Geheimnisse einer Seele

About

The event shows G.W. Pabst's silent film "Geheimnisse einer Seele", which the Ufa promoted as a "psychoanalytic film" and intended as a documentary case report on a scientific basis. The chemist Martin Fellmann suffers from bizarre, terrifying dreams after the return of his wife's charming cousin, among them one in which he tries to stab her with a dagger. When his delusional despair actually ends in such an attempt, he flees his home and tells a psychoanalyst in long sessions about his dreams, childhood experiences and anxieties, until the analyst can get to the core of his problems. The film was made under the scientific advice of the psychoanalysts Karl Abraham and Hanns Sachs, two associates of Sigmund Freud, and combines the sober narrative style of the Neue Sachlichkeit with expressionist means in its dream sequences.

Written by a model, sources: brotfabrik-berlin.de

Critics

Critics praise the innovative camera and editing tricks, especially the dream sequences drawing on expressionism and the avant-garde. They fault the awkward blend of documentary and fiction, the ignored social context, casting mismatches and the tacked-on happy ending.

Reviews: TMDb

Trailer