Stephan Graf v. Bothmer: DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE

Stephan von Bothmer's score on the CineTronium brings the film sonically into the present day, while simultaneously drawing the viewer into the film as if it were their own liberation from societal constraints, which then transforms into a nightmare from which there is no escape.

The rarely screened silent film version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" focuses on the pure terror of transformation. Sheldon Lewis portrays it as an existential nightmare: once freed from social and moral conventions, the controlled scientist unleashes a wild, animalistic creature that can no longer be tamed. The transformations are raw, physical, and disturbingly direct—without elegant transitions, but with all the more force.

Stylistically, the film is closer to early horror and sensationalist cinema than to classical literary drama. Moral questions recede into the background, overshadowed by the experience of fear, instinct, and loss of control. It is precisely this radicalism that makes the film so fascinating today: people caught between reason and the abyss. [John S. Robertson, USA 1920]

With von Bothmer's live score, this film becomes a profound symphony!