Film with Introduction: Das GROSSE LICHT (Film Heritage – Digital. Film Preservation Weekend)

DAS GROSSE LICHT

Germany 1919/1920. D: Hanna Henning. Cast: Emil Jannings, Margarete Schön, Frida Richard, Kurt Vespermann. 44 mins. DCP
With supporting film

DAS GROSSE LICHT was the second feature film by a film pioneer who had been ignored by film historians, and who received the highest praise for her first full-length feature film DIE SIEBZEHNJÄHRIGEN in the magazine Der Film in October 1919: “With this film, Hanna Henning places herself in the first line of our first directors.” Filming for the ambitiously produced ‘artist drama’ took place at the German Cathedral in Berlin. Emil Jannings was cast as the genius architect and cathedral builder to wrestle with his protégé, played by Kurt Verspermann, for consummate art, undying fame and great love (played by Margarethe Schön).

The digital restoration of Henning’s story of a love triangle was made from the only surviving film print – fragmented and heavily faded – preserved at the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.