F.W. Murnau

A long time ago in middle Europe, a decrepit, forbidding castle stood. Casting an ominous shadow over the townspeople who dare not look upon it, the unholy dwelling is home to one Count Orlok, an undead night creature with a taste for human blood.

German director F.W. Murnau cast the inimitable Emil Jannings as Mephisto, to whom the aging Faust sells his soul for renewed youth, wealth and power. Channeling Goethe, Murnau creates a phantasmagoric vision of the struggle between good and evil. In one of the most famous sequences in film history, we see Mephisto born as a primordial creature from the heavens and sent to the netherworld. This was Murnau's last German film before moving to Hollywood.

This European fantasy features excellent and surprisingly imaginative clay animation combined with live-action to tell the story of a man who sells his soul to Satan without the benefit of a lawyer.

One of German director F.W. Murnau's most brilliant silent films, this 1924 classic uses a constantly moving and subjective camera to capture the emotional anguish of a man whose life is suddenly devoid of meaning. An elderly hotel doorman is demoted to washroom attendant and must give up his prized uniform. Crestfallen, he spends the day wandering the city, getting drunk and trying desperately to hang on to a shred of hope.

One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, THE LAST LAUGH stars Emil Jannings as an aging door-man whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties which had been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Meticulously restored, this is the definitive version of a silent masterwork with a new orchestral recording of the original score.

One of the crowning achievements of the German expressionist movement, THE LAST LAUGH stars Emil Jannings as an aging door-man whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties which had been the foundation of his happiness and pride. Meticulously restored, this is the definitive version of a silent masterwork with a new orchestral recording of the original score.

This film is the bleak fable of an aging door-man whose happiness crumbles when he is relieved of the duties and uniform which had for years been the foundation of his pride and happiness.