Phantom is a 1922 German drama film directed by F. W. Murnau, adapted by Thea von Harbou from a novel by Gerhart Hauptmann. It was premiered as part of tributes to Hauptmann on his 60th birthday.
It is an example of German Expressionist film and some parts have a surreal, dreamlike quality. The film is not as well-known as Murnau's other work, and had been considered a lost film due to the lack of a complete, accessible version until it was reconstructed in 2003.
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Plot
In a prologue, Gerhart Hauptmann is shown walking in the countryside, holding a book.
The film continues in an extended flashback. Lorenz Lubota is a clerk in a minor town hall office, an aspiring poet, and a member of a family headed by a worried mother who has a tense relationship with her daughter, Melanie, whom the mother believes to be working as a prostitute.
One day, while Lorenz is walking to work, a woman driving a carriage with two white horses hits him in the road, knocking him to the ground. Physically, he is unharmed, but from that point forward, the woman in the carriage consumes his every thought.
