***Some spoilers to render this review a little entertaining***
I discovered this movie from the blog Centuries of Sound, a marvelous site devoted to exploring the evolution of sound recording year-by-year from the late 19th century. The blogger includes in his posting for a year some samples of films and the year 1913 included "Atlantis".
Atlantis is the earliest movie I have seen with a modern structure. It is well-shot and well-edited and doesn't lag (with a minor objection). It contains lots of good location shots in Berlin and New York (1913 is the first year I see horseless carriages heavily outnumber the horse-drawn ones). The special effects of the sinking of the "Roland" are wonderful and realistic. It's interesting that the source material of Atlantis came before the sinking of the Titanic.
A tour-de-force for its time.
It's the store line is where I draw the line and where I pose my question in the subject line. I have to assume Director August Blom is deadly serious in all the scenes he presents but brought forth much laughter to this modern man.
Let's start with the leading man, the good Dr. von Kammacher. The bacteriologist turns out to be kind of a rake and a flake.
He is anxiously waiting for the peer reviews of his study - standing by his mailbox like a boy waiting for his decoder ring. The letter arrives but the Dr. is driven into a funk after he reads his hypothesis is rejected for being too revolutionary. To compound matters, his wife suffers from a mental state (y'know the running around with scissors kind?) and has to be sent to the sanatorium forthwith.
It all becomes too much for poor Kammacher. His mother suggests he gets some R&R while she takes care of his three young children.
So begins Kammacher's journey- each leg takes him further away from his family. Along the way he becomes enamored with the dancer Ingigerd Hahlstroem. (He claims "partial" responsibility for his obsession with her).
And he has a brief fling with a young Russian Jewish woman aboard the Roland. It's the first time I see cigarette smoking used as an erotic device. I detest smoking but it's effective and movie-makers have been relying on it ever since.
Kammacher neglects to mention his wife or kids to either one. That and his petulance begins a long line of men in movies who wouldn't be leading men in real life.
Scenes that made me guffaw:
Ingigerd's dance. That statue in the background at the sculptor's loft. Blom's total ignorance of North American geography where the Adirondacks look like the Canadian Rockies.
And don't turn away for a minute or you'll miss the scene that takes place in the title place. It might prompt the question why did the chicken cross the road in Atlantis?
I discovered this movie from the blog Centuries of Sound, a marvelous site devoted to exploring the evolution of sound recording year-by-year from the late 19th century. The blogger includes in his posting for a year some samples of films and the year 1913 included "Atlantis".
Atlantis is the earliest movie I have seen with a modern structure. It is well-shot and well-edited and doesn't lag (with a minor objection). It contains lots of good location shots in Berlin and New York (1913 is the first year I see horseless carriages heavily outnumber the horse-drawn ones). The special effects of the sinking of the "Roland" are wonderful and realistic. It's interesting that the source material of Atlantis came before the sinking of the Titanic.
A tour-de-force for its time.
It's the store line is where I draw the line and where I pose my question in the subject line. I have to assume Director August Blom is deadly serious in all the scenes he presents but brought forth much laughter to this modern man.
Let's start with the leading man, the good Dr. von Kammacher. The bacteriologist turns out to be kind of a rake and a flake.
He is anxiously waiting for the peer reviews of his study - standing by his mailbox like a boy waiting for his decoder ring. The letter arrives but the Dr. is driven into a funk after he reads his hypothesis is rejected for being too revolutionary. To compound matters, his wife suffers from a mental state (y'know the running around with scissors kind?) and has to be sent to the sanatorium forthwith.
It all becomes too much for poor Kammacher. His mother suggests he gets some R&R while she takes care of his three young children.
So begins Kammacher's journey- each leg takes him further away from his family. Along the way he becomes enamored with the dancer Ingigerd Hahlstroem. (He claims "partial" responsibility for his obsession with her).
And he has a brief fling with a young Russian Jewish woman aboard the Roland. It's the first time I see cigarette smoking used as an erotic device. I detest smoking but it's effective and movie-makers have been relying on it ever since.
Kammacher neglects to mention his wife or kids to either one. That and his petulance begins a long line of men in movies who wouldn't be leading men in real life.
Scenes that made me guffaw:
Ingigerd's dance. That statue in the background at the sculptor's loft. Blom's total ignorance of North American geography where the Adirondacks look like the Canadian Rockies.
And don't turn away for a minute or you'll miss the scene that takes place in the title place. It might prompt the question why did the chicken cross the road in Atlantis?
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