I saw 'Atlantis' at the opening weekend of the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in October 2006. Several other IMDb reviewers have commented (incorrectly) that this 1913 film was inspired by the Titanic disaster of the previous year, and have also commented (correctly) about the physical ampleness and ineptitude of the exotic dancer portrayed by Ida Orlov. I shall address both of those points.
'Atlantis' was originally a novel by German author Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), who received the 1912 Nobel Prize for Literature. One section of this novel describes the sinking of a huge ocean liner in the middle of the Atlantic, with great loss of lives. Hauptmann's novel was published (in serial form) a few weeks BEFORE the real-life Titanic disaster, which isn't such an amazing coincidence: steamships were still the primary form of transoceanic travel; compromises on safety -- such as an insufficiency of lifeboats, and a lack of lifeboat drills -- were commonplace, and many people felt that an eventual disaster was inevitable. When the film version of 'Atlantis' went into production, shortly AFTER the Titanic's sinking, this film's producers were aware of the similarity between fiction and fact ... but they were also aware (unlike modern viewers) that Hauptmann's novel was still in the bookstalls at the time, still being read (in 1913, Hauptmann was considered Germany's greatest living novelist) and they were confident that most film-goers in 1913 would know that this movie was based on material written BEFORE the Titanic's fatal voyage.
'Atlantis' was the Nordisk film studio's most expensive and ambitious production, billed as an 'Autorenfilm': an 'author-film' adapted from a recognised work of literature. Hauptmann's novel was partly autobiographical, and his contract with Nordisk stipulated that two roles in the film must be cast with the actual people who had inspired those characters in his novel. Hauptmann had enjoyed an erotic relationship with Ida Orlov in 1906/7, when she had been a teenage cabaret dancer. (Hauptmann was 28 years her senior.) In 'Atlantis', Orlov plays an erotic dancer but fails to convey whatever bewitched Hauptmann seven years earlier on; still, Nordisk were forced to cast her in order for this movie to be made.
The other inspirational figure here is more interesting. Carl (Charles) Unthan (1848-1929) was born without arms, and from early childhood he used his bare feet as hands. From the 1870s onward he toured Europe as a concert artiste, not only playing a violin with his unshod feet (wearing open-toed socks) but reportedly even replacing and tuning the violin's strings onstage. After the Great War, this armless man visited Germany's military hospitals to assure the soldiers that loss of a limb need not be insurmountable. (In Chaplin's film 'Limelight', set in roughly this same period, Chaplin's character Calvero makes an oblique reference to Unthan.) In 'Atlantis', Unthan demonstrates his armless dexterity but is assisted by a younger attendant (Frantz Skondrup). According to Unthan's memoir -- wittily titled 'Das Pediskript' -- when he was younger and more supple, he refused to let anyone be his 'hands'. Unthan was in his sixties when he filmed 'Atlantis': he's still handsome and poised here, and his performance is fascinating. It's a shame that Unthan -- sort of a reverse Johnny Eck -- was well past middle age when movies arrived; he could have had a career as a film actor! It would be fascinating to see Unthan perform in a film similar to Tod Browning's 'The Unknown'.
SYNOPSIS AND SPOILERS: The protagonist of 'Atlantis' is Friedrich von Kammacher, a surgeon. His wife (Lily Frederiksen) becomes insane and bed-ridden when his life's work (a dissertation) is rejected. He flees to Berlin, where he is seduced by Ingigerd, an erotic dancer. Strangely compelled by her, von Kammacher abandons his past life and he accompanies Ingigerd to America aboard the ocean liner 'Atlantis'. (Why would anyone name a ship for a land mass that SANK?) When the ship is wrecked in mid-Atlantic, von Kammacher and Ingigerd are among the few survivors brought to New York. An armless man (guess who) assists Ingigerd in her showbiz career, but von Kammacher is now estranged from her. Depressed by all that's happened (and I don't much blame him), von Kammacher flees to a remote mountain cabin. But the beautiful sculptress Eva Burns admires him (though I can't imagine why). She follows von Kammacher into the hinterlands; they fall in love ... but von Kammacher has conveniently discovered a medicine which will cure his wife. He rushes back to Denmark. The end.
An alternate ending was shown in Russian cinemas, with von Kammacher dying. For once, I agree with the Russians.
'Atlantis' is an ambitious film, fatally compromised by the casting of Ida Orlov. Although she is playing a character allegedly inspired by her own younger self, she quite fails here to demonstrate the erotic qualities which had originally intoxicated the author of this tosh. A further flaw is the casting of Olaf Fønss as von Kammacher: Fønss is handsome and brooding, but he fails to convey the range of emotions which von Kammacher experiences. Worse, von Kammacher is simply not a very sympathetic protagonist: he shows no qualms about abandoning any woman who is no longer useful to him, yet he seems to feel that women should accept him (and love him) as he is. I was intrigued to see future film director Michael Curtiz in this film's supporting cast. I'll rate 'Atlantis' 7 out of 10.
