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1
00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:16,645
We must cover the city
with a network of informers.
2
00:00:16,846 --> 00:00:21,200
Each square metre
must be under our permanent control.
3
00:00:21,402 --> 00:00:25,008
No child in this city must take a step
without our knowledge.
4
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:22,166
"Germany, where does it lie?
I cannot seem to find this country."
5
00:01:23,125 --> 00:01:28,525
Weimar the city of Goethe and Schiller,
gave Germany's first republic its name.
6
00:01:28,726 --> 00:01:30,644
Weimar Republic.
7
00:01:40,446 --> 00:01:42,287
What a radiant beginning,
8
00:01:42,441 --> 00:01:44,723
yet what a miserable end.
9
00:01:50,602 --> 00:01:53,086
This first German republic has vanished,
10
00:01:53,239 --> 00:01:57,843
degraded to a mere precursor
even in our memories.
11
00:01:58,044 --> 00:02:00,528
And yet, it was so much more...
12
00:02:02,724 --> 00:02:05,880
1920s Germany was young and modern,
13
00:02:06,043 --> 00:02:08,402
like these two girls on the left.
14
00:02:08,603 --> 00:02:12,439
Brigitte and Christel,
we shall meet them again later.
15
00:02:13,523 --> 00:02:16,448
FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER
16
00:02:16,841 --> 00:02:19,968
GERMAN CINEMA
IN THE AGE OF THE MASSES
17
00:02:50,168 --> 00:02:53,285
The Weimar Republic
was a mass society on the move
18
00:02:53,486 --> 00:02:55,884
Berlin was its flitting metropolis,
19
00:02:56,325 --> 00:02:58,646
a boomtown full of contradictions
20
00:02:59,039 --> 00:03:01,724
that fascinated people across the globe.
21
00:03:28,127 --> 00:03:30,361
How strange they seem, these people,
22
00:03:30,803 --> 00:03:32,884
yet how similar they are to us.
23
00:03:37,439 --> 00:03:39,568
What have those eyes seen?
24
00:03:41,688 --> 00:03:43,922
Is there such a thing as a German glance?
25
00:03:45,687 --> 00:03:48,679
What is the face of the Weimar Republic?
26
00:03:52,247 --> 00:03:55,086
Wartime experiences, authoritarian thought?
27
00:03:55,287 --> 00:03:56,486
Misery?
28
00:03:57,368 --> 00:03:58,883
Hope?
29
00:03:59,046 --> 00:04:00,600
Pride?
30
00:04:01,041 --> 00:04:02,163
Happiness?
31
00:04:03,525 --> 00:04:06,402
Maybe this country
can be traced by its cinema?
32
00:04:06,843 --> 00:04:08,848
Maybe it survived in its movies?
33
00:04:09,442 --> 00:04:11,888
How strange those images look.
34
00:04:12,722 --> 00:04:16,405
My father was born in this era.
My grandfathers experienced it.
35
00:04:16,846 --> 00:04:20,403
They were the same age
as the young men in the films.
36
00:04:20,404 --> 00:04:22,926
Gustaf Gründgens, for example.
37
00:04:24,087 --> 00:04:28,201
This beast has no right to exist,
it must be exterminated,
38
00:04:28,403 --> 00:04:30,800
mercilessly, without any compassion.
39
00:04:30,925 --> 00:04:33,725
A great actor, not at all one-dimensional.
40
00:04:33,927 --> 00:04:38,722
Dazzling, ambiguous,
just like his character and his times.
41
00:04:38,923 --> 00:04:41,446
The safe-cracker in Fritz Lang's "M".
42
00:04:43,488 --> 00:04:46,087
Gründgens' black-gloved hand
hovering over the city
43
00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:48,888
is a symbol of violence,
an eminently modern symbol,
44
00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,127
representing connectivity, domination,
control, and cybernetics.
45
00:04:53,328 --> 00:04:56,119
The film is a symphony of horror
in light and shadow.
46
00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:57,884
The shadow of the future.
47
00:05:00,799 --> 00:05:03,887
What does cinema know,
that we don't?
48
00:05:21,927 --> 00:05:24,324
That's a nice ball you have there.
49
00:05:27,921 --> 00:05:29,561
What's your name?
50
00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:35,324
Light and shadow.
51
00:05:38,441 --> 00:05:40,647
An actress and her audience.
52
00:05:50,084 --> 00:05:52,606
Expressionism and sobriety,
53
00:05:53,565 --> 00:05:55,368
A cool bath.
54
00:05:58,361 --> 00:06:00,164
A kiss in the countryside.
55
00:06:01,286 --> 00:06:02,926
Volatile images.
