While Luchino Visconti’s “Ludwig” (1972) is regarded as a classic, it is little-known that Helmut Berger appeared a second time as Bavaria’s troubled king. “Ludwig 1881” (1993) by Donatello and Fosco Dubini focuses on Ludwig’s journey through Switzerland in summer 1881. Munich court actor Josef Kainz was hired to recite Schiller’s “Wilhelm Tell” in front of the alleged historical locations, to transport the King into a world of poetry and imagination. After a few days the trip had turned into a nightmare for Kainz, who was soon exhausted from the King’s eccentric demands and antics. Once again, the desire for the ideal was marred by the all-too-human.

Interspersed are scenes of Ludwig consulting and commanding artists, architects and engineers in order to get his grandiose plans fulfilled. He is shown as being strongly interested in technical inventions, such as electricity and sound recordings. In some odd way, he appears almost as one of the first film actor-director-producers, who restlessly tried to transform reality into a romantic, artificial vision, “à rebours” like Huysman’s Des Esseintes, and indeed he may be seen as a visionary predecessor of the new art form that was to emerge from the inventions of Marey, Edison and Lumière only a few years after his death.

Being vaguely aware that after 1871 he was no more than a dated museum king, he scorned politics and instead squandered Bavaria’s money to build his architectonial extravaganzas, which at least pay off today as tourist attractions. Back then, basically no one lived in his gigantic castles. Ironically, almost all subsequent films about his life were shot on location. So Ludwig created his own film sets for all the films about him to come in the following century.

Ludwig 1881 (Donatello and Fosco Dubini 1993).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 26mn
Size: 	1.06 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	698x572 ~> 992x572
Aspect ratio:  	1.736
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 467 Kbps
BPP: 	0.147
Audio
#1:  	German 2.0ch MP2 @ 256 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/9D970A8A412F08E/Ludwig_1881_(Donatello_and_Fosco_Dubini_1993).mkv

Language(s):German
Subtitles:English

The post Donatello Dubini & Fosco Dubini – Ludwig 1881 (1993) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

In 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and the ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann’s circle of friends in the 30s, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and make a name for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story.

Journey to Kafiristan [Die Reise nach Kafiristan] (Donatello and Fosco Dubini 2001).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 40mn
Size: 	1.79 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	712x550 ~> 1017x550
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 102 Kbps
BPP: 	0.215
Audio
#1:  	German 2.0ch AC-3 @ 384 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/ED7807CE4B893E8/Journey_to_Kafiristan__Die_Reise_nach_Kafiristan__(Donatello_and_Fosco_Dubini_2001).mkv
or
https://nitro.download/view/86B9155E30C70F2/Journey_to_Kafiristan__Die_Reise_nach_Kafiristan__(Donatello_and_Fosco_Dubini_2001).part1.rar
https://nitro.download/view/4E3CF9A0A07C364/Journey_to_Kafiristan__Die_Reise_nach_Kafiristan__(Donatello_and_Fosco_Dubini_2001).part2.rar

Language(s):German
Subtitles:German, French, Spanish, English, Dutch

The post Donatello Dubini & Fosco Dubini – Die Reise Nach Kafiristan AKA The Journey to Kafiristan (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

In 1939, the author Annemarie Schwarzenbach and ethnologist Ella Maillart travel together by car to Kabul, but each is in pursuit of her own project. Annemarie Schwarzenbach, who was among Erika and Klaus Mann’s circle of friends in the 30’s, is searching for a place of refuge in the Near East to discover her own self. Ella Maillart justifies her restlessness, her need for movement and travel, with a scientific pretext: she would like to explore the mysterious Kafiristan Valley and “make a name” for herself with publications on the archaic life of the nomads living there. Both women are on the run, but political developments and their own biographies catch up with them again and again. Their mutual journey through the outside world, which runs from Geneva via the Balkans and Turkey to Persia, is compounded by the inner world of emotions with a tender love story. As both women arrive in Kabul, the Second World War breaks out and puts an end to their plans.
Une Suisse rebelle, Annemarie Schwarzenbach 1908-1942
Using archive material that is being made public for the first time this film is the first to ever attempt to portray the life of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, scion of a wealthy Zurich industrial family that made no attempt to disguise its sympathies for the Nazi world order. Author, journalist and news photographer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach rebelled against this environment. Escaping from Switzerland and from reality, she travelled the world denouncing Europe’s fascist movements, and America’s exploitation of its workers.

1.79GB | 1h 40mn | 712×550 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/10A68EB9DFDE41B/Die.Reise.nach.Kafiristan.AKA.The.Journey.to.Kafiristan.2001.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language:German
Subtitles:English,French,Spanish, Dutch,Italian

The post Donatello Dubini – Die Reise Nach Kafiristan AKA The Journey to Kafiristan (2001) first appeared on Cinema of the World.