Cinema and Photography

German Cinema
Hollywood is renowned for having led the world's cinema throughout this period and for much else of the  century through its competitively aggressive business nature however under the Weimar Republic German cinema boomed and was Hollywood's only real competitor. 2 million Germans went to the cinema every day and from 1918-1930 2,700 cinemas were built. There were more cinemas in Germany than in any other country in Europe. 

In Germany

 Important International events

1918
Ernst Lubitsch  makes his first film Chaplin makes his first feature length comedy

1919
Robert Weinz makes the famous macabre film, "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" Film Industry nationalized in USSR
Fritz Lang directs his first film

1920
Carl Dreyer makes "Leaves from Satan's book"

1921
Hanz Richter proudces first German animation about Viking Eggeling Rudolph Valentino makes "The four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"
Max Fleischer produces "out of the Inkwell" from the Koko the clown series Flaherty finishes documentary about Eskimo life, "Nanoo of the North

1922
Fritz Lang makes "Doctor Mabuse" Robin Hood is made by Douglas Faribanks
Murnau makes "Nosferatu"  "La Roue" is made by Gance

1923
Walt Disney founds first studio

1924
Fritz Lang makes "The Nibelung Saga" In USSR "Strike" is made by Sergei Eisenstein
Murnau makes "The Last laugh" MGM founded

1925
G.W. Pabst starts his series of dark social and psychological films with "The Joyless street" Eisenstein makes "Battleship of the Potmkin"

1926
Fritz Lang makes the famous "Metropolis" Alfred Hitchcock makes his first thriller "the Lodger"

1927
G.W. Pabst makes "The love of Jeanne Ney" Warner Brothers demonstrate sound with Film in "The Jazz Singer"
Ruttman makes the documentary "Berlin Symphony of a Great City" The Academy Awards are instituted 

1928
Silent Films continue to be produced with, "The Crowd" (King Vidor", "The Docks of New York" (Von Sternberg), "The Circus" (Chaplin), "October" (Eisenstein), "The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer) and "The wind" (Sjostrom)

1929
Marlene Dietrich appears in first sound film In Britain Hitchcock makes "Blackmail" which was silent then remade to contain dialogue
Metzner makes the pschological study "Uberfall" Anthony Asquith makes first film "Shooting Stars"

1930
Marlene Dietrich appears in Joseph Von Sternberg's "The blue Angel" Lewis Mileston makes "All Quiet on the Western Front"
"WestFront 1918" is made by Pabst René Clair makes first French Sound film "Sous les Toits de Paris"

1931
Pabst makes "Kameradshaft " Asquith makes "Tell England"
Oskar Fischinger makes the animation "Brahm's Hungarian Dance" Disney produces first silly symphony "Skeleton Dance" 
Lang makes "M" Len Lye begins experiments with drawing on celluloid
During the War home production had to increase to entertain a public fascinated by film. In November of 1917 UFA was formed. UFA grouped all German film companies under the state. UFA joined Davidson's and  Messter's companies as well as Austrian Saacha Films. As a result of Saacah Films joining many Hungarians came into UFA's orbit. Deulig headed by the producer Erich Pommer who had brought Austrian Fritz Lang to Germany was UFA's only German competitor but later merged during the hyperinflation of 1923. 
         
Since 1895 in Germany and earlier in America silent films had been subject to melodramatic movements and over acting to compensate for the act of dialogue. This changed in Germany during the "Golden Twenties" Director Ernst Lubitsch and Actress Asta Nielson developped a more subtle acting technique that worked. They focused on detail and used small but revealing action or gesture. Nielson used costume and how her characters held objects. She used her remarkable face in restraint not rolling her eyes like other actresses did. 
 
Nordic or Germanic Expressionism was another element which marks German films during the 1920s.  Expressionism is a form of symbolism and stylisation which suggests "phenomena of the soul" The film that characterizes expressionism is Pommer's "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" Pommer bought this story off two Austrian writers and converted the story of the persecution of a young unstable mind by his physiatrist into a physiological melodrama where the persecution becomes a fantasy in the young man's mind.  In this film the kind physiatrist becomes a homicidal fairground showman who hypnotizes a somnambulist to commit murders. The film sounds weird but it was the expressionist sets and the striking acting which brought the film success to intellectuals in and out of Germany. 

Expressionism became a cult in Germany and expressionist films soon included every macabre or fantasy produced between 1920 and 1925. Other great expressionist films which have survived through their everlasting beauty and by raising melodrama into poetry include; Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) and Weary Death (1921), Arthur Von Gerlach's Vanina (1922) and Arthur Robinson's Warning Shadows (1922)
         

The other branch of German cinema during the twenties was focused on legendary and historical folklore. The master of this branch was Lubitsch. This branch gave the German studios the chance to show off their developed technical ability. Examples of such historical films are; Fritz Lang's The Nibelung Saga (1924), Murnau's Tartuffe (1925) and Ludwig Berger for Cinderella (1923)
By 1930 virtually all German films had sound and although they had suffered a blip seeing as the British and Americans watched films in English the Industry survived and great films continued to be produced like the musical "I kiss you hand, Madame" Starring the Cabaret artiste Marlene Dietrich and "The Blue Angel" also starring Marlene Dietrich as a Cabaret singer. 

 
Despite mass political, economic and social instability during these years the German film industry was almost unaffected. It seemed as if it were immune to violence and suffering however this had changed by the end of the period. Hitler and the Nazis caused the problem and directors like Lang responded by making films like "The Last Will of Doctor Mabuse" where a criminal lunatic (inspired by Hitler) escaped from prison and craved for the destruction of mankind. When Hitler came to power there was mass change in the film industry. Many of the great German heros of film left to America and continued their careers in Hollywood. However Hitler and Goebbels enjoyed films and rather than thinking they were evil Jewish conceptions like they believed other forms of modern German culture were they embraced the film industry and changed it. However many films were banned if Jews had contributed to the production or if the film gave the wrong messages. Even before the nazis were in power Goebbels had his ways of ensuring that un-Nazi  films were not viewed. When "All Quiet on the Western Front" was released Goebbels gave tickets to SA hooligans who started riots and released mice. The Hooligans left before the police arrived so the result was that the government banned the film for causing political instability. 
 
German Photography
During this period Photography became one of the major art forms and new compositions were experimented with. Soon illustrated magazines were widely available and the photography inside them replaced drawing as a method of visualization.  Photography was not simply an expensive way of producing art but it was a method of explaining things. Erich Saloman was one of these photgraphers producing photographs to accompany articles he often photographed court trials and conferences. 

August Sander was a modern German artist experimenting with photography. He produced albums of ordinary Germans surviving the political and economic troubles enforced upon them. When the Nazis came to power his photography was censored because it focused on oppression. The Nazis still recognized photography as an art form and therefore gave support to Erny Lend-Vai-Dircksen who focused on nationalistic themes.  
 

An example of Paul Wolff's experimental style.
New developments in technologies and German Modernism led to photography becoming a key part in German and then worldwide advertising. Effects and experimental ideas let adverts become more exciting through photography. Developments in technology made larger printing possible which led to the possibility of huge photographs in cities. Albert Renger-Patzch, Hans Finsler, Paul Wolff and August Sander were some of the many artist that experimented with advertising photography. They experimented with close ups and quirky photographing perspectives this allowed them to modify the context whether it be people, landscapes or products this "new photography" could give the viewer a new stance.

Ben

 

Home

 

Cinema and Photography American Influences Art Architecture and Design Music and Literature