“I am deeply interested in the endless possibilities of cinema. The wide range of acting expression, as well as spatial mastering, the never ceasing changing of images, etc. give life to a totally and specifically new art, on whose behalf it is worthwhile consuming all our energies”.

Viktor Tourjansky, Wir über uns selbst, ed. by Herman Treuner, Berin, 1928

“Tourjansky adopted an abstract style and language, while placing himself alongside the representative models of realism. He knew the intrinsic value of lines and used the expressive strength of well outlined black over a white background […].

In Manolescu Tourjansky does not solely uses Brigitte Helm (Cleo), making her act as an extraordinary star, an erotically-charged copy of Greta Garbo as well as her caricature. Differently from Fritz Lang who in Metropolis reduced Helm to a child-like woman, dressed in linen and white collar […] and differently from Hans Schwarz who in Die wunderbare Lüge der Nina Petrowna (1929) focussed his interest solely on Brigitte Helm’s uselessly languid gestures, Tourjabsky displayed the nervous sharpness of the actress stressing it in her mimic and gestures. In no other film Brigitte Helm is so confined, a fragile oversensitive person, clashing in the mute language of the body […]. Moments of love and erotic desire: Tourjansky is women’s director.

Wolfgang Jacobsen, Arrangeur verborgener Gefühle, Fantaisies russes. Russische Filmacher in Berlin und Paris 1920-1930, ed. by Jörg Schöning, München, Text + Kritik, 1995