56
00:06:03,722 --> 00:06:07,519
The Weimar cinema
was mythical and modern,
57
00:06:07,683 --> 00:06:09,447
portraying strict fathers,
58
00:06:09,965 --> 00:06:12,602
wild daughters,
and beautiful women.
59
00:06:13,485 --> 00:06:15,000
It created heroes
60
00:06:17,522 --> 00:06:19,239
and special effects.
61
00:06:22,404 --> 00:06:24,360
It evoked fear and happiness,
62
00:06:24,562 --> 00:06:27,400
it showed horrors and utopias.
63
00:06:40,721 --> 00:06:44,519
It was playing -
with utopias and transgressions.
64
00:06:44,922 --> 00:06:47,646
With doppelgangers and loners.
65
00:06:53,688 --> 00:06:57,284
People were laughing in German films.
They were happy.
66
00:06:57,361 --> 00:06:59,404
And they were in love.
67
00:07:00,765 --> 00:07:06,165
Falling in love again
Never wanted to
68
00:07:06,606 --> 00:07:08,447
Which isn't the same thing.
69
00:07:08,639 --> 00:07:14,288
What am I to do?
I can't help it
70
00:07:15,803 --> 00:07:20,081
Their directors constructed surrealist
images of longing and romance.
71
00:07:20,646 --> 00:07:23,245
I'm your new secretary.
72
00:07:27,925 --> 00:07:31,445
Cinema was captivating
by way of magic and mystery.
73
00:07:33,123 --> 00:07:35,521
It made the hearts beat faster.
74
00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,124
Let's remember: All this
is the history of German cinema.
75
00:07:44,325 --> 00:07:47,365
All this lives on in our collective memory.
76
00:07:50,242 --> 00:07:52,285
Again: hands over the city.
77
00:07:52,448 --> 00:07:54,606
This time, from Mabuse.
78
00:08:00,964 --> 00:08:06,441
I only discovered German silent films
when I went to Paris.
79
00:08:06,604 --> 00:08:12,521
That's where I saw films by Fritz Lang,
Murnau and others for the first time.
80
00:08:13,365 --> 00:08:18,726
And I was instantly hooked.
81
00:08:18,879 --> 00:08:24,682
And more than that, these were finally
fathers we could identify with.
82
00:08:24,845 --> 00:08:29,803
The 1920s were all about
discovering oneself and trying things out.
83
00:08:30,004 --> 00:08:34,608
You can see this approach
when you look at the actual films.
84
00:08:37,888 --> 00:08:40,841
From the very start,
cinema was aware of its power.
85
00:08:41,043 --> 00:08:42,759
It depicted this power,
86
00:08:42,922 --> 00:08:46,768
suspending the boundaries
between image and viewer.
87
00:08:47,727 --> 00:08:51,400
Mysterious unearthly creatures,
stepping off the screen
88
00:08:51,602 --> 00:08:53,808
and into the world of the audience.
89
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:02,199
Here, the audience is faced
with their own astonishment.
90
00:09:02,688 --> 00:09:05,326
Cinema's earth shattering power.
91
00:09:16,326 --> 00:09:19,922
Also Fritz Lang's "Mabuse"
shows us a cinema situation.
92
00:09:20,124 --> 00:09:24,363
Again, the audience
is completely transfixed.
93
00:09:24,526 --> 00:09:28,400
But this time, cinema literally
comes to life and seizes power.
94
00:09:29,925 --> 00:09:32,399
The screen seems to be unleashed.
95
00:09:37,444 --> 00:09:41,088
Again, there is a seductive magician
by the side of the screen.
96
00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,646
Art and life
seem to have merged completely.
97
00:09:45,241 --> 00:09:47,169
It's almost a miracle
98
00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,964
that in a country
so seriously damaged by the war,
99
00:09:53,239 --> 00:10:00,202
saw the re-emergence of such an
influential output in culture and film.
100
00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:21,003
Cinema was the art form
of the emerging 20th century.
101
00:10:21,004 --> 00:10:23,881
Within a few years,
it became a mass medium,
102
00:10:23,929 --> 00:10:26,441
with Germany as one of its centres.
103
00:10:44,519 --> 00:10:48,921
Erich Pommer was one of German
cinema's first geniuses at UFA,
104
00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:52,565
a producer who created cinema history.
105
00:10:52,566 --> 00:10:57,361
Pommer intuitively grasped the mechanisms
of the international film business.
106
00:10:57,927 --> 00:11:03,604
Furthermore, Erich Pommer
did not so much invest in stars,
107
00:11:03,806 --> 00:11:07,440
but in directors and scripts.
