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The Erl King

1931

Le Roi des aulnes

A young man races to save his son's life, but death – incarnated in the child's imagination as the titular Erl King – calls unceasingly.

Joë Hamman Mary Costes Rosa Bertens Otto Gebühr André Michaud Raymond Lapon Albert Broquin Louis Merlac Arlette Porta

Alternative Title

O Rei dos Elfos

Genres

Fantasy Drama

Theatrical

27 Feb 1931

France

France

27 Feb 1931

Theatrical

46 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by DRMIII ★★★½ 12

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The kid still dies in the end.
Partway through Marie-Louise Irbe’s “Erl King,” I idly wondered whether the director would have the grand temerity to change the ending. Maybe a sympathetic fairy – the film’s counterweight to a similarly extra-textual toad man – would blind the great goblin with fairy dust before ushering the worried father to the nearest apothecary.
But no, death is as inevitable as superimposition effects. The child still dies.
Given that the story is already doubly inscripted – by titans such as Goethe and Schubert, no less – what remains to the filmmaker in her own superimposition – particularly since the poem’s balladic structure, based in repetition, also mitigates against the development of narrative momentum?
The…
Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★★ 3

Part 1 of the February Film Challenge
1st Marie-Louise Iribe
A brief piece of French Fantastique made with limited sound technology, The Erl King is best when it conjures a world of fairies and spirits through its elaborate superimpositions. The Toad-Man's rather corny costume works quite well when subjected to that shimmering, translucent quality that compliments the beautiful natural scenery that seems to have been achieved on location. The Goethe poem and the Schubert song are both incorporated into narrative in a very elegant manner, too. However, the quality of the sound equipment is so primitive that it drags the story down. There's a fine line between slow and reverent and just clunky, and the primitive editing of the sound…
Review by AntoniusBlock7 ★★★★

Goethe, fantasy elements, special effects ala 1931, and cinematography out in the woods at night … hey, I’m in. The effect of the sinister erl king and his scantily clad fairies is achieved using overlays which don’t always work perfectly with the underlying images, but convey the ethereal sense of the story and its spooky danger, and visually the film is beautiful. I liked reading Goethe’s words at the outset but I’m not sure about the choice of telling the entire story this way, since we then know what’s coming, and it’s already pretty simple. However, there’s something truly charming and poetic about this fairy tale set to early celluloid, and it’s well worth spending 45 minutes on. It makes me wish Marie-Louise Iribe had made more films as a director.
Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★ 1

Marie-Louise Iribe had directed one silent picture previously. The Erl King has sound. I liked the shot which had a reflection in a toad's eye.
Vegan alert:
Horseback riding
Review by PUNQ ★★★ 1

A dreamy adventure into death. Bizarre fantasy film with fairies dancing around as a father travels the land to try and save his dying boy. Certainly something unique to experience from this period.
Review by col_plimp ★★★½

Dem Vater grauset’s; er reitet geschwind,
Er hält in den Armen das ächzende Kind
Die durchgängige, klassisch-ouvertürenartige Vertonung Franz Schuberts der Ballade von Goethe kann irgendwann doch etwas nerven. Und die Vorgeschichte ist mit 20 Minuten gefühlt unnötig lang.
Aber die recht alte Verfilmung vom Ritt des Vaters mit seinem sterbenskranken Sohn durch einen Wald liefert viele stimmungsvolle Spezialeffekte. Die mit putzigen Projektionstricks in den Wald und die Natur gesetzten Märchengestalten, die das Kind in seinem Fieberwahn sieht reichen vom mal 10 Meter großen Erlkönig im Kettenhemd, von diesem aus Blättern, Spinnen und toten Singvögeln erschaffenen Feenwesen (anscheinend Mitgliedern der lokalen Ausdruckstanz-Gruppe), bis zu Nixen und einem Krötenmann im nebeligen Moor.
Auch die Dramatik steigt spürbar Richtung "Ende"; und das…
Review by Séamus Malekafzali ★★★★

A poetic tale all parts beautiful and tragic that benefits from a strong visual flair and a masterful soundtrack, especially for the early sound period. Just short enough that it never overstays its welcome and you can feast your eyes on the film in front of you.
Review by Darin R 🎬 🎥 ★★★½

Early French sound film but this one is all about the images. Hauntingly beautiful and ethereal, dissolving mists, menacing toad king, fairies flickering in and out of vision. That final overhead shot in the cathedral is one for the ages. A fine adaptation of the Goethe fairy tale.
Review by kong ayanami ★★★½

The atmosphere here is very eerie and cinematic. Definitely a worthwhile early French sound film that won't take up much of anyone's time.
Review by Des de Moor ★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

When it comes to impressionistic fantasy, cinema has this unfortunate, hard to resist tendency towards literalism. The original poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which alongside its famous song setting by Franz Schubert provides the source for this film, tells the story almost entirely as a dialogue between father and son, with an ambiguity about whether the Erl King and his daughters are real or simply a figment of the imagination of a feverish child on the point of death. In this unusual early French sound film by actor turned director Marie-Louise Irbe, the Erl King is incontrovertibly an independent character, appearing to the viewer before the child first sees him, arguing with his fairy-like daughters who are reluctant to…
Review by Drusilla Adeline ★★★★½

Cinema-!
Review by Sean Burdett ★★½

48/100
100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2021 27/100
A touch drawn out for something only 46 minutes? Nothing egregious here, but gets old about 30-35 minutes in. No particular problems or praises, absent the over-reliance on double exposure which gets a tad obnoxious after a while. Definition of mid, but still manages some cool moments and images when it moves away from the aforementioned double-exposure problem. The water-related imagery worked quite well and is probably the element I'll be taking out of this film. Issues aside, it's always interesting to see something made right after the advent of sound since it's still sharing so much visual and formal language with silents, despite remaining sound which is something we'll never be able to see again(this goes for silents too--The Artist does a pretty good job of showcasing why the language of silents will never be imitated properly). Anyways, glad I watched it, but not really any strong feelings either way.