Almost all of the greatest films ever
made are love stories. They tell about lost and tortured love and obsession. The
world, life, space, class, whatever you can imagine give the two lovers
obstacles as they try to unite. In most of the stories it is the man who
becomes obsessed with the woman and does anything in his power to get to her.
If it was always women chasing after the man the woman would be called an obsessive
annoyance and not a romantic but that is a discussion for another time. In F.W.
Murnau’s silent film Phantom it is a
young man who is literally knocked down by love and his life dragged to depths
he never could have imagined.
Lorenz
Lubato and his wife Maria are happily married. She gives him a book to write
his story. Lorenz asks her if she thinks if he writes his story the memory will
be less painful. Maria believes it will help with his painful memory.
Some
time ago Lorenz used to live at home with his mother, sister Melanie, and
brother. In this time he was the city clerk and was never on time. In his spare
time Lorenz would write poetry and one day he brought it to Maria and her
father who ran a book store. Her father thinks his poems are amazing and wants
to give it to a professor from the local university to look over. On his way to
work one morning Lorenz is hit by a horse that was being driven by a young
woman. The young woman gets out of the carriage to check on him. She is
beautiful and from that moment on Lorenz can think of no one and nothing but
her. The girl rides away and Lorenz walks dreamily back home. He does not even
listen to his mother talk to him about Melanie and what she has been up to he
stares off into another world and dreams that he is chasing the girl as she
rides away in her horse and carriage.
After
this incident Lorenz’s life is never the same. He obsesses over the girl who he
finds her name is Veronika. Day and night he causes trouble around Veronika’s
home looking for her. Lorenz finds out from an acquaintance that Veronika is engaged
to another man. With this news Lorenz asks to speak to Veronika’s parents to
tell them how much he loves her. The father tells Lorenz to come back in a year
and the love struck young man happily leaves their home. The mother thinks her
son is sick and cannot control what he does. His obsession makes him miss work
without an excuse and he loses his city clerk position.
One
night Lorenz goes out to a dancehall with Melanie. He meets a young woman and
her partner. The young woman looks like Veronika. She needs to paid for her
time so Lorenz goes to his aunt who runs a business. When his aunt does not get
her money back she threatens Lorenz and the young woman with the police and
jail. Lorenz cannot come up with the money and surrenders himself to the
police.
When
he is released Maria and her Father are waiting for him.
I
was expecting Phantom to be better
than it was. The story did not hold my interest. When I heard the title and
that Murnau was the director I thought it would be about phantoms and nightmares
not about an obsessed young man. Murnau took some aspects from Expressionism
and added them to this film to give the story its phantom-dream- like look. The
Expressionist look was used perfectly in a scene towards the end of the film
where Lorenz is at a dancehall with the young woman who looks like Veronika. He
dreams his life is spiraling out of control and slowing going down. The floor
underneath Lorenz and the girl actually moves down and Murnau had a bicyclist ride
around a ring above. Phantom was an
alright film it is not what I was expecting from Murnau.
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