Opium

A film by Robert Reinert
Germany 1920

Robert Reinert combines exotic thrills with erotic visuals in his film Opium, which accompanies an English doctor to China and India on his research into the effects of opium. The color tints and tones reinforce the psychedelic vibe of the frivolous dreams populated by elves and satyrs. The typography of the intertitles changes according to the location. Mutilated by censors and distributors, Reinert's classic has now been painstakingly recon- structed. This colour reconstruction was based on nitrate source elements from the film museums in Munich and Düsseldorf, and the Austrian Film Archive. At a length equivalent to 2,150 metres of celluloid, this is closer to the original release than any version known to have survived. In the DVD booklet, Stefan Drössler examines the unknown biography of Robert Reinert. As a special feature the DVD also offers a fragment of the legendary lost Reinert film Sterbende Völker.

Edition Filmmuseum 114
Language Deutsch Subtitles english Piano score Richard Siedhoff & Mykyta Sierov
Length 92 min. Format 1:1.33 - 4/3 PAL Ton DD 2.0 (mono) Age 14 Region code All regions
Bonus Documents and side-by-side comparisons of Opium (4') - Fragments of Robert Reinert's Sterbende Völker, 1922 (9') - Booklet