Herr Tartüff F. W. Murnau

(aka 'Tartüff' or 'Tartuffe')

directed by F.W. Murnau
Germany 1926

F. W. Murnau made this film adaptation of Molière's satire for UFA early in 1925 and it was released the following year, shortly followed by Faust. By presenting the play as a film-within-a-film, Murnau takes the opportunity to place the material in a contemporary setting, sandwiched inside a morality lesson about greed and hypocrisy.

A devious housekeeper convinces her master to cut his worthy grandson out of his will and to leave the riches to her instead. The grandson, disguised as the projectionist of a traveling cinema show, flatters his way into the home to project a film of Tartuffe in an attempt to open his grandfather's eyes. Emil Jannings plays Tartuffe with creepy panache in a tour-de-force turn alongside Lil Dagover and Werner Krauss.

Unjustly neglected for decades, perhaps because of its low-key nature compared with Murnau's more grand masterpieces, this delightful curiosity is more than a mere trifle. Tartuffe affirms Murnau as a master of multifarious cinematic disciplines: from the set-based dreams of Faust and Sunrise, to the naturalist landscapes of Nosferatu, City Girl, and Tabu. In Tartuffe we find an intimate Murnau, relying on close-ups and the performances of his actors to create magic.

Tartuffe was first released in the UK in 1928.

From the MoC website located HERE

Posters and Promotional Stills

Theatrical Release: January 25th, 1926 - Germany

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Comparison:

Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema Series) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Kino (The Restored Authorized Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC

1) Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema Series) - Region 2 - PAL LEFT

2) Kino (The Restored Authorized Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC RIGHT

DVD Box Cover
	The Kino is also available in a Murnau boxset HERE which includes Nosferatu / Faust / The Last Laugh / Tartuffe / The Haunted Castle and The Finances of the Grand Duke.
Distribution	Eureka Video - Masters of Cinema #4 - Region 2 - PAL	Kino Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:02:44	1:03:38
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.49 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.96 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: MoC
Bitrate: Kino
Audio	No dialogue but music in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo	No dialogue but music in (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Intertitle translation	English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, None	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Eureka Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Tartuffe The Lost Film A Documentary By Luciano Berriatua (41:18) • 16 Page Booklet • Gallery Of 58 Rare Production Stills • Production and Biography static screens DVD Release Date: January 25th, 2005 Transparent Keep Case Chapters: 12	Release Information: Studio: Kino Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Documentary DVD Release Date: March 17, 2009 Slimcase in a boxset Chapters 12

Comments:

ADDITION: Kino - May 09': Also available in a Murnau boxset HERE which includes Nosferatu / Faust / The Last Laugh / Tartuffe / The Haunted Castle and The Finances of the Grand Duke.

This Kino release is advertised as "The Restored Authorized Edition", but it's restored from exported American print with intertitles etc. in English. The picture itself seems less intense beside the Eureka disc, and it's also interlaced (see 6th capture). Exclusion of the original intertitles may also be a drawback for many viewers. Extras include a 35-minute overview of Murnau's career, The Way to Murnau, directed by Alexander Bohr.

Gregory Meshman

***

ON THE MASTERS OF CINEMA DVD: This is the 4th in a series of collaborations in DVD production from Eureka Video and Master of Cinema. Its official release date of January 25th marks the 79th year since the films premiere (1926). The image looks excellent with original language (German) intertitles (with optional English, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles) are included with a wonderful new piano score by Javier Pérez de Azpeitia. Although it initially appeared to have some brightness boosting, I could not find hard evidence to support that assumption. This is a clean image. I did note some very minor 'combing' in fast motion sequences, but this is common with boosting the frame speed up to match modern PAL from many silent era films. There is some slight damage showing, but also some good film grain. The extras are a real bonus here with the 40 minute Tartuffe The Lost Film documentary by Luciano Berriatua. In short, this is another gem from, we expect, a long line of Criterion-style DVDs in this series. Film fans are truly lucky.

NOTE: We may eventually compare this to the Region 1 issue, but I feel confident it will exceed in all categories.

Note: This DVD contains the only surviving version of the film, German intertitles, optional English subtitles, and is presented at the correct speed. Restored in 2002 by the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin/Koblenz and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung of Wiesbaden, Germany.

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

1) Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema Series) - Region 2 - PAL LEFT

2) Kino (The Restored Authorized Edition) - Region 0 - NTSC RIGHT