108
00:11:07,968 --> 00:11:11,842
His masterpiece is Robert Wiene's
"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".
109
00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:16,964
The mysterious magician Caligari
appears at amusement parks.
110
00:11:17,482 --> 00:11:20,042
He has turned his
somnambulist creature Cesare
111
00:11:20,244 --> 00:11:22,286
into a murder weapon.
112
00:11:23,763 --> 00:11:28,722
He creeps into the bourgeoisie's bedrooms,
committing his vicious deeds.
113
00:11:33,881 --> 00:11:38,762
"Caligari" was born out of the "storm of
steel", the mayhem of the First World War.
114
00:11:38,763 --> 00:11:41,725
The film is about the war
and its consequences,
115
00:11:41,726 --> 00:11:46,042
about upheavals within society,
the decay of values and of order,
116
00:11:46,243 --> 00:11:48,526
about nothing remaining as it was,
117
00:11:48,727 --> 00:11:52,362
about valuation and identity
not being valid anymore.
118
00:12:10,929 --> 00:12:15,043
Is the seemingly omnipotent manipulator
himself a driven character?
119
00:12:15,724 --> 00:12:19,368
Is he a mad scientist
or curing the insane?
120
00:12:23,003 --> 00:12:26,408
The film is deliberately vague about it.
121
00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:29,045
It blurs the lines
between authority and insanity.
122
00:12:29,247 --> 00:12:32,881
All of society
is in need of a straightjacket.
123
00:12:37,044 --> 00:12:42,568
Film critic Siegfried Kracauer saw the film
as a subconscious anticipation of Fascism,
124
00:12:42,759 --> 00:12:46,922
with Caligari as tyrant
and society losing its sanity.
125
00:12:47,123 --> 00:12:49,406
The dictator is already present
126
00:12:49,607 --> 00:12:52,925
within the collective psyche.
127
00:12:58,085 --> 00:13:02,324
Over the next few years, tyrants
would march across German cinema screens.
128
00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:08,807
Villains and mass murderers emerged
from the subliminal German consciousness.
129
00:13:10,965 --> 00:13:14,926
Manipulators and magicians,
omniscient and omnipotent,
130
00:13:15,127 --> 00:13:19,203
aspiring world rulers
with infectious seductive powers.
131
00:13:32,764 --> 00:13:35,161
And on the other hand their creations:
132
00:13:35,286 --> 00:13:37,808
somnambulist, possessed,
133
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,242
only too willing
to carry out their masters' orders.
134
00:13:41,721 --> 00:13:43,448
Why were there so many of them?
135
00:13:43,649 --> 00:13:45,366
Where did they come from?
136
00:13:45,567 --> 00:13:48,041
Anyone wishing to explain
the history of German film
137
00:13:48,243 --> 00:13:50,842
will have to answer these questions.
138
00:13:51,964 --> 00:13:54,927
What does cinema know,
that we don't?
139
00:14:01,286 --> 00:14:04,267
How can any of you know
what goes on inside me,
140
00:14:04,268 --> 00:14:07,644
how my innermost
is shouting and screaming to me
141
00:14:07,846 --> 00:14:10,205
forcing me to do it against my will,
142
00:14:10,406 --> 00:14:12,602
I must do it, I don't want to,
143
00:14:12,788 --> 00:14:14,051
I must do it,
144
00:14:14,242 --> 00:14:16,880
and then a voice is screaming.
145
00:14:17,081 --> 00:14:20,601
I can't stand it anymore! Help!
146
00:14:20,802 --> 00:14:25,041
I would certainly agree with Kracauer
when he says
147
00:14:25,243 --> 00:14:30,565
that these are conceptualisations,
trying to make the world comprehensible,
148
00:14:30,767 --> 00:14:33,567
which have a long tradition in Germany,
149
00:14:33,768 --> 00:14:38,928
and which are remarkably frequent
in Weimar cinema,
150
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,844
much more so
than in Hollywood at the time.
151
00:14:43,925 --> 00:14:47,444
Born 1889 in Frankfurt, and raised there,
152
00:14:47,646 --> 00:14:51,722
Siegfried Kracauer studied
architecture and philosophy,
153
00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:57,006
The free city of Frankfurt
was the secret centre of the Left-liberal.
154
00:14:57,207 --> 00:14:59,643
It combined money and intellect,
155
00:14:59,806 --> 00:15:04,122
and in the 1920s, became a centre
of the left-leaning avant-garde.
156
00:15:06,568 --> 00:15:11,085
From the start, Kracauer thought more
about the mundane than the abstract,
157
00:15:11,248 --> 00:15:14,000
following his mentor, Georg Simmel.
