Film Review
One of the most influential films of early European cinema,
Orlacs Hände (a.k.a.
The Hands of Orlac) originated a
whole sub-genre in horror that remains popular to this day, one in
which amputated or transplanted body parts mysteriously take on a life
of their own, with horrific consequences. There are no
dismembered extremities in
Orlacs
Hände but it still manages to be an effective chiller,
making the most of its ghoulish concept and playing on our instinctive
mistrust of science. The film was based on Maurice Renard's 1921
novel
Les Mains d'Orlac and
was subsequently remade as
Mad Love
(1935) by Karl Freund and
The Hands of Orlac (1960) by
Edmond T. Gréville.
As commendable as the two English language remakes are, neither can
match the original Austrian film for its relentlessly creepy
atmosphere, which palpably conveys the anxiety and slowly mounting
terror of the central protagonist as he allows fear and a cruel
deception to drive him towards insanity. The film's director,
Robert Wiene, had already given us one landmark horror film,
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920), and here he offers a similarly nightmarish excursion into
expressionistic fantasy. Compared with the overt visual
expressionism of
Caligari, in
which wildly distorted sets reflect the confused inner mental state of
the protagonists,
Orlacs Hände
achieves its unsettling impact far more subtly, mainly through its
lighting and camerawork (presaging classic film noir). The sets
are simply constructed and mostly unadorned, so it is the use of light
and shade that reveals Orlac's turbulent state of mind - most vividly
in a harrowing dream sequence. As the pianist's reason submits to
fear and neurosis, the shadows consume more of the light around him, as
if to condemn him to a perpetual night.
Orlac's descent into insanity is given an intensely visceral force by
Conrad Veidt's arresting performance. Veidt's imposing physique
and charisma had already been used by Wiene to monstrous effect on
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, in
which the actor had played the homicidal somnambulist Cesare, one of
cinema's first great horror fiends. As Orlac, Veidt seizes our
pity and attention, somehow instilling in us the terror his character
feels as he succumbs to the insane notion that he has been taken over
by a psychotic killer. When Vasseur miraculously appears towards
the end of the film we might have smelt a rat, but so caught up are we
in Orlac's derangement that we too succumb to his fantasy and allow our
imagination to ride roughshod over our reason. It is our
willingness to be deceived, to be taken in by the wildly fantastic,
that makes horror such an effective genre. Like Orlac, we give in
to our terrors far too easily - almost as if we delight in being
afraid...
© James Travers 2014
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
The world famous pianist Paul Orlac survives a horrific railway
accident but his hands are damaged beyond repair. Goaded by his
wife Yvonne, a surgeon performs a remarkable transplant operation,
giving Orlac a pair of hands taken from a corpse. Orlac is
convalescing when he learns that the previous owner of his hands was a
murderer named Vasseur, who was recently guillotined for his
crime. The pianist is at once convinced that, like Vasseur, he
will be compelled to kill. He becomes increasingly deranged after
his surgeon refuses to amputate the hands. Because Orlac is
unable to work, he and his wife are soon plunged into poverty.
With creditors hammering on her door, Yvonne pays a visit to Orlac's
wealthy father, but the old man despises his son and refuses to
help. When Orlac later calls on his father he finds that he has
been stabbed to death, with a knife that turns out to have Vasseur's
fingerprints on it! A short while later, Orlac encounters a man
who claims to be Vasseur...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.