Alexander Ekert

Martin Berger’s 'Menschen' serves as a harrowing socio-cinematic autopsy of the human spirit, adrift in the wreckage of a post-war landscape. Far from the escapist fantasies that often dominated early Weimar screens, this 1921 opus delves into the penumbral existence of the disenfranchised. The narrative follows a fatalistic trajectory, where the characters—portrayed with a raw, almost primitive intensity—grapple with the crushing weight of systemic indifference and personal moral decay.

The story of Madame DuBarry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French revolution.

A 1920 German costume drama from the days of Napoleon Bonaparte directed by Arthur Teuber and starring Carl Auen as Johann Baptiste Lingg.