158
00:15:17,645 --> 00:15:20,560
In 1920, Kracauer joined
the Frankfurter Zeitung,
159
00:15:20,761 --> 00:15:24,041
then the country's leading paper
for the educated middle classes,
160
00:15:24,243 --> 00:15:28,961
where he quickly rose to become one of the
most renowned journalists of the republic.
161
00:15:29,527 --> 00:15:32,529
Frankfurt was also home to the
Marxist democratic "Frankfurt School"
162
00:15:32,721 --> 00:15:37,324
the "Institut für Sozialforschung",
to which Kracauer associated himself.
163
00:15:37,526 --> 00:15:41,247
The institute absorbed
the cultural-revolutionary ideas of Marx,
164
00:15:41,448 --> 00:15:45,649
Nietzsche and Freud,
amalgamating them into a new world view,
165
00:15:45,802 --> 00:15:50,041
no longer under the name "philosophy",
but "critical theory".
166
00:15:51,681 --> 00:15:54,366
Even the capital
was taking on a new shape.
167
00:15:54,568 --> 00:15:58,049
The new headquarters of IG Farben
was a sensational building.
168
00:15:58,241 --> 00:16:00,284
It had been designed by Hans Poelzig,
169
00:16:00,447 --> 00:16:04,407
the set designer of Paul Wegener's
expressionist "Golem".
170
00:16:09,164 --> 00:16:12,204
Kracauer avoided peer pressure
and University,
171
00:16:12,406 --> 00:16:17,048
preferring to immerse himself
in the thriving life of the new republic.
172
00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,406
Like his friends Adorno,
Benjamin and Löwenthal,
173
00:16:23,569 --> 00:16:28,086
he was enthusiastic about the phenomena
of the new mass society.
174
00:16:31,404 --> 00:16:35,126
Kracauer wrote about anything,
including theoretic works and novels,
175
00:16:35,327 --> 00:16:38,760
but he focused on film criticism.
176
00:16:38,923 --> 00:16:41,446
The volatility of cinema,
177
00:16:41,609 --> 00:16:43,402
always in motion,
178
00:16:43,565 --> 00:16:48,840
appealed to Kracauer who was always
on the move and loved everything elusive.
179
00:16:58,008 --> 00:17:00,607
It began with a revolution.
180
00:17:01,202 --> 00:17:04,808
With the emperor ousted,
the empire became a democracy.
181
00:17:04,846 --> 00:17:06,840
But its foundation was weak.
182
00:17:06,841 --> 00:17:11,003
The loss and financial debt of the war
burdened the new first republic.
183
00:17:11,042 --> 00:17:14,724
Pure chaos reigned,
people were hunted in the streets.
184
00:17:14,801 --> 00:17:18,761
Revolts, hundreds killed,
mainly among liberals and the Left,
185
00:17:18,762 --> 00:17:21,486
a civil war which kept flaring up.
186
00:17:32,045 --> 00:17:36,322
Robert Reinert's traumatic ronde
"Nerven" with its hysteric mass scenes
187
00:17:36,485 --> 00:17:40,609
depicts the revolts that took place
in Munich after the end of the war,
188
00:17:40,762 --> 00:17:45,481
portraying a deeply unsettled society
trying to find its own identity.
189
00:17:49,566 --> 00:17:52,683
The film is a torrent
of shock and catastrophe.
190
00:17:54,525 --> 00:17:59,444
It shows a bourgeois family descending
into a maelstrom of guilt and redemption.
191
00:17:59,607 --> 00:18:01,602
Industrialists and prophets,
192
00:18:01,804 --> 00:18:05,247
well-to-do female communists
and psychiatrists.
193
00:18:08,402 --> 00:18:12,526
A melodrama
with expressive gestures and colours.
194
00:18:15,681 --> 00:18:18,769
"Nerven" constitutes
a different form of expressionism:
195
00:18:18,961 --> 00:18:23,046
three-dimensional,
without any spikes or lopsided walls.
196
00:18:24,044 --> 00:18:27,602
Not set in a fairyland,
but part of the real world.
197
00:18:31,285 --> 00:18:34,804
"Nerven" is without doubt
more modern than "Caligari".
198
00:18:35,006 --> 00:18:38,324
It is less influential,
because it can't be used as décor.
199
00:18:38,487 --> 00:18:43,004
The film is a never-ending riot,
in a constant state of flux.
200
00:18:53,688 --> 00:18:58,847
Its star, Erna Morena, was one
of the great divas of the silent era.
