European Cinemas in ContextGermany (1)

From the beginnings to the 3rd Reich

Dr Gert Vonhoff

Film and Cinema in Wilhelmine GermanyThe Birth of German Cinema

1 Nov 1895 - Max Skladanowsky, Bioscope (double projection)1st screening of 15 minutes1896-97 Berlin Alexanderplatz

Oskar Messters – inventor Maltese crossOct 1897 sales catalogue listed 84 films, visual reports (optische Berichterstattung) from 1910 Messter Woche, the firstWochenschau

From Cinema of Attractions to Industries

variety theatrestravelling shows focus on filmsfrom 1905: stationary cinemas

(shop cinemas, rented films)1905 – 40, 1906 – 200, 1908 – 1000, 1912 – 3000

1913 Marmorhaus in Berlin opened

1909-1913/14 rise of a national film industries

Gottschalk 1910: Monopolfilm

PAGU (1909) – Projektions AG ‚Union‘DECLA (1915) – Deutsche Eclair Film und

Kinematographen GmbHUFA (1917) – Universum Film AG

Consolidation years 1914-1920During WWI German companies expanded, Ludendorff founded the BUFA in 1917, escapism is the demand of the day

1911-1914: longer narrative film emerged(film drama), multi-reelersnew techniques in camerawork, editing, mise-en-scenefilm-specific languagebirthplace of genre, star system (Paul Wegener, Albert Bassermann, Asta Nielsen, Henny Porten), and directors(Ernst Lubitsch, Max Mack, Joe May, Franz Hofer)

Fantastic Genre: The Student of Prague (1913), The Golem (1915), Homunculus (1916-17) as Gothic style German Cinema

research since 1990s sees continuation of pre-war traditions

What does Expressionist Film Mean?Covers the period from 1919-1924/27: expressionist film (German pre-war arts) / films of New Objectivity (American influence) – best term is ‘Weimar film’ and ‘Weimar cinema of the silent era’

after German consolidation in 1870s Expressionist Artexpressed resistance against and opposition to static forms

of official art in the Kaiserreichcounter movement to French Impressionist Art which was felt

not be enough of opposition express the unrest and demand of change in Wilhelmine

Germany Die Bruecke in Dresden & Der Blaue Reiter in Munich

What does Expressionist Film Mean? (2)

Expressionism in pre-war decadesvitalistic, at times slightly naïveblow up paralysed self-images of bygone erause of bright vibrant colours vs monochromemovement vs staticabstraction in form and colour vs realismhuman emotion, sexuality vs etiquette

misunderstanding of WWI as liberation from paralysismachine driven war in the trenches as wake-up call

this and political change after war-end (Empire turned Republic) makes it obvious that there is an end of 1st

phase of expressionism: change into more analytical modes of painting and illustration (influence of Sigmund Freud and the new psychoanalysis)

What does Expressionist Film Mean? (3)Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr Caligari(1919/20)

DECLA productionstarred Werner Krauss as Dr Caligari and

Conrad Veidt as the somnam-bulist Cesare

sets the standards for the expressionist style in filmextensive use of mise-en-scenesharp black and white contrasts

(chiaroscuro lighting)strict regime on the geometrypainted sets reduce a naturalistic setting to an

artificial space of two dimensional lines(following Max Reinhardt’s theatre)

actor motion develops from a still: jerky, slowed-down dance-like movements

revealing the inner world of the characters and their state of alienation

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Cinematic devicesediting kept simpleshot – reverse shot, crosscuttingslower pacefunctional camera-workoblique camera anglesfalse perspectives

All this stresses the disintegration of the individual, loneliness, isolation, alienation: disillusioned analysis of life in a modern capitalist society

other topics:effect of authoritarian structures, misuse of power and science

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (cont.)

Original script of the film by Hans Janowitz and Carl Meyer

Kracauer reads this as a revolutionary story

Erich Pommer accepted the scriptRobert Wiene suggested essential modification

invention of the framing story

Kracauer: while the original exposed the madness inherent in authority, Wiene’s Caligariseems to glorify authority and convicted its antagonist of madness – a revolutionary film seems to be turned into a conformist one

But is Kracauer right?

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (cont.)

