Wordiezett So much average

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Lee Eisenberg Hot off his formidable achievement with "Nosferatu", F.W. Murnau made another expressionistic film, "Phantom". This one depicts Lorenz (Alfred Abel), a clerk who becomes obsessed with a woman (Lya De Putti) who accidentally struck him with a carriage. The movie contains some neat effects to highlight Lorenz's descent into madness. There are of course the buildings, but even more impressive is the ghostly carriage that emerges from a black void. A short documentary about the production makes note of how Murnau accomplished these interesting tricks.One might call "Phantom" a precursor to "The Blue Angel" and "Lolita", but I wouldn't call that totally accurate. The latter two are more straightforward about their subject matter, while this one is deliberately surreal and dreamlike. But no matter how you interpret "Phantom", you can't deny that it is a very good representation of inter-war German cinema. The movie is a little slow at times, but definitely worth seeing.

hasosch If I remember correctly, it was Peter Greenaway who wrote a few years ago that in the near future one will be able to make films about how somebody thinks and not only about what somebody does. When this time will be here, one should remember F.W. Murnau's "Phantom" (1922) which does exactly what Greenaways was speaking about. Lorenz Lubota is a little scribe, likes books and would like to be a poet. One day, on his way to work, he is hit by a carriage. In this moment, he sees Veronika, the daughter of a rich merchant, and chases from now on her picture like a phantom. It fills up his whole thinking and feeling. He even goes to her parents' house in order to ask for her hand. After he is thrown out, he stops working, neglects his belongings and sinks deeper and deeper in despair. I cannot remember whether anyone else in the "silent" time has made more appropriate use of tinting in order to show the inside of a person than Murnau did. By chance, Lorenz meets Melitta who looks like a twin of Veronika. However, she cheats on him and demands money which he does not have. So he steals it and even lies to his aunt, whom he tells that he needs the money for having his poesies printed as books. Not long after, his aunts finds out about the truth and threatens to turn him in to the police. So, one night, Lorenz and one of his new colleagues break into the house of the aunt. When they are caught by her, the colleague kills her. Lorenz goes to prison as an accessory. When he is released, the daughter of his former boss waits for him, telling him that she always loved him. Besides the unrealistic and rather fairy-tale-like end, this movie shows many motives that Murnau would use in the subsequent year when he shot "Nosferatu". One could say that in "Phantom", he filmed the imaginary world, whereas in "Nosferatu", he projected this imaginary world as a substrate of abyss-less gore into the outside world. However, one could also say that Lorenz, at the end, is rightfully awarded by a loving wife because he belonged to the very few people who really believed in a phantom and even gave up his whole existence for it. And simply the fact that a phantom can exist in our real brain proves its reality, isn't that so?

veidt_ A much underestimated movie. I've seen several of Murnau's flicks, and while I am the generally a big fan of his work, this one is actually one of my favorites. In a dreamlike manner it tells a story of main character's obsession with a manipulative and cruel woman. His love and desire makes him lose his senses - to a point where object of his passion becomes like a haunting spectre, a phantom. In some way Phantom is a forecast of another german picture, the famous Blaue Engel. Although the plot in one way or another has become a Hollywood cliche over the years, the movie is dark, strange and compelling. Murnau's depiction of insanity, especially in the final scenes is by itself a milestone of cinema.

junkySTL The story of a man Lorenz Lubota (played by Alfred Abel) who chases a woman Pfandleiherin Schwabe (Grete Berger) who keeps escaping him and is, virtually, like a phantom. This drama is not as potent as Murnau's other attempts at heart wrenching dramatic cinema (such as TABU and SUNRISE). Much like SUNRISE this film suffers from a running time that could, easily, be cut in half. There are not as many interesting elements in this story as, say, THE HAUNTED CASTLE or FAUST. But still it is worth a look for any of Murnau's dedicated fans. It includes Murnau's usually study of human suffering and torment, and his supernatural imagery (a ghostly horse carriage, and a leaning city- much like Weine's CAL