201
00:19:04,688 --> 00:19:07,325
Director Robert Reinert,
a forgotten talent,
202
00:19:07,527 --> 00:19:12,005
exemplifies the advent of the
unconscious on German screens.
203
00:19:12,168 --> 00:19:14,202
And he tells of the future,
204
00:19:15,046 --> 00:19:16,446
the masses,
205
00:19:18,441 --> 00:19:20,608
ideology.
206
00:19:26,602 --> 00:19:30,764
The nervousness of the characters,
and also the political upheaval,
207
00:19:30,966 --> 00:19:34,169
is a reaction to the mass deaths
of the First World War.
208
00:19:34,361 --> 00:19:37,123
And you actually see all the dead,
209
00:19:37,286 --> 00:19:41,563
haunting the cinema screen
like apparitions in people's minds.
210
00:19:41,726 --> 00:19:43,961
So you could say the screen
211
00:19:44,162 --> 00:19:48,209
becomes the collective thought process
of an entire nation.
212
00:19:49,561 --> 00:19:52,007
Who still remembers Robert Reinert,
213
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:54,242
Manfred Noa,
214
00:19:54,884 --> 00:19:56,083
Karlheinz Martin,
215
00:19:56,841 --> 00:19:57,963
Werner Hochbaum,
216
00:19:58,567 --> 00:19:59,881
Henrik Galeen,
217
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:01,684
Richard Oswald,
218
00:20:01,885 --> 00:20:03,602
Reinhold Schünzel,
219
00:20:03,765 --> 00:20:05,568
Marie Harder?
220
00:20:06,086 --> 00:20:07,649
Great talents all of them,
221
00:20:07,802 --> 00:20:11,447
they are among hundreds
of forgotten directors of the Weimar era.
222
00:20:11,648 --> 00:20:14,161
The new star directors were others:
223
00:20:14,324 --> 00:20:15,801
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau,
224
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:18,246
Ernst Lubitsch,
225
00:20:19,081 --> 00:20:20,289
Fritz Lang.
226
00:20:25,300 --> 00:20:27,300
Cinema also always meant spectacle.
227
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,560
This was probably
best understood by Fritz Lang,
228
00:20:30,608 --> 00:20:34,684
whose stunning career
coincided with the birth of the republic.
229
00:20:35,202 --> 00:20:37,322
"Destiny" was an episodic film,
230
00:20:37,523 --> 00:20:39,249
delivering pure escapism,
231
00:20:39,441 --> 00:20:41,609
such as the flying carpet in this scene.
232
00:20:46,845 --> 00:20:50,681
Lang was a virtuoso,
combining suspense and profoundness
233
00:20:50,806 --> 00:20:54,441
with Lubitsch-like elements.
234
00:21:40,407 --> 00:21:45,529
Lang's trademark was combining
clichéd plots with formal imagination.
235
00:21:46,804 --> 00:21:49,605
Lang turns the viewers into detectives,
236
00:21:49,806 --> 00:21:52,722
showing them evidence,
describing cognitive prccesses,
237
00:21:52,885 --> 00:21:55,282
thus observing the mind at work.
238
00:21:55,445 --> 00:21:57,248
Enlightenment as suspense,
239
00:22:00,528 --> 00:22:04,163
Lang seems almost obsessed
by certain archetypal scenes.
240
00:22:04,403 --> 00:22:07,126
Manhunt, wide-spread hysteria,
241
00:22:07,328 --> 00:22:08,766
order versus chaos,
242
00:22:08,929 --> 00:22:10,847
system versus freedom,
243
00:22:10,886 --> 00:22:12,641
and their confrontation.
244
00:22:13,849 --> 00:22:17,484
A sick brain which is also independent.
245
00:22:26,883 --> 00:22:29,683
The most modern film tyrant is Dr Mabuse,
246
00:22:29,884 --> 00:22:33,768
appearing in three of Lang's films as a
mighty supervillain and insane gangster,
247
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:36,809
but also a psychologist and manipulator.
248
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,724
Mabuse is a hero of crime.
249
00:22:44,049 --> 00:22:47,809
A faceless man
wearing an ever-changing array of masks.
250
00:22:49,804 --> 00:22:52,844
He wants power and money,
but he's also obsessed.
251
00:22:53,045 --> 00:22:56,162
On some days,
his behaviour is entirely alogical,
252
00:22:57,006 --> 00:23:00,564
and it is the alogical
that constitutes Mabuse's terror.
253
00:23:01,408 --> 00:23:05,484
We don't know him,
but he knows everything about us.
254
00:23:05,685 --> 00:23:07,402
He's everyone and no-one,
255
00:23:07,603 --> 00:23:12,763
manipulating the masses as an invisible
conductor in a symphony of crime.
