Münchhausen is a 1943 fantasy comedy film directed by Josef von Báky, a prominent director who remained in Germany under the Nazi regime. Despite being made in Nazi Germany, this film is noted for the way in which it was able to avoid the politics of the time. Science fiction author David Wingrove has commented that this work “sidesteps immediate political issues whilst conjuring up marvellous visual images of an ageless pastoral Germany.”

The story follows the life of Baron Hieronymus von Münchhausen who was granted immortality by a sorcerer some 200 years previously. Here he recounts to a group of friends tales of his travels through Russia, his encounter with a man who could run more than 200 miles per hour, and a ring he was given which would make him invisible. His story culminates in his recounting a trip to the Moon where he meets bodyless plant people. —wikipedia

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locust furnace

4Apr13

i didn't get a second-rate children's movie feel from this at all. i think it's remarkably adult--a meditation on death and the nature of escapism. i might be overestimating it but it reminded me a lot of korda's "private lives of" history films and their sensuality and dry humour--but with eye-popping color and wild fantasy sequences, of course.

sophs

12Feb13

Well, that was different.

Christopher Smith

14Sep10

Colorful but hollow take on the Munchausen legend wastes its sumptuous sets and costumes on a slow-paced, talky script that is surprisingly light on imagination. Hans Albers is a bore as the imaginative Baron, and the whole film has the shallow feel of a second-rate children's film. Lacks the manic energy and visual inventiveness of Terry Gilliam's much later - and far superior - film version.