MICHAEL was digitally restored in 2K resolution in 2005/06
by the Danish Film Institute in cooperation with the Friedrich
Wilhelm Murnau Foundation and the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv.
The basis was an original negative that contained German
intertitles. The digital restoration was carried out at
the Digital Film Lab Copenhagen, and the intertitles were created
by trickWILK in Berlin.
This restoration was the basis for DCP-Mastering in 2016.
"Now I can die in peace, for I have seen true love."
In the Master's house...
Please ask Mr Michael
to bring in my sketches from Algiers!
Michael - played by Walter Slezak
I would like to speak with Mr Zoret.
Principal steward of the house - Max Auzinger
The Countess - Nora Gregor
Switt, a journalist - Robert Garrison
Claude Zoret, the Master - Benjamin Christensen
I have been offered as much as $30,000 for these sketches,
but I did not have the heart to let them go.
Why not?
We do not want to sell our most beautiful memories!
Please tell Mr Zoret I shall try again
to speak with him before the opera.
Yet another Russian princess
who wishes to be painted by the Master!
Perhaps you have a monopoly on modeling for the Master?
Duke de Monthieu - Didier Aslan
How did you happen to become the Master's model...
and almost his son...?
Four years ago...
Your sketches are nothing.
Come back once you have learned how to really see!
But I desire to paint you. Do you want to pose for me?
You owe him a lot, Michael. But the Master owes you a lot too.
Only the paintings for which you modeled finally
sealed his fame.
Mr Adelsskjold - Alexander Murski
Mrs Adelsskjold - Grete Mosheim
During dinner the subject of conversation turned to death.
Strange, sometimes I am so afraid of dying that
I do not know where to flee from being terrified.
I'm not afraid of Death,
because He shall fulfill an old prophecy...!
I cannot imagine a more beautiful end
than to die for the person one loves most.
For me, death is simply the last chapter of life.
You know, your conversation has inspired me to a new painting?
I want to paint Caesar just as he is murdered
by his adopted son Brutus.
And how is Brutus supposed to look?
Switt is documenting the conversation
for his great work about the Master.
Duke, what was the prophecy you spoke of during dinner?
That the last of the Monthieus
will experience great happiness...
...for which he will pay with his life.
The steward just informed me that your carriage is here.
The Countess Zamikow.
I am sorry, but I never paint portraits to order.
But as you are here, I shall paint you after all...
Michael, the floodlight!
The Countess is said to be destitute. Perhaps it will
help her credit to be painted by the Master.
So that is you!
May I come tomorrow for the first sitting?
"The Victor", my best painting -
I shall give it to you as a gift.
At some point, it's all going to be yours anyway.
Never had a work so challenged the Master
as the painting of the Countess.
You haven't slept for three nights! Is that wise?
When I am alone I see her as in life;
when she is sitting here, it vanishes.
Where is Michael?
He is eyeing a lovely ballerina
at the theatre every night.
Now you must go, I want to work.
I will come again after dinner.
You are causing me sleepless nights, Countess.
Please sir, dinner should be served now.
Don't we want to wait for Michael?
Today we wish to drink from the English glasses.
The lady and gentleman have already dined.
You started dinner without me?
He never before treated me like that... never!
It is her eyes I cannot capture!
Does it resemble her?
You try it!
Yes - now it's her eyes!
Only youth has the knack!
Good eyes!
Michael painted them.
How do you know my eyes so well?
Where have you been all this time?
I was in the countryside.
Unfortunately, I have to leave now.
I am going to the theatre tonight.
You are the only one still in the dark...
About Michael and Zamikow!
So - her!
Please tell the steward to bring the English glasses
to my apartment - the Master gave permission.
Please put the chess table away...
Mr Michael has gone out.
Close the window.
That night the ballet was Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake."
Alice - !
Can't you see how much I'm suffering?
Please be compassionate, my friend...
Would you dine with us after the performance, Switt?
Go now... I will soon follow...
I'm feeling ill... I want to go home.
Please apologise to Switt for me.
I long to believe there is something like an eternity...
Michael visited the Master less and less frequently,
called only by his sense of obligation.