256
00:23:13,281 --> 00:23:17,808
Mabuse symbolises mass hysteria
and the panic of the 20th century.
257
00:23:18,009 --> 00:23:20,761
He personifies the unknown,
the ungraspable,
258
00:23:20,963 --> 00:23:22,526
absolute modernity,
259
00:23:22,728 --> 00:23:26,688
dreams, visions, delirium and the abyss.
260
00:23:27,082 --> 00:23:29,527
He is more volatile
than all those who are on his trail.
261
00:23:29,729 --> 00:23:31,848
Mabuse is impossible to catch.
262
00:23:32,049 --> 00:23:35,042
This modern volatility
likens him to ourselves.
263
00:23:35,243 --> 00:23:39,165
Mabuse is the most contemporary hero
of Weimar cinema.
264
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,962
The first Mabuse films
are a product of the inflation period,
265
00:23:51,489 --> 00:23:53,446
of its fears and insecurity,
266
00:23:53,647 --> 00:23:57,406
but also of its speed
and permanent time pressure.
267
00:24:14,803 --> 00:24:20,049
Friz Lang depicted
a certain kind of German
268
00:24:20,241 --> 00:24:23,444
who is almost soulless.
269
00:24:23,646 --> 00:24:27,127
It's very much about power relations,
270
00:24:27,329 --> 00:24:34,243
with matters of the heart on feelings
hardly ever making an impact.
271
00:24:34,723 --> 00:24:39,288
This also relates
to a specific kind of architecture,
272
00:24:40,208 --> 00:24:45,685
to a kind of objectivity that may...
273
00:24:49,444 --> 00:24:53,405
almost preclude any feelings,
274
00:24:53,606 --> 00:24:56,723
or at least restrain them.
275
00:25:04,808 --> 00:25:07,129
The director as world-constructor.
276
00:25:07,321 --> 00:25:10,763
This is Lubitsch
in the opening scene of "The Doll".
277
00:25:10,965 --> 00:25:15,607
He stages himself,
lovingly, vain and full of passion.
278
00:25:15,808 --> 00:25:18,043
What a confident performance!
279
00:25:52,443 --> 00:25:54,803
Lubitsch was a director of comedy
280
00:25:55,004 --> 00:25:58,169
and of the comedic recesses
of human existence.
281
00:26:15,403 --> 00:26:17,484
But he did produce other works.
282
00:26:17,685 --> 00:26:21,243
While German streets still saw revolts,
283
00:26:21,445 --> 00:26:26,048
he directed a distanced
and ironic take on the French Revolution.
284
00:26:41,767 --> 00:26:46,169
What he loved most, however,
was the choreography of masses.
285
00:26:46,361 --> 00:26:51,329
Here, he already depicts what Kracauer
would later term "The Mass Ornament".
286
00:27:01,322 --> 00:27:06,683
It's easy to see why Lubitsch left
for Hollywood shortly afterwards, in 1922.
287
00:27:19,006 --> 00:27:21,442
Slowly, the republic was consolidating.
288
00:27:21,644 --> 00:27:23,562
Free and progressive laws came in.
289
00:27:23,763 --> 00:27:28,165
The new president was Friedrich Ebert,
the first Social Democrat in this position.
290
00:27:28,367 --> 00:27:33,287
But the old authoritarian society
still overshadowed anything new.
291
00:27:33,488 --> 00:27:37,084
The military was a state within a state.
292
00:27:39,770 --> 00:27:44,766
Many on the right were merely waiting
to show their true face.
293
00:27:44,968 --> 00:27:48,161
They did so on 22nd June 1922.
294
00:27:51,403 --> 00:27:55,009
The Foreign Minister
Walther Rathenau, a liberal Jew,
295
00:27:55,047 --> 00:27:56,965
was murdered in broad daylight.
296
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:01,600
What Chancellor Wirth had shouted in his
speech against passionate opposition
297
00:28:01,645 --> 00:28:05,203
was now obvious to all:
"The enemy stands on the right."
298
00:28:12,684 --> 00:28:16,280
The biggest memorial service
in German history.
299
00:28:25,449 --> 00:28:27,204
The streets of Berlin
300
00:28:27,405 --> 00:28:31,002
20-year old Christel
personifies the young generation,
301
00:28:31,203 --> 00:28:34,684
putting all their hope
into the new republic.
302
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:40,300
Freedom,
303
00:28:41,500 --> 00:28:42,800
departure,
304
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:45,100
curiosity.
305
00:28:47,363 --> 00:28:51,487
Christel wants to become an actress
and starts as an extra.
