Three different negatives were
created for the film Der letzte Mann.
One of them was for Germany,
one for general export,...
...and the third for the USA.
The surviving German negative was
preserved only incompletely, and was...
...reconstructed in 2001 /2002
with the aid of the following materials:...
...an original negative from the
Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv Berlin:...
...a print from the Museum of
Modern Art, New York,...
...produced in Germany in 1936:
fragments of a duplicate...
...possessed by the
Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung...
...of a missing German print:
as well as fragments of a print...
...kept by the Cinmathque Suisse
in Lausanne.
The reconstruction took place
in cooperation with...
...the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv,
Berlin/Koblenz:...
...the Cinmathque Suisse, Lausanne:
the Museum of Modern Art, New York,...
...and the
Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung,...
...Wiesbaden.
Labwork:
L'lmmagine Ritrovata, Bologna
THE LAST MAN
In the Lead-Role:
EMiL JANNiNGS
Direction:
F. W. MURNAU
Today, you are the first,
respected by everyone, a minister,...
...a general, maybe even
a prince.
Do you know what
you'll be tomorrow?!
For the Wedding Guests
However, due to your period of service
of many years' standing,...
...we've created an open position
for you by sending the oldest employee...
...of our firm to a shelter,
effective today.
The reason for this measure...
...is your old-age.
Here,
at the place of his humiliation,...
...the old man would waste away
miserably for the rest of his life...
...and here the story would,
strictly speaking, be over.
But the author is looking out for him
who has been abandoned by everyone,...
...and so he bestows
upon him an epilogue,...
...telling a story that...
unfortunately...
...usually doesn't occur
in real life.
A SENSATIONAL INHERITANCE
As reported a short time ago,...
...the celebrated Mexican multimillionaire
Mr. A. G. Monen died...
...whilst washing his hands in the lavatory
of the Atlantic-Hotel.
Upon going through his papers,
a sensational will for this eccentric man
was found to the effect...
...that the person in whose arms
he would happen to die was to become
the sole heir to his enormous fortune.
Hence, the biblical promise,
that the last shall be the first,...
...seems already to have been
fulfilled on earth,...
...for the lucky one is...