'Atlantis' was originally a novel by German author Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), who received the 1912 Nobel Prize for Literature. One section of this novel describes the sinking of a huge ocean liner in the middle of the Atlantic, with great loss of lives. Hauptmann's novel was published (in serial form) a few weeks BEFORE the real-life Titanic disaster, which isn't such an amazing coincidence: steamships were still the primary form of transoceanic travel; compromises on safety -- such as an insufficiency of lifeboats, and a lack of lifeboat drills -- were commonplace, and many people felt that an eventual disaster was inevitable. When the film version of 'Atlantis' went into production, shortly AFTER the Titanic's sinking, this film's producers were aware of the similarity between fiction and fact ... but they were also aware (unlike modern viewers) that Hauptmann's novel was still in the bookstalls at the time, still being read (in 1913, Hauptmann was considered Germany's greatest living novelist) and they were confident that most film-goers in 1913 would know that this movie was based on material written BEFORE the Titanic's fatal voyage.
'Atlantis' was the Nordisk film studio's most expensive and ambitious production, billed as an 'Autorenfilm': an 'author-film' adapted from a recognised work of literature. Hauptmann's novel was partly autobiographical, and his contract with Nordisk stipulated that two roles in the film must be cast with the actual people who had inspired those characters in his novel. Hauptmann had enjoyed an erotic relationship with Ida Orlov in 1906/7, when she had been a teenage cabaret dancer. (Hauptmann was 28 years her senior.) In 'Atlantis', Orlov plays an erotic dancer but fails to convey whatever bewitched Hauptmann seven years earlier on; still, Nordisk were forced to cast her in order for this movie to be made.
The other inspirational figure here is more interesting. Carl (Charles) Unthan (1848-1929) was born without arms, and from early childhood he used his bare feet as hands. From the 1870s onward he toured Europe as a concert artiste, not only playing a violin with his unshod feet (wearing open-toed socks) but reportedly even replacing and tuning the violin's strings onstage. After the Great War, this armless man visited Germany's military hospitals to assure the soldiers that loss of a limb need not be insurmountable. (In Chaplin's film 'Limelight', set in roughly this same period, Chaplin's character Calvero makes an oblique reference to Unthan.) In 'Atlantis', Unthan demonstrates his armless dexterity but is assisted by a younger attendant (Frantz Skondrup). According to Unthan's memoir -- wittily titled 'Das Pediskript' -- when he was younger and more supple, he refused to let anyone be his 'hands'. Unthan was in his sixties when he filmed 'Atlantis': he's still handsome and poised here, and his performance is fascinating. It's a shame that Unthan -- sort of a reverse Johnny Eck -- was well past middle age when movies arrived; he could have had a career as a film actor! It would be fascinating to see Unthan perform in a film similar to Tod Browning's 'The Unknown'.
SYNOPSIS AND SPOILERS: The protagonist of 'Atlantis' is Friedrich von Kammacher, a surgeon. His wife (Lily Frederiksen) becomes insane and bed-ridden when his life's work (a dissertation) is rejected. He flees to Berlin, where he is seduced by Ingigerd, an erotic dancer. Strangely compelled by her, von Kammacher abandons his past life and he accompanies Ingigerd to America aboard the ocean liner 'Atlantis'. (Why would anyone name a ship for a land mass that SANK?) When the ship is wrecked in mid-Atlantic, von Kammacher and Ingigerd are among the few survivors brought to New York. An armless man (guess who) assists Ingigerd in her showbiz career, but von Kammacher is now estranged from her. Depressed by all that's happened (and I don't much blame him), von Kammacher flees to a remote mountain cabin. But the beautiful sculptress Eva Burns admires him (though I can't imagine why). She follows von Kammacher into the hinterlands; they fall in love ... but von Kammacher has conveniently discovered a medicine which will cure his wife. He rushes back to Denmark. The end.
An alternate ending was shown in Russian cinemas, with von Kammacher dying. For once, I agree with the Russians.
'Atlantis' is an ambitious film, fatally compromised by the casting of Ida Orlov. Although she is playing a character allegedly inspired by her own younger self, she quite fails here to demonstrate the erotic qualities which had originally intoxicated the author of this tosh. A further flaw is the casting of Olaf Fønss as von Kammacher: Fønss is handsome and brooding, but he fails to convey the range of emotions which von Kammacher experiences. Worse, von Kammacher is simply not a very sympathetic protagonist: he shows no qualms about abandoning any woman who is no longer useful to him, yet he seems to feel that women should accept him (and love him) as he is. I was intrigued to see future film director Michael Curtiz in this film's supporting cast. I'll rate 'Atlantis' 7 out of 10.