Research Catalog
Paracelsus
- Title
- Paracelsus [videorecording] / Bavaria Film Kunst.
- Publication
- Chicago : International Historic Films, 1943.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Offsite to submit a request in person. | Moving image | By appointment only | VTH 2269 | Offsite |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Pabst, G. W. (Georg Wilhelm), 1885-1967.
- Description
- 1 videocassette (100 min.) : sd., b&w.; 1/2 in.
- Summary
- This large-scale tribute to the 16th-century Swiss physician/alchemist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, commonly known as Paracelsus, was the second of three films directed by Pabst for the Third Reich and was shot at the Barrandov Studios outside occupied Prague. Paracelsus is appointed town physician of Basel and conflicts with reactionary academics and avaricious merchants to prevent the plague from overtaking the city. The hero embodies those attributes which appealed to the Nazi psyche - "a rebel hero cleansing Germany of ancient practices, anti- intellectualism ("Resolute imagination can accomplish all things," states Paracelsus) and the replacement of Latin (foreign influences) with the German language. The film is particularly noteworthy for the scene in which Death appears. In it, Paracelsus has succeeded in keeping the plague from infiltrating the town by having goods which a merchant attempted to smuggle in destroyed. However, the juggler Fliegenbein, attached to the caravan, manages to escape to a tavern where he starts the infection of the city in a brilliantly choreographed Totentanz (danced by Harald Kreutzberg) before Paracelsus who realizes that the city is doomed. At the completion of the macabre performance, the spectre of Death is seen with his scythe.
- Subjects
- Genre/Form
- Feature films.
- Note
- In German without subtitles.
- Credits (note)
- Director, G. W. Pabst; screenplay, Kurt Heuser, G. W. Pabst; music, Herbert Windt.
- Performer (note)
- Werner Krauss, Mathias Wieman, Annelies Reinhold, Harald Kreutzberg.
- Title
- Paracelsus [videorecording] / Bavaria Film Kunst.
- Imprint
- Chicago : International Historic Films, 1943.
- Credits
- Director, G. W. Pabst; screenplay, Kurt Heuser, G. W. Pabst; music, Herbert Windt.
- Cast
- Werner Krauss, Mathias Wieman, Annelies Reinhold, Harald Kreutzberg.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Pabst, G. W. (Georg Wilhelm), 1885-1967.
- Branch Call Number
- VTH 2269 P