There he stands, the imposing doorman of the Hotel Atlantic, the first hotel on the square. His splendid uniform with its golden buttons is his pride and joy. When he returns to the poor neighborhood he lives in, the neighbors look at him with respect. But when the hotel management retires the porter for reasons of age and transfers him to toilet duty, he loses his uniform and his dignity. He is a broken man. A parade role for Emil Jannings in one of the most beautiful works of the silent film era. Behind Der letzte Mann is a creative team from Weimar cinema: Screenwriter and “film poet” Carl Mayer, the visually stunning director F. W. Murnau and the inventive cameraman Karl Freund. Filming lasted 180 days. The visual language tells the story so perfectly, right up to the typically tragic Mayer ending, that the entire film manages without intertitles. However, Ufa forced Murnau to add a happy ending, which is announced by a single ironic title: The way life unfortunately doesn't play out, a movie can end after all.

Loan of the film print with kind support of Murnau Foundation.