Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

 

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

 

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2)
Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

 

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Immensee - Ein deutsches Volkslied")

 

(aka "The Great Sacrifice")

 

Directed by Veit Harlan
Germany 1943

 

During World War II, Kristina Söderbaum came to represent, for the German people, an ideal woman: the embodiment of strength and beauty, as well as a paragon of fidelity and sacrifice. Immensee stars Söderbaum as Elisabeth, a woman in love with Reinhardt, a brilliant composer (Carl Raddatz), but who instead marries someone more reliable (Paul Klinger). Years later, Reinhardt returns, and Elisabeth has a chance to be true to her one greatest love. In The Great Sacrifice, Söderbaum is Äls, a goddess of a woman who captures the heart of a married man Albrecht (Raddatz). When Äls falls victim to a serious illness, Albrect’s loyal wife (Irene von Meyendorff) sacrifices her own happiness for the sake of her husband. Filmed in the rich, warm hues of the Agfacolor process (exquisitely restored by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung), both films are heavy with mood, highlighted by feverish dream sequences that give sublime visual expression to the character’s overwrought emotions.

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 4th, 1943 - October 2nd, 1944

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime

Immensee: 1:34:16.484

The Great Sacrifice: 1:36:38.583    

Video

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 40,312,454,809 bytes

Immensee: 19,865,202,240 bytes

The Great Sacrifice: 20,341,663,296 bytes

Video Bitrate: 24.79 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Immensee Blu-ray:

Bitrate The Great Silence Blu-ray:

Audio

LPCM Audio German 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Subtitles English, None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Kino

 

1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 40,312,454,809 bytes

Immensee: 19,865,202,240 bytes

The Great Sacrifice: 20,341,663,296 bytes

Video Bitrate: 24.79 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Edition Details:

Immensee audio commentary by film historian Olaf Möller
The Great Sacrifice audio commentary by film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson


Blu-ray Release Date:
July 27th, 2021
Standard Blu-ray Case

Chapters 11 / 13

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (July 2021): Kino have transferred two 40's Veit Harlan's film; Opfergang (aka "The Great Sacrifice") + Immensee to a lone dual-layered Blu-ray. They are both restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung. It is stated that "Two separate versions of Immensee were created for its initial release. Each was assembled from original camera negatives, which sometimes differed greatly in terms of content and composition. An Agfacolor print of one of these versions has been preserved by the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv. It was the basis for this 2015 restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung. Labwork was performed by ARRI Media in Munich."

For Opfergang that "Two separate versions of Opfergang were created for its initial release, each of which differed slightly in content and composition. Preserved by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Wiesbaden are the original camera negative and a duplicate sound negative of the secondary version.These assets were the foundation of the restoration performed by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in 2015. Color-grading reference was an Agfacolor print preserved by the Filmmuseum der Landeshauptstadt Dusseldorf. One missing scene was replaced with footage from a print of the primary version, with severely faded colors. Labwork was performed by ARRI Media in Munich. "

The image quality of both is just gorgeous with strong rich pastels. They are comparable in terms of the 1080P visuals; clean, detailed, a smattering of fine grain, and pleasing depth.  Immensee may be negligibly softer however they are both marvelous HD presentations.    

NOTE: We have added 60 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a linear PCM dual-mono track (16-bit) in the original German language for both films. They are passive without undue aggression and the audio comes through as clean and clear as the video. For Immensee the a beautiful score by Wolfgang Zeller (Dreyer's Vampyr) and for Opfergang it was composed by Hans-Otto Borgmann (Gold) - both sounding supportive with a classical, prosaic leaning.  Kino offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentaries by Olaf Möller for Immensee and for Opfergang (aka "The Great Sacrifice") by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. Olaf Möller talks about the pastel colors, how German regional cinema was more directly connected with the South, later Northern stories. He makes parallels to the two films, talks about the star pairing and much more including a personal connection. In the second commentary they talk about how Veit Harlan worked closely with Joseph Goebbels and how The Great Sacrifice was considered the most successful anti-Semitic films ever made. Alexandra reads from Eric Rentschler's The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife while Josh Nelson talks about the 2008 documentary Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess and he reads from David Welch's Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. Both commentaries are eye-opening and fabulously researched filling the films with relevant, fascinating, subtext.

Apart from Leni Riefenstahl no one besides Veit Harlan is as closely associated with Nazi propaganda films. On the surface  Opfergang (aka "The Great Sacrifice") + Immensee appear to be Sirk-esque melodramas. Looking deeper we see a passion for Nietzsche philosophy and the theme of women remaining faithful to husbands, which became important in raising the morale of German forces. They are gorgeous, highly engaging, film works... with dark subtext. I was very interested in the historical value of these two German-made 1940' films. The Kino Blu-ray has stunningly restored images and essential commentaries. Wow. Highly recommended!

Gary Tooze

 


Menus / Extras

 


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

Immensee

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


Opfergang (aka "The Great Sacrifice")
 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE

 

 

 
Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Kino - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

 CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Thank You!