306
00:28:51,688 --> 00:28:55,285
The volatile, strolling movement
typifies this period,
307
00:28:55,486 --> 00:28:57,970
when everything
was constantly changing.
308
00:28:58,162 --> 00:29:00,444
But what is the flaneur's world view?
309
00:29:00,646 --> 00:29:03,446
Kracauer still gives
a good account of this.
310
00:29:03,647 --> 00:29:06,927
"Reality is a mosaic, a construction."
311
00:29:07,129 --> 00:29:10,409
"Surely, life must be observed
for it to appear."
312
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,561
Kracauer was perhaps
the most typical flaneur of his age,
313
00:29:14,763 --> 00:29:18,004
compounding the modern
experiences of the metropolis
314
00:29:18,206 --> 00:29:22,330
to portraits of reality
that were both dense and fragmentary.
315
00:29:22,521 --> 00:29:26,166
A metropolitan writing about
advertising, public transport,
316
00:29:26,367 --> 00:29:27,969
anonymous passers-by,
317
00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,208
the cult of divertissement
or just sauntering along.
318
00:29:33,282 --> 00:29:37,607
His random perceptions combined
to paint an overall picture of the age.
319
00:29:37,808 --> 00:29:39,890
His friend Walter Benjamin called him
320
00:29:39,900 --> 00:29:44,200
"a ragpicker
on the eve of the revolution".
321
00:29:56,300 --> 00:29:59,600
Cinema was now also representing
the lower working class,
322
00:29:59,610 --> 00:30:05,410
although still from the perspective of
decent citizens looking down on them.
323
00:30:09,700 --> 00:30:14,400
You can sense the alienation
and clichéd bias of these images.
324
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:21,300
Reinhold Schünzel's
adaptation of the novel
325
00:30:21,310 --> 00:30:23,510
"Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße".
326
00:30:28,561 --> 00:30:31,687
A lonely older man
takes in a working class girl
327
00:30:31,889 --> 00:30:35,926
and teaches her manners and etiquette
"Pygmalion" in Berlin.
328
00:30:37,969 --> 00:30:40,290
It will be his downfall.
329
00:30:43,282 --> 00:30:49,286
Nevertheless, these films show an unusually
naturalistic and realistic perspective.
330
00:30:51,444 --> 00:30:55,203
But it tends to be the bourgeois
characters of such melodramas
331
00:30:55,404 --> 00:30:58,330
who are falling victim
to the lower classes,
332
00:30:58,521 --> 00:31:01,561
motivated not by misery, but by greed.
333
00:31:20,282 --> 00:31:23,082
At least these films reflected reality.
334
00:31:23,284 --> 00:31:27,043
Many were worse off
during the first Weimar years.
335
00:31:27,484 --> 00:31:33,008
For many people, the 20s, with the
inflation, were anything but golden.
336
00:31:46,445 --> 00:31:50,166
1923 - The Great lnflation
337
00:31:50,367 --> 00:31:51,604
500 BILLION MARKS
338
00:31:57,963 --> 00:32:00,849
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
repeatedly focused on men.
339
00:32:01,041 --> 00:32:03,410
Men on the verge
of nervous breakdowns,
340
00:32:03,602 --> 00:32:06,287
men under pressure, stressed men,
341
00:32:06,767 --> 00:32:09,605
established bourgeois men in crisis.
342
00:32:10,641 --> 00:32:14,928
Murnau's naturalism
is one of landscapes, of wind and waves,
343
00:32:15,130 --> 00:32:17,163
but not of feelings.
344
00:32:17,364 --> 00:32:19,848
Everything is exaggerated in silent films.
345
00:32:20,049 --> 00:32:23,003
It's hard to take this entirely seriously.
346
00:32:23,723 --> 00:32:28,288
Women are a threat to these men,
they lead them astray,
347
00:32:28,489 --> 00:32:32,009
they signify imposition and importunity.
348
00:33:01,528 --> 00:33:03,609
Murnau is a director of society,
349
00:33:03,801 --> 00:33:06,889
but also a director of landscapes
and a creator of myths,
350
00:33:07,081 --> 00:33:11,761
a romanticist, whose work
unifies melancholy and longing.
351
00:33:27,326 --> 00:33:30,721
No film by Murnau
is more famous than "Nosferatu".
352
00:33:31,690 --> 00:33:35,162
Yet again, it tells of a man
overestimating his powers,
353
00:33:35,363 --> 00:33:39,362
thinking he can take on
a vampire, a counterworld.
354
00:33:40,244 --> 00:33:42,728
A naive German who encounters horror.
