Event details - Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung - Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Grand Duke Ramon may be the ruler of a country, but that is actually an exaggeration: Minorca is a dwarf state and also heavily in debt. In order to improve the state coffers, Ramon undertakes a journey during which he meets the Russian noblewoman Olga, a Grand Duchess. Although the two suspect each other of imposture, they fall in love. What Ramon and Olga also have in common is a concern for their own well-being.

DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS is the only comedy among F. W. Murnau's works and was an experiment for the director, who was considered a melancholic thinker. The screenplay was written by Thea von Harbou. The screenwriter was born one day before the director. DIE FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS is the last of four films they made together.

The film was shot at the Messter studios in Berlin-Tempelhof and the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg, now Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam. The exterior shots took place on the Adriatic in Spalato, Cattaro, Zara, on the island of Arbe and on the open-air grounds of the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg, where the castle was built as a large outdoor backdrop.

The film was extensively restored in 1994 on the basis of a dupnegative from the Cineteca di Bologna and digitised by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation in 2013. The digitisation was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnaus, DE 1924, 78 minutes, with  Mady Christians, Harry Liedtke, Hermann Valentin

A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (www.murnau-stiftung.de) in Wiesbaden.

Start: 6 p.m.
Admission: 10 euros
Advance booking of tickets under 030.254 811 78 or kasse@mimpk.de

Related links

• Wednesday Night Cinema