“Schatten is undoubtedly one of the most famous films of German expressionism, therefore so many prints of the film are conserved by many archives. The restoration started by the analysis of all the existing materials, by reconstructing the story of the several ‘restorations’ and preservations that the film has had (and suffered) in the past, and by trying to come as close as possible to the original version. We can now say that all existing materials and prints were originated from two different negatives. The first negative (chronologically, because there is no possible way to ascertain that this was the ‘first-choice’ negative) corresponds to the prints printed in Germany (Cinémathèque Française’s print, with French intertitles) and in United States (at Museum of Modern Art) and most probably in Spain (at Filmoteca Española); the negative was arranged in small reels and the prints were all ‘pos-cut’. The second negative – which differs from the first because it is produced by using different takes, mostly with very different acting and camera angles – had been spliced together in order to be able to produce “neg-cut” prints; at this stage, the editing of the film was also changed, to obtain a better continuity. This second negative produced the prints found in London (which later originated the so-called Czech version) and in Milano (at Fondazione Cineteca Italiana).

According to all documents, the film was originally released without intertitles (except the credit titles), then, following complaints from distributors and audience some intertitles were added. For this reason the reconstructed version has no intertitles.

Schatten is, above all, the work of Albin Grau, the film’s producer, creator and artistic director. Only by examining the film in the context of its creator can we really understand its significance. Schatten is a film about esoteric philosophy. It is an esoteric film even if, on a first viewing, it doesn’t seem to be. In order to understand it, we have to penetrate the mind of Albin Grau.

My own lengthy essay on Albin Grau was published in issue no. 27 of the magazine Archives de la Filmoteca de la Generalitat Valenciana and I don’t intend to dwell upon the same arguments. Nevertheless, I feel that it is essential to offer some brief biographical notes, and including with them some new information.

Albin Grau was born at Schönefeld, not far from Leipzig, on 13th June 1884 and died on 27th March 1971. After working as an apprentice baker, he completed his studies at Dresden Academy of Art. After the First World War – during which he fought on the Russian and Serbian Fronts – he settled in Berlin working as an artist and publicity agent for Norddeutsche Lloyd. He then came into contact with the world of cinema as poster designer, working with Sascha Goron on the publicity campaign for F.W.Murnau’s Der Gang in die Nacht. Grau met two practitioners of the occult, Heinrich Tränker and Gregor A. Gregorius (whose real name was Eugen Grosche), in 1888 in Leipzig. They had just founded the Pansophische Loge. Interested in the world of cinema, which he regarded as a means of spreading his own ideas, he persuaded various members of the occult to establish a production company which was given the theosophical name of PRANA. After employing Galeen as script writer and Murnau as director, he produced Nosferatu in summer 1921, broadly based upon the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, who was probably a member of the Golden Dawn. He failed to pay royalties in respect of this work and lost the suit brought by Stoker’s widow, bringing about the bankruptcy of production company.

Grau refused to give up and produced another film, Schatten, with a new production company called PAN. The film did not have sufficient public success to guarantee the continuity of the production company, despite winning very favourable critical acclaim”

(Luciano Berriatùa, “Schatten”, the Esoteric Face of Chinese Shadow, Cinegrafie, n.12, 1998)