Different from the Others
About Different from the Others
Paul Körner, a violinist played by Conrad Veidt, falls in love with a male student. An extortionist, played by Reinhold Schünzel, threatens to expose him. Flashbacks show Körner discovering his desires, trying to change them, and then trying to understand them. He and the blackmailer land in court. The judge is sympathetic, and the scandal still destroys Körner. Körner kills himself. Magnus Hirschfeld, who appears in the film, argues against Paragraph 175, the law that made sex between men a crime.
Cast & crew
More about Different from the Others
Richard Oswald directed and co-wrote the script with Magnus Hirschfeld, who also plays a small part and put money in through his Institute for Sexual Science. Max Fassbender photographed it. The German title is Anders als die Andern. By October 1920 a new censorship rule limited viewing to doctors and researchers. Nazis burned prints in 1933 among works they called decadent. The basic blackmail plot was reused in Victim (1961).
Themes
Background
Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code is the law the film asks to have removed. After October 1920 the picture could be shown only to doctors and medical researchers.
In film history
One of the first feature films to treat gay men as sympathetic leads, made as a public case against Paragraph 175.
Making
Hirschfeld used the film as an argument, not only as a story, and paid part of the cost.
Look
Max Fassbender shot the concert scenes, the blackmail, and the courtroom.
Preservation
Prints were burned in 1933. What circulates is a shortened reconstruction. From October 1920 the original could be shown only to doctors and researchers.
Notes
- Fassbender had shot Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray two years earlier.
- Veidt's next major role, the year after, was in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
- The surviving picture is shorter than the 1919 release. A 50-minute length is the figure usually given.
Scenes
- The extortionist threatens to name Körner.
- Hirschfeld speaks against the law that put Körner in court.
Influenced
- Victim (1961)
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-anders-als-die-andern-aka-different-from-the-others)
