Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

1924
PG
2h 23m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, sets off on a treacherous journey to the Kingdom of Burgundy to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Princess Kriemhild.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total

Trivia
The dragon in the film is not a miniature. It is a full-scale puppet 60 feet long.

Goofs
How does Hagen know about Siegfried's vulnerable spot where the leaf fell (and even that it was a Linden leaf)? Siegfried himself seems unaware of it at the time, though he evidently later told Kriemhild who was able to mark the spot on his cloak with a cross (Hagen had asked her to do this so that he could 'protect' Siegfried). This anomaly appears to be present in the original poem. Some prints give the woodbird an extra verse beginning 'If by chance a leaf should fall', predicting the event before it happens, but Siegfried still appears to take no notice.

Crazy credits
Karl Vollbrecht receives a credit as "Erbauer des Drachens" -- 'dragon builder'.

Alternate versions
A 2012 restoration project completed by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung has been released by Kino Lorber on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Both "Die Nibelungen: Siegfried" (1924) and "Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge" (1925) are included. The film's running times differ from other versions at 149 minutes and 131 minutes, respectively. This can be attributed to the fact that the restoration utilized some footage from different takes of scenes and slight adjustments were made to the 'frames-per-second' rate perhaps to present a more realistic flow of the action.

Connections
Edited into Allemagne année 90 neuf zéro (1991)

User reviews42

Featured review

10/10

Dare I say Lang's best?

Fritz Lang's DIE NIBELUNGEN: SIEGFRIED is absolutely astounding cinema, heroic, beautiful, tragic, and overwhelming in its scope. Even though I have been a fan of silent cinema for a decade now, I was intimidated to watch this film due to its length, but the two and a half hours went right by and now I am pumped to see the second installment. As someone who doesn't tend to enjoy "binge-watching," let me tell you, it is a great temptation to just drop my other obligations for the day and just continue this great story.

The most interesting part about this movie is that it both revels in and subtly critiques its main characters. There really isn't a good guy or a bad guy. All of the characters are in their own ways sympathetic, but they are also quite vicious, capable of violence, pettiness, and deceit. Their codes of honor come to fail them as one character after another vows vengeance for wrongs done to them.

After a greasy diet of banal modern blockbusters more interested in advertising the next sequel rather than telling a compelling story, this is such a wonderful alternative.