Film Front Weimar

Film Front Weimar
Author: Bernadette Kester
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2003
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9789053565988

How was Germany's experience of World War I depicted in film during the following years? Drawing on analysis of the films of the Weimar era--documentaries and feature films addressing the war's causes, life at the front, war at sea, and the home front--Bernadette Kester sketches out the historical context, including reviews and censors' reports, in which these films were made and viewed, and offers much insight into how Germans collectively perceived World War I during its aftermath and beyond.

The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema

The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema
Author: Christian Rogowski
Publisher: Camden House
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2010
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1571134298

Traditionally, Weimar cinema has been equated with the work of a handful of auteurist filmmakers and a limited number of canonical films. Often a single, limited phenomenon, "expressionist film," has been taken as synonymous with the cinema of the entire period. But in recent decades, such reductive assessments have been challenged by developments in film theory and archival research that highlight the tremendous richness and diversity of Weimar cinema. This widening of focus has brought attention to issues such as film as commodity; questions of technology and genre; transnational collaborations and national identity; effects of changes in socioeconomics and gender roles on film spectatorship; and connections between film and other arts and media. Such shifts have been accompanied by archival research that has made a cornucopia of new information available and augmented by the increased availability of films from the period on DVD. This wealth of new source material calls for a re-evaluation of Weimar cinema that considers the legacies of lesser-known directors and producers, popular genres, experiments of the artistic avant-garde, and nonfiction films, all of which are aspects attended to by the essays in this volume. Contributors: Ofer Ashkenazi, Jaimey Fisher, Veronika Fuechtner, Joseph Garncarz, Barbara Hales, Anjeana Hans, Richard W. McCormick, Nancy P. Nenno, Elizabeth Otto, Mihaela Petrescu, Theodore F. Rippey, Christian Rogowski, Jill Smith, Philipp Stiasny, Chris Wahl, Cynthia Walk, Valerie Weinstein, Joel Westerdale. Christian Rogowski is Professor and Chair of German at Amherst College.

Shell Shock Cinema

Shell Shock Cinema
Author: Anton Kaes
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2009
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0691008507

'Shell Shock Cinema' shows how classical German cinema of the Weimar Republic was haunted by the horrors of World War I & the trauma of Germany's humiliating defeat. Anton Kaes argues that even films which do not depict war reveal a wounded nation in post-traumatic shock.

Weimar Cinema

Weimar Cinema
Author: Noah William Isenberg
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231130546

In this comprehensive companion to Weimar cinema, chapters address the technological advancements of each film, their production and place within the larger history of German cinema, the style of the director, the actors and the rise of the German star, and the critical reception of the film.

Weimar Cinema and After

Weimar Cinema and After
Author: Thomas Elsaesser
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2000
Genre: Expressionism in motion pictures
ISBN: 9780415012348

Offers a fresh perspective on this most 'national' of national cinemas, re-evaluating the arguments which view genres and movements as typically German contributions to twentieth century visual culture.

Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939

Hollywood and Hitler, 1933-1939
Author: Thomas Doherty
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2013-04-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231535147

Between 1933 and 1939, representations of the Nazis and the full meaning of Nazism came slowly to Hollywood, growing more ominous and distinct only as the decade wore on. Recapturing what ordinary Americans saw on the screen during the emerging Nazi threat, Thomas Doherty reclaims forgotten films, such as Hitler's Reign of Terror (1934), a pioneering anti-Nazi docudrama by Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr.; I Was a Captive of Nazi Germany (1936), a sensational true tale of "a Hollywood girl in Naziland!"; and Professor Mamlock (1938), an anti-Nazi film made by German refugees living in the Soviet Union. Doherty also recounts how the disproportionately Jewish backgrounds of the executives of the studios and the workers on the payroll shaded reactions to what was never simply a business decision. As Europe hurtled toward war, a proxy battle waged in Hollywood over how to conduct business with the Nazis, how to cover Hitler and his victims in the newsreels, and whether to address or ignore Nazism in Hollywood feature films. Should Hollywood lie low, or stand tall and sound the alarm? Doherty's history features a cast of charismatic personalities: Carl Laemmle, the German Jewish founder of Universal Pictures, whose production of All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) enraged the nascent Nazi movement; Georg Gyssling, the Nazi consul in Los Angeles, who read the Hollywood trade press as avidly as any studio mogul; Vittorio Mussolini, son of the fascist dictator and aspiring motion picture impresario; Leni Riefenstahl, the Valkyrie goddess of the Third Reich who came to America to peddle distribution rights for Olympia (1938); screenwriters Donald Ogden Stewart and Dorothy Parker, founders of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League; and Harry and Jack Warner of Warner Bros., who yoked anti-Nazism to patriotic Americanism and finally broke the embargo against anti-Nazi cinema with Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939).

