This summer, the NFM Organ Cinema series will be an excellent opportunity to come into contact with the cinematographic art of the beginning of the last century. It will open with a film considered a gem of German kammerspiel – Der letzte Mann from 1924, directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. The silent frames of the production about the doom of an individual facing the inevitable transience of things and the fight for his dignity will be enriched by improvisations of organist Tomasz Głuchowski in a duet with DJ Michał Macewicz.

Der letzte Mann is considered to be Murnau’s most important work, right next to the horror film Nosferatu created two years previously. It tells the story of a porter, an elderly man employed in a luxury hotel, who one day loses his job and has to face the contemptuous opinions of people around him. Proud of his position and elegant uniform, which to him is also a symbol of high rank, he experiences material and moral loss. This sad story of the fall of man has also become a starting point in cinematography for reflection on Murnau’s film portrait of the individual and, more broadly, society showing a toxic fascination with the uniform.

The extraordinary performance of Emil Jannings was one of the greatest roles in the actor’s career. At that time he was a mature artist and a few years later won his first Oscar. In Der letzte Mann he presented the entire spectrum of skills, maneuvering with sensitivity between subtlety and full commitment of his entire being, perfectly portraying states of pride and suffering. The perfect use of film narrative techniques, including dynamic camera movements, made Der letzte Mann a masterpiece of expressionism.