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Rainer Maria Rilke was one of the twentieth century’s finest and most influential poets. This programme interweaves the story of his life with extracts from his letters, writings and poetry, in particular his Duineser Elegien (Duino Elegies), a cycle of ten poems which he started writing when he was thirty-seven and completed four years before his death in 1926. These intensely personalised visions are Rilke’s culminating literary achievement and demonstrate his supreme mastery of the German language, which he manipulated with unprecedented subtlety and plasticity, extending its range of expression.

Biographical details of his restless and emotionally troubled life add substantially to an appreciation of his complex, philosophical work, which is left, without critical analysis, to speak for itself. The spotlight is constantly on the writer, whose image can be found in only a scant fifty photos – after 1907 he refused to have his picture taken. Archive film breathes life into the times through which he lived.


An English version of this profile is available featuring the distinguished actor Robert Powell reading illuminating passages from Rilke’s work.

Cast: Rainer Maria Rilke
Director(s): Stan Neumann
Format: Colour
Classification: n/a
Running Time: 42 minutes
Download Size: 236.17 MB