Reelin' In The Years -- Destiny (1921), directed by Fritz Lang

The Trailer

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The Appropriate Tune: "Bring Me To Life", by Evanescence

       Is there any filmmaker that has gotten so much praise for so little (on this blog at least) as Fritz Lang? I mean I covered a single film of his, Metropolis, six years ago now and yet it feels like he’s constantly showing up in my name dropping sessions? Got a silent movie? Fritz Lang comes in. Science fiction movie? Fritz Lang. Movie that has even a hint of inspiration from German Expressionism? Fritz Lang. The man had been a filmmaker for over ten years before Metropolis and would continue to be one for decades afterward, as much as I loved that film it’s not necessarily indicative of who Fritz Lang was as an artist and filmmaker. Nor would it be for anyone, besides those folks who only ever did one movie I suppose. Conveniently enough, rectifying that problem also coincides with the kickoff of our unofficial Reelin’ In the Years Tour, and you better settle in because there’s a lot more silent black and white movies to come.

We begin our journey in 1921 with Destiny, or Der müde Tod, written (along with Thea von Harben) and directed by Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang, this being his eighth time in the director’s chair. Described as a ‘German Folk Song in Six Verses’, the film centers around a young couple who meet a mysterious stranger while taking a carriage ride into an unnamed village. When they stop off at the local inn the young woman goes off to play with some cats, and when she returns she finds her fiance gone, along with the stranger. Given that he resides in a vast walled structure without any windows or doors next to a cemetery, it should come as no surprise that this stranger is actually Death, and yet this doesn’t stop the young woman from pleading for her lover’s return. So Death gives her a challenge: if love really is as strong as death, then he’ll give her three chances, three lives of different lands and times, in order to prove it. If even one manages to succeed, then her fiance’s life will be returned to him. If not, well, better start making the down payment on that casket. But as long as it’s not chess, it’ll probably be fine.

Our leads here are Lil Dagover (who you might recognize from Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Walter Jannsen, and Bernard Goetzke as the Young Couple and Death respectively, as well as characters within the 3 lives segments. They’re...okay. Lil Dagover does most of the heavy lifting, which makes sense as she was the protagonist as well as the most famous actress in Germany at the time, but there’s not much to lift as they’re all rather simple characters. They try a little bit of comedy in the China story, which has a bit of charm to it. Mostly it’s weird, especially the kissing scene. I’m not sure who thought that looked good.   

       Where the film really shines, setting the stage for Metropolis a few years later, is Lang’s ambitious eye in regards to visual and set design. Not only do we get some nice looking shots in the village, like Death’s vast wall and the room of men’s lives, but then Destiny goes the extra mile and presents us with Renaissance-era Venice, Imperial China and the Ottoman Empire, filtered through the lens of German Expressionism. Lots of large spaces, interplays between light and shadows, warped scenery, and surprisingly not quite as culturally insensitive as you might expect from a bunch of German in the 1920’s. The most intriguing is arguably China, which in Lang’s hands becomes this strange, Carrollesque wonderland of wizards and storybook landscapes, as if you tasked someone to recite Marco Polo’s travelogue from memory while intoxicated.      

The only thing that I would consider enough of an issue to bring up would be the score, or rather how they use the score. It’s very basic, keeping in line with what you expect silent film music to sound like but not always to the context of the scene. The music during the scene where people are celebrating Ramadan, for example, feels very dour compared to the excited atmosphere that the visuals present, and scenes that would expect to be dour, like talking to the personification of death, sound vaguely cheery. Not really the movie’s fault so much as it is the distributor, Kino Lorber, but they’ve done good work in the past so we’ll call it a mulligan. Plus it’s a silent movie, so if you wanted to just hit the mute button and see if you can sync it up with Dark Side of the Moon there’s nothing stopping you. 

In the end, Destiny starts our Reelin’ In the Years tour off right with a recommendation. While I wouldn’t call it an extraordinary film, a solid B in even more solid filmography at the time, it’s an entertaining little tale with that now familiar Fritz Lang flair. Those entering into the world of silent film or love that tasty Expressionist style will find this an easy watch. Those who aren’t can stick with their regular, non-cinematic German folk songs. We won’t judge.