Queen of Atlantis

Two young officers, Saint-Avit and Morhange, get lost in the desert and find themselves prisoners of the beautiful Antinéa, queen of the city of Atlantis. Saint-Avit, blinded by his love for her, obeys her when she orders him to kill his comrade... With L’Atlantide, Pabst offers a psychoanalytic reading of Benoit’s novel, with a dominant female figure who enslaves her lovers before destroying them. The film’s fantasy dimension is disturbing, L’Atlantide bathes in a humid nightmare atmosphere, between the desperate search for a missing friend and the apparitions of an underworld lost in the desert. A long, discursive flashback suggests the Parisian origins of Antinéa, born from the marriage between Clémentine, a pretty, light-thighed French Cancan dancer, and an Arab prince seduced during a theatrical performance. But again, it's impossible to know whether these are the ramblings of an old alcoholic or the strange truth.

6

87 min

Cast

Brigitte Helm

as Antinea

Heinz Klingenberg

as Lt. Saint-Avit

Gustav Diessl

as Capt. Morange

Vladimir Sokoloff

as Graf Bielowski

Tela Tchaï

as Tanid

Florelle

as Clementine

Mathias Wieman

as Ewar Torstenson

Georges Tourreil

as Lt. Ferrieres

Gertrude Pabst

as Journalist

Rositta Severus-Liedernit

Marfa Kassatskaya

Director

G.W. Pabst