Michael [Blu-ray] in Bloomington, MN

Claude Zoret (Benjamin Christiansen) is a celebrated painter who falls in love with his pupil, prot?g?, and model Michael (Walter Slezak) in this silent melodrama from 1924. When Michael betrays him by taking Princess Lucia (Nora Gregor) as his lover, the heartbroken Zoret is unable to paint and loses the will to live. Michael arrives to visit Zoret on his deathbed when he learns of his mentor's condition. The character of Zoret was said to have been based on Auguste Rodin. The film was a breakthrough in the early career of director Carl Theodore Dreyer and heralded in Germany as the first Kammerspeil feature and "chamber drama." Long thought to be lost, a copy was found in East Germany in 1958 and later restored by the Danish Film Museum in Copenhagen.