At a French outpost in North Africa, Lieutenant Saint-Avit and his comrade listen to a radio broadcast concerning the lost city of Atlantis now believed buried under the Saharan sands. Saint-Avit confides to his friend that he'd once been there and proceeds to tell his bizarre story in flashback. He and a fellow Legionaire, Captain Morhange, were on a scouting mission for the war office in the desert when they came upon a Turgai warrior dying of thirst. They rescue him but are soon captured and taken to a series of catacombs deep in the mountains that are all that's left of the fabled city of Atlantis. It's ruler, Antinea, keeps all men in thrall; Saint-Avit falls under her spell but Morhange resists so Antinea orders Saint-Avit to kill him. He does but, shocked at what he's done, takes to drugs. The Turgai warrior they had saved helps him and Clementine, a native in love with Saint Avit, to escape the underground labyrinth but the woman later dies in the desert. After Saint-Avit tells his tale, his comrade writes to the home office notifying them that the battle-weary lieutenant has gone mad from the sun and heat while Saint-Avit wanders out into a sandstorm following a vision of Antinea...
Jacques Feyder was the first to film L'ATLANTIDE in 1921 and there have been many versions since, including one by Edgar G. Ulmer in the early 1960s. Pierre Benoit, author of the 1919 novel on which the films were based, was accused of plagiarism because of similarities between his adventure story and H Rider Haggard's "She" but director G.W. Pabst dispenses with most of Benoit's saga to create his own compelling tale. Pabst shot German, French and English language versions simultaneously with the same sets and cast using actual Sahara locations. Keeping dialog to a minimum, Pabst's vision is a cross between Haggard's "She" and THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI. The fantastic yarn gives clues along the way that it's only a madman's hallucination: there's a foppish European fond of alcohol living in Atlantis along with a Swedish drug-addict; both were former lovers of Antinea who, apparently, was once a can-can dancer at the Casino de Paris. The female reporter at the beginning of Saint-Avit's journey is also Clementine and Atlantis itself is a mixture of modernity and maze-like ruins. The vistas of the desert with it's howling wind and shifting sands is visually striking and reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg's MOROCCO. Brigitte Helm, Maria in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, makes an icy and imperious Antinea whom no mortal man can resist and hope to live. The storyline is a little hard to follow on a single viewing but the film's dream-like quality and the many beautiful images will stay in the mind long after it's over.
Jacques Feyder was the first to film L'ATLANTIDE in 1921 and there have been many versions since, including one by Edgar G. Ulmer in the early 1960s. Pierre Benoit, author of the 1919 novel on which the films were based, was accused of plagiarism because of similarities between his adventure story and H Rider Haggard's "She" but director G.W. Pabst dispenses with most of Benoit's saga to create his own compelling tale. Pabst shot German, French and English language versions simultaneously with the same sets and cast using actual Sahara locations. Keeping dialog to a minimum, Pabst's vision is a cross between Haggard's "She" and THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI. The fantastic yarn gives clues along the way that it's only a madman's hallucination: there's a foppish European fond of alcohol living in Atlantis along with a Swedish drug-addict; both were former lovers of Antinea who, apparently, was once a can-can dancer at the Casino de Paris. The female reporter at the beginning of Saint-Avit's journey is also Clementine and Atlantis itself is a mixture of modernity and maze-like ruins. The vistas of the desert with it's howling wind and shifting sands is visually striking and reminiscent of Josef von Sternberg's MOROCCO. Brigitte Helm, Maria in Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, makes an icy and imperious Antinea whom no mortal man can resist and hope to live. The storyline is a little hard to follow on a single viewing but the film's dream-like quality and the many beautiful images will stay in the mind long after it's over.