Ending of the film – within the mental asylumuses similar camera-angles, actor

movements, lighting effects as the restfilm much more continues to produce

vaguenessmore than one possible reading as a

technique used in avant-garde art of the 1920s

Weimar Cinema

To fully understand Weimar Cinema one has to look at its precarious position between art, politics and entertainment.

put it into context of the wider debate on culture within the capitalist society of Weimar Germany

general atmosphere of lost orientation, insecurity and unease inthe 1st phase of the Republic (1919-1924)

Weimar Cinema, 1st phase

Entanglement of the new media in rules of mass-production and marketsscript-writers, artists, actors, directors more often on the avant-garde half of the cinematic world

producers, distributors, film companies on the capitalist side

1919-1923increase in German film productions due to low costsCaligari helped selling German films abroadUFA in Babelsberg competitors of Hollywoodsophisticated sets, lavish costume, star system (UFA stars)UFA as merger of industry, banks and state (at 1st military forces)

Fridericus Rex, 1920-23 in 4 partsexample of conservative influence brought

along by joint venturesOtto Gebuehr as star

Mountain films as popular genre

Weimar Republic (2nd and 3rd phase)

Inflation peaked in 1923, introduction of new currency stabilized markets – 5 years of prosperity, stability and wealth from 1924-1929: The Golden Twenties

1929 stock market crashed and marked the beginning of a deep and long economic crisis.

With Dawes Plan (in 1924) – America became raw-model

New Objectivity style, modernity, ideology of the machine age

new image of the woman: Flapperthe Angestellten as new social classHollywood influence in film making

Influence of Alfred Hugenberg (DeutschnationaleVolkspartei)

Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)

310 days and 60 nights of filmingtotal costs of 2,000,000 dollars750 actors in supporting roles36,000 walk-on partsrefined sets and latest technology

monumental film set new standards: the most significant utopian film of the silent era

but lack of contents:the satirical magazine Simpl brought caricatures, the captions of which read: ‘Simple newsreel for film directors. Take ten tons of horror, pour into it a tenth sentimentality, boil it with some kind of social attitude, season it with mythicismaccording to taste, stir it well with Deutsch-Mark (seven million of it) and you’ll get a marvellous epic movie.’

Metropolis: Ufa Aethetics and clichesFascination and fears of the modern technology –ultra modern opening of the film

depiction of faceless mass of workers – sets social quality of the analysis – left wing positions

Maria and the film deals with her – sentimental simplifications takes shape: love story with Freder: the heart as intermediary between the brain and the hands = philanthropic 18th idea

evil located in relentless and fanatic Rotwang, a Jewish scientist who creates robots – right wing

a typical UFA production, as it has:‘a strong capital base, squandered carelessly, a talent for large-scale organization and a tendency to go astray in microscopicdetails; devotion to artistic excellence and to its perversion, which was empty perfectionism; a delight in the imaginative useof technology and in its reverse, which was mere technicalslickness; a quest for philosophical power, but pursued in an intellectual vacuum; a ‘will to form’ that produced an amorphousruin; craftsmanship, imagination, and diligence, and the waste of all those virtues through intellectual arrogance and the lack of a governing concept.‘ (Kreimeier, 1999, The UFA story, pp.151f.)

Film as product of the culture industries

Frankfurt School since late 1920s: analysis of the culture industries

works through instrumentality: instrumentalreason represents the negation of the substan-tive rationality of the Enlightenment

Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936)

loss of the aura for works of art because ofmere technique of industrial reproduction

instrumentality opens art up for misuseanalysis of Fascism: efforts to render poli-tics aesthetic

Late Weimar Years and 3rd ReichAfter Black Friday, 1929, economic crisis

unemployment and social unrest exploitedby the parties of the right, rise of NSDAP

German Film remains successful despite decrea-sing audiences, industries by far the strongest in Europe

Introduction of sound createsnew formats and genres (musicals, comedy)new stars (Marika Roekk, Willy Fritsch, Heinz Ruehmann, Hans Albers)

multi-language versions

NAZI Germany continued light entertainment cinemagrowing concentration of film businessGoebbels as Reichspropagandaminister1937 Reich bought 70% of UFA stocks1942 film industries fully nationalizedrise of propaganda film, Leni Riefenstahl

Propaganda film: The Triumph of the WillFormally experimental, but ideologically narrowed to

Nazi ideologyfilmic representation of the 1934 NSDAP rally in Nurem-

berg, released in 193535 cameramen, technical workforce of 170, 120km of filmmasterpiece of style and editing

lending of movement to static imagesuse of contrasting light and darkuse of symbols as controlling imagesdepicting people as architecturemoving camera, intercuts with close-upsuse of music

film’s openingborrowing from popular mountain films, but from

plane adds different modern perspectiveblending conservative ideology with the utmost

frontier of technological progress blending mythology and politics

masses as the foundation but meaningless basis for the Nazi movement