Willkomm, bienvenue, welcome…
And so NIBELUNGEN WEEK comes to an end…
Fiona, alert to these things, pointed out that the splendiferous costumes of Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN, especially those in part two, KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE, could easily form the basis for a great fashion show. The use of pattern alone is quite eye-popping.
In fact Aenne Willkomm, brought in to design the Huns’ wardrobe, had been working in high fashion. She was recruited to help designer Paul Gerd Guderian, who was suffering from tuberculosis. Guderian actually died during production, leaving her to finish the film.
Willkomm did so well on KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE that she was made Ufa studios’ head of costumes. She would subsequently design the costumes for METROPOLIS, including the famous robot Maria…
Eschewing historical accuracy and drawing influences from all over world history, the design of DIE NIBELUNGEN’s sets and costumes is incredibly impressive. Of course, vast resources were flung at the production by Erich Pommer’s Ufa, but credit must go to Lang and his collaborators for creating a fictional universe that’s constantly surprising and impressive, unreal but credible, beautiful but harsh, and unlike anything seen before or since in scale, style and sheer alienness.
Watching these little Huns run down then up then out and LEAP out the bottom of the frame is just insanely pleasurable!
Well, I got a lot of mileage out of DIE NIBELUNGEN, but now I’ll have to do it all again when Masters of Cinema release their restored version. Still, it’s no hardship.
February 18, 2008 at 2:07 am
You’ve sold me. But is it worth my waiting for the Masters of Cinema edition, or should I just go ahead and get the one that Kino has out now?
February 18, 2008 at 10:01 am
You can see quite a bit of nasty “threading” in the Kino disc, even in some of the frame captures I’ve posted. So I bet the MoC discs will be not only restored and cleaner, but better quality all round. Plus there’ll be some good sleeve notes by somebody I can vouch for!
The Kino isn’t exactly cheap, either, so the MoC will likely be the best value in every respect.
February 18, 2008 at 10:59 pm
the costumes look a bit influenced by the ballet russe I wonder if the designer was trained with them?
February 18, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Could be. I haven’t found anything out about her outside the little cited here, which comes from McGilligan’s book. Her film credits are sparse — I wonder what became of her post-Metropolis? The 20th century certainly offered plenty of opportunities to have one’s career violently cut short, expecially in that part of the world.