Blauer Salon
Summer term 2025
The Night of The Hunter

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter | USA | 1955 | Director: Charles Laughton | 93 min | 35mm | Original Version with german Subtitles | with Robert Mitchum, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce

"Love" is written on the fingers of one hand, "Hate" on the other. The pendulum swings mercilessly between love and hate. Two children carry a secret with them and are therefore mercilessly hunted by a false itinerant preacher. With his only directorial work, acting titan Charles Laughton has left a monolith in film history that has no equal. The Night of the Hunter is a polished masterpiece, a gripping psychological thriller and a complex musing on the manipulability of people all in one. The film skilfully combines the traditions of European silent film with the elegance of Hollywood. During filming, Laughton pushed his leading actor Robert Mitchum to such an extreme that he wanted nothing more to do with the director for years. When the film premiered, it was met with much outrage - today his mastery is beyond doubt.

Loan of the film print with kind support of Cinematograph Filmverleih.

Supporting Film: Meshes of the Afternoon

Meshes of the Afternoon | USA | 1943 | Director: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid | 14 min | 16mm | Without dialogue | with Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

A young woman (Maya Deren) comes home early in the evening and falls into a deep sleep. She begins to have dreams that can no longer be distinguished from reality. In these legendary dream sequences, which reflect female experience and domestic life, Meshes combines Hollywood melodramas of the time with the disturbing atmosphere of the emerging film noir. Maya Deren, dancer, photographer and theorist, began making films in the early 1940s. Beyond traditional notions of time and space, she created subjective cinematic realities, intertwining film, dance, rituals, choreography and poetry.

Loan of the film print with kind support of LightCone.
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