Orlac's Hände

The pianist Orlac loses both his hands in a train crash. Surgeons then give him new hands – those of a murderer. What does it mean for a virtuoso pianist to have the hands of a criminal? Orlac goes through panic attacks and bouts of anxiety. Robert Wiene filmed Orlac’s Hands four years after The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In Johannes Kalitzke’s music for three pianists and string ensemble, depending on the situation Orlac is portrayed through different variations on one of Chopin’s nocturnes, an idée fixe that reflects the traumatized interior of Orlac’s mind.