Paracelsus

1943 [GERMAN]

Action / Biography / Drama

2
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 284 284

historical figure

Director

Georg Wilhelm Pabst Photo
Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Top cast

Peter Martin Urtel Photo
Peter Martin Urtel as Johannes - Famulus
Victor Janson Photo
Victor Janson as Mayor
Herbert Hübner Photo
Herbert Hübner as Count von Hohenreid
Franz Stein Photo
Franz Stein as Doctor
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
967.69 MB
988*720
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds ...
1.75 GB
1472*1072
German 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ChristianD-754 4 / 10

Stuffy, cliched, full of historical inaccuracies

Inbetween the many preachy scenes Paracelsus often borders on comedy or satire, the characters are a wild assortment of stereotypes from many different eras, the university students for instance behave like late 19th / early 20th century students, the flagellants were a thing 300 years before the times of Paracelsus, the jester is especially annoying. They all blatantly serve as stock characters, none of them conveying anything insightful. Polically this movie takes jabs at the right, at the aristocracy, who's reign ended a mere 25 years ealier at the time the movie was made, at the merchants, at the independent city states. It carries a socialist ethos, advocating serving the common man instead of the powerful, in the climactic scene Paracelsus is offered fame and glory once he joins the emporor at his residency, but he declines to serve common people in a nondescript countryside. Die Volksgemeinschaft über alles! The tone of the movie is kept intentionally light so that it's easily digestible by common people, but it's never really engaging. The actors did a fine job, the setdesign is decent and some of the camera angles are quite interesting, but otherwise this movie offers nothing of interest. There are tons of better old movies to watch.
Reviewed by MAK-4

16th Century German doctor upsets the status quo with new "German" methods of treating illness.

G. W. (PANDORA'S BOX) Pabst's celebratory film about the "revolutionary" 16th century German philosopher/doctor (known as Paracelsus and actually born in Switzerland) holds more than just historical interest as a Nazi approved subject. Though Pabst's sound films never achieved the prominence of his silent work, this is a well produced biopic with real surprises, especially when Paracelsus gives credit to Gypsy (!) folk remedies or when an Expressionist dance number symbolizes the entry of the plague (St. Vitus' Dance) into the closed town. Suddenly we're in Powell/Pressburger territory. Often obvious and slow, but certainly worth investigation, and not all that different from similar Hollywood produced biopics on ZOLA and LOUIS PASTEUR by director William (Wilhelm) Dieterle, a former colleague from Pabst's early UFA days. In fact, Dieterle's 1939 HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME has many visual and thematic similarities. The romantic subplot, straight out of Die Meistersinger, only adds to the usual discomfort of watching a Goebbels approved Nazi era production.
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