Ringkämpfer (1895)
Two men in white leotards and tights, and black slips over it, wrestle on a theatre stage.
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Awesome Movie
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
The only thing this film is remotely worth watching for is the final wrestling move by one of the two fighters. Action's okay for 25 seconds and the two wear nothing but short sports underwear 19th century style. I don't know who Greiner is, but Eugen Sandow was portrayed in quite a few early short films, almost a bit of a movie star back then: the 19th century Schwarzenegger.Nonetehelss it's one of the weaker early films by my country's first filmmakers Emil Skladanowsky and Max Skladanowsky. I wouldn't really recommend it as there's a couple better boxing films from the English speaking parts of the world from that time. Or maybe watch the brothers' "Wintergartenprogramm" as a whole as it includes this one and some of their better works like the one with the serpentine dancer.
Max Skladanowsky is one of the people with a claim to inventing motion pictures, along with Edison's team in the U.S., William Friese-Greene in Britain and the Lumieres in France. In reality, the invention of a practical form of projected motion pictures has several reasonable claimants and the earliest artifact seems to be a Babylonian pottery from several thousand years B.C.E. that offers a sort of "flip book" motion picture of a leaping goat. So take your choice.Mr. Skladanowsky seems to hold the honor of showing the first program of motion pictures in Germany and he did produce, direct and photograph films from 1895-1897, and a couple more a decade later.This is one from 1895, showing Eugene Sandow, a famous strong man of the period, in a wrestling match. Given the bulky, immobile equipment of the period, the two wrestlers must have choreographed their fight extensively to stay in the frame at all times. So this is definitely as fixed a fight as any you ever saw. Still, it does show good composition and motion.