Sirens and Sinners

Sirens and Sinners
Author: Hans Helmut Prinzler
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013-09-10
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0500516898

Celebrates the height of Weimar cinema through images and commentaries on more than seventy of its finest films Between the First and Second World Wars, Germany under the Weimar Republic was the scene of one of the most creative periods in film history. Through the silent era to the early years of sound, the visual flair and technical innovation of its filmmakers set an international standard for the powerful possibilities of cinema as an art form, with movies such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and M building a legacy that shaped the world of film. Here is a showcase of more than seventy films, selected to give a wide-ranging overview of Weimar cinema at its finest. Every genre is represented, from escapist comedies and musicals to gritty depictions of contemporary city life, from period dramas to fantastical visions of the future, with themes such as sexuality and social issues tackled by iconic stars like Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks. A wealth of film stills captures the bold vision of great directors like Fritz Lang and Ernst Lubitsch, while the text sets the historical scene and gives intriguing insights into what the films meant to the society that created them. This chapter in movie history was brought to a close by Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Directors, screenwriters and actors found themselves obliged to leave Germany, and brought their talents to Hollywood.

Film Censorship in the Weimar Republic

Film Censorship in the Weimar Republic
Author: John Paul Mason
Publisher:
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2020
Genre: Art and society
ISBN:

The establishment of film censorship legislation in Germany after the end of World War I ultimately contributed to political crisis and the rise of the Nazis in 1933. The Weimar National Assembly passed the Motion Picture Law in 1920, establishing the film censorship boards which would conduct film censorship for the rest of the Weimar Era. This law, which Socialist Democrats and Nationalists came together to support, exacerbated the animosity between the Communists and the Social Democrats, while simultaneously giving credit to Nationalist ideas that German culture was under the threat of foreign influence and degradation at the hands of Communists and Jews. In practice, the film review boards sought to control political opinions and limit sexual deviancy, furthering these divides even more and normalizing homophobia. Although the majority of the German population accepted most of the film review boards’ censorship decisions, their approval and subsequent censorship of Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front served as a dramatic point of contention in which the Nazis gained political support and legitimacy. Film censorship contributed to the growth in Nazi support and the ever-widening political divisions between the German left, leading to the rise of the Nazi dictatorship in 1933, as well as providing cultural normalization and political legitimacy Nazi acts of violent extremism against racial ‘others’ and those deemed inferior, Communists, and the LGBTQ community.

Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933

Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933
Author: Laurence Kardish
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Germany
ISBN: 9780870707612

Published in conjunction with the Museums presentation of 75 featurelength films from theWeimar era, many of them only recently restored, Weimar Cinema 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares reconsiders the broad spectrum of influential German films made between the world wars. Both films made in Germany and those made in America by the émigré filmmakers who arrived in Hollywood before Hitler took power deeply affected American cinema. Weimar Cinema is the first comprehensive survey of this period to include popular cinema musicals, comedies, the daydreams of the working class along with the nightmarish classics such as Fritz Langs Dr.Mabuse der Spieler and M, F.W. Murnaus Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens and G.W. Pabsts Pandoras Box. Richly illustrated with film stills, the book examines how our understanding of these films has changed in the last half century and investigates important themes in films from this period, including the portrayal of women and the role of sound. Supplementing the essays is a detailed illustrated filmography of the 75 films featured in the programme; each film is accompanied by a brief description and excerpts from reviews.