Basically, there's just a minor issue...
...Mr Michael...
...has borrowed large sums from us
on a number of recent occasions.
Youth will have its flings and they cost money -
Please charge his debt to my account.
In the future, you shall have your own
account with my banker...
...then you can get better at managing expenses.
Now, Michael, I would like to be alone.
The latest work of M. Claude Zoret
His latest work is a portrait of Countess Z. Looking at it,
there is not a single true stroke of the brush.
Only the eyes are an exception; so unreal is the rest
of it that one could swear these eyes were
painted by another hand.
Who knows the story of the eyes of Zamikow?
You.
Yes. Who else?
Someone must tell you the truth. And the truth is...
...You hated him from the first day on!
Because he stepped into my life
when no one else had a place except you!
Nobody knows how lonely I am.
Nobody has the right to make me even lonelier.
Claude Zoret, I ask you...
please spare yourself even worse disappointments.
Let the boy go.
No, Charles, I do not want to die childless.
Why did you never say a word about it?
Please call Mercier, the art dealer,
and ask him to come immediately.
Please calm yourself, dear...
All will be well - I have a way out.
Michael's place should remain there.
Where is Michael?
He's painting in the countryside.
And Alice? How is she?
She's fine, thank you.
The art dealer, Leblanc - Karl Freund
Mr Leblanc, I asked you here because
I want to sell my Caesar and Brutus through you.
That's wonderful, but...
How shall I say it... I mean...
...a market can be lukewarm, can't it?
...and a market can be hot!
The thing is... another of your paintings...
has come on the market... "The Victor".
I want you to buy back "The Victor" under your own name.
The price is no object.
Please have the painting delivered to
Michael's apartment where it belongs...
From this day on,
Claude Zoret closed his door - to everyone
- to paint his masterpiece in solitude...
When it was finished, Michael returned.
Bring wine.
For the sky I used my sketches from Algiers.
To celebrate Michael coming today,
we want to drink from the English glasses.
I have borrowed them!
I'm sick of being a hypocrite in front of you.
I'm tired of being your model - the tool for your fame!
I need to be true to myself -
independent of your grace!
Countess Zamikow asks for Mr Michael on the telephone.
I will never reply
to what you've just said to me, Michael.
The Homecoming...
Why don't you say something? Please speak!
What could I say now, without hurting you?
Finally came the day when the Master
exhibited his final work.
The Duchess, Widow de Monthieu - Wilhelmine Sandrock
I apologise for my unrest, Mr Zoret:
Have you seen my son?
That is a man who has lost everything.
My child, please forgive a frightened mother a question:
Do you know where my son is?
Please tell Alice that the last of the Monthieus
paid for his happiness.
To the painter of suffering...
Glory of the nation...
Long life, Claude Zoret!
Long life!
Where is Michael?
And again silence ruled in the Master's house.
Unfortunately, I've been unable to come...
I have brought the reviews. May I read them to you?
Not now.
I have brought the reviews. May I read them to you?
They all write that you've never created anything
more beautiful than the sky in "The vanquished".
Today, they would offer you $60,000 for the sketches.
Where are your sketches from Algiers?
I would like to see them again.
But Mr Michael just left with a large portfolio.
Maybe he has them...?
It is true... I forgot...
I gave him the sketches as a present.
Yes, Charles - I am very weary.
I would like to sleep - sleep...
During the night, the Master was to meet his destiny.
The Master is dying. Switt.
As quickly as possible to Mr Michael.
"I, Claude Zoret, who in departing this world,
herewith make my last will..."
"...and all I leave behind is given to my adopted son,
Eugene Michael."
Have you sent for Michael? Will he be coming soon?
Mr Michael could not be spoken to!
I want to rest in the midst of a field where
the seeds are sprouting and the grass is becoming green.
No one is to know where I am buried.
Will you see to that?
Jules, my friend, you need not cry for me.
I'm going to a place where my heart will find peace.
Why are you smiling, Claude?
Charles, now I can die in peace,
because I have seen true love.
Mr Michael - the Master is dead - !
Stay in peace... Be quiet... I am with you.
THE END