Deeply experimental film by one of the biggest pioneers of the medium, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.

This simple story of an old man that gets demoted from his job as a doorman of a prestigious hotel to washroom attendant wouldn’t be the same without all the different highly innovative techniques and effects that Murnau put forward to present the tale. One of those even remembers the building effects done in Inception, just imagine doing that nearly a CENTURY prior to Christopher Nolan’s film, before the advent of computers and CGI. AMAZING!

But Murnau is not alone, for both his and our pleasure, the lead is played by arguably the greatest actor at the time: Emil Jannings. The German actor had an incredible understanding of acting in the time of silent cinema. His expressions, stares, and the small mannerisms that he would put into his characters (in this particular film his absolute dedication to his imperial moustache) make the audience easily connect and care for his characters.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the rest of performances, the film suffers a bit of the usual overacting of actors at the time.

Another slightly negative note would be its ending (presented as an epilogue). As it has been mentioned the story is quite a simple one, but it is mainly this unnecessary and too long finish to the story that could have been avoided.

In any case, this movie is still very deserving of a watch. Even more so if you are interested in early cinema and getting to know the way it evolved to become what we know of it today.