피아니스트 파울 올락은 끔찍한 열차 사고로 양손을 잃는다. 다행히 파울은 손 이식 수술을 받지만 손의 원래 주인이 최근 사형당한 살인자라는 사실을 알게 된다. 파울은 살인자의 악한 마음이 자신에게 영향을 미친다는 강박에 시달린다. 독일 표현주의의 대표작 을 연출했던 로베르트 비네의 의학 SF. 당대 심리학의 중요한 문제였던 ‘몸과 마음은 하나인가’라는 질문을 던지는 동시에 과학 기술의 가능성과 위험성을 함께 고민하는 작품. 2013년에 새롭게 복원된 버전으로 상영한다. (2019년 한국시네마테크협의회 - 독일 SF 특별전 - 미래는 어떻게 만들어지는가?)
"The Tales of Hoffmann" - The story of the poet Hoffmann, who falls in love with a mechanical doll, loses his mirror image in Venice and finally liberates his lover from the clutches of a sinister doctor.
Exposed to bad influences since childhood, Mary, a young girl is pushed by her mother to approach an elderly banker by the name of Harber. After almost driving her fiancee to suicide and seducing his mentally-ill son, she realizes through a metaphorical dream the scope of her negligence. Sentenced to prison for incitement to murder Harber, she sees herself as a parallel figure to Lea, Lot's wife in Sodom, where the Angel of the Lord warns the sinful citizens of the city of their impending doom. Lea oppresses the angel and eventually turns it over to the pagan priests when her sexual advances to it are rejected. In another dream sequence, Mary becomes the Queen of Syria, whose oppressed people turn against her and who, in turn, condemns a young man who loves her to death. Finally, her dream returns to the present time and when she awakens, she runs back to her former lover.
The film is about a woman who experiences frightening visions after visiting an insane asylum where one of the inmates claims to be Count Dracula (here following the Hungarian spelling Drakula). She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.
