/10

One of the great masterpieces of any generation

I am not especially an aficionado of silent films though I have long loved Lang's 'Metropolis'. Being an opera lover, especially Wagner, it is to my shame that it has taken me decade to get around to watching Lang's masterpiece 'Siegfried'.

Even more than Richard Wagner's 4 Ring operas in 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' Lang's films tie in many of the ancient Nordic and Teutonic legends that contributed to Wagner's monumental creation.

Brunhild is a powerful Icelandic Queen, Siegfried the son of King Siegmund, all this quite different from the operas in that Siegmund was not a king in those. Also, Hagen, the evil deus ex machina is portrayed here as a Wotan like figure, with patched eye and horned helmet. Otherwise, the basic story is the same but more believable as drama than Wagner's highly fantastic story line.

This film is going to last a lifetime with me. And it is especially wonderful that the great musical score by Gottfried Huppertz has been included in the DVD release on Kino films. Its a haunting score and very much its own character. It doesn't try to imitate Wagnerianism but there are what Wagner called leitmotivs to represent the various characters and mood.

Even if you aren't a Wagner fan this film by Fritz Lang displays so many amazing innovations for 1924 that it puts the computerized f/x of our day quite in the shade in terms of novelty and human artistry.

I can't recommend 'Siegfried' highly enough. Haunting and beautiful, even in black and white. The Kino picture is quite clear and the acting superb.