355
00:33:43,208 --> 00:33:45,404
He is lost from the very outset
356
00:33:45,605 --> 00:33:50,209
his nightmarish journey into darkness
is a journey into nature.
357
00:33:55,723 --> 00:34:00,566
How often we see Murnau
opening and closing doors.
358
00:34:03,290 --> 00:34:07,404
They represent entry points to the
closed-off realms of our soul.
359
00:34:36,204 --> 00:34:40,885
The young man overstepping his limits
causes evil to come to Germany:
360
00:34:42,300 --> 00:34:43,800
the terror,
361
00:34:44,126 --> 00:34:46,370
the death, the rats.
362
00:34:48,010 --> 00:34:49,804
A terrifying stranger,
363
00:34:50,005 --> 00:34:53,803
an intruder stealing the wife
of the brave German.
364
00:34:54,004 --> 00:34:58,090
Is Murnau playing here
with anti-Semitic stereotypes?
365
00:34:58,282 --> 00:35:04,007
Like Caligari's Cesare,
Nosferatu is a murderous somnambulist.
366
00:35:04,966 --> 00:35:09,685
But he is a different kind of sleepwalker,
he is master and slave combined.
367
00:35:22,325 --> 00:35:26,046
Likewise, "Nosferatu" is as well
a film about the German psyche,
368
00:35:26,247 --> 00:35:28,722
about nightmares
and creatures of the night.
369
00:35:28,923 --> 00:35:32,529
Modern mythology
infused with mysterious symbols.
370
00:35:34,725 --> 00:35:40,249
It is also pure cinema, attempting
to translate emotions into images,
371
00:35:40,441 --> 00:35:45,006
to bring psychological processes
to the surface of the cinema screen.
372
00:36:12,521 --> 00:36:15,523
Lotte Eisner, an exiled German in Paris,
373
00:36:15,724 --> 00:36:21,047
described expressionist Weimar cinema
as "The Haunted Screen".
374
00:36:22,687 --> 00:36:26,926
The hauntedness is mainly inherent
in the metaphysical designs.
375
00:36:27,127 --> 00:36:30,848
Set designers Hans Poelzig,
Otto Hunte and Walter Reimann
376
00:36:31,050 --> 00:36:34,167
were the alchemists of these realms.
377
00:36:34,406 --> 00:36:38,166
They created magical atmospheres
and surreal worlds.
378
00:36:38,808 --> 00:36:41,168
The unsettling takes shape.
379
00:36:41,369 --> 00:36:46,126
Objects become strangely animated,
they become landscapes of the soul.
380
00:36:48,610 --> 00:36:52,609
Abyssal scenarios
unfolded on German cinema screens.
381
00:36:57,404 --> 00:37:00,607
The objects themselves are set in motion.
382
00:37:00,809 --> 00:37:03,446
The train travels into the unconscious.
383
00:37:08,328 --> 00:37:11,684
Psychological nightmares,
directorial calculation
384
00:37:11,886 --> 00:37:13,602
and neogothic yearning.
385
00:37:19,404 --> 00:37:22,684
"The Haunted Screen"
meant extreme artificiality,
386
00:37:22,886 --> 00:37:27,326
hocus-pocus, crumbling idylls,
catastrophic moods,
387
00:37:27,528 --> 00:37:29,609
lust for destruction.
388
00:37:31,603 --> 00:37:34,529
Cinema had only just been invented.
389
00:37:35,085 --> 00:37:39,602
It was a fairground attraction,
part of Berlin's "Luna" amusement park.
390
00:37:39,803 --> 00:37:46,325
And then people like Fritz Lang
returned from the war in 1918/1919,
391
00:37:46,526 --> 00:37:51,043
and proclaimed,
"no, film is actually an art form."
392
00:38:30,968 --> 00:38:34,526
The return of illusion
was reflected on the screen
393
00:38:34,728 --> 00:38:37,010
by the popular adventure film genre.
394
00:38:45,248 --> 00:38:49,487
Fritz Lang's "The Spiders"
features crossing the Cordillera,
395
00:38:49,689 --> 00:38:53,765
and preventing
Aztec-like human sacrifices.
396
00:39:00,363 --> 00:39:03,969
The intended four-part-series
was a physical action film.
397
00:39:04,170 --> 00:39:07,767
A German precursor
to the "Indiana Jones" adventures.
398
00:39:10,404 --> 00:39:14,125
Desert sands
and Indian elephants in German studios.
399
00:39:14,931 --> 00:39:19,486
The films reflect an increased
demand for escapism and the exotic.
400
00:39:19,687 --> 00:39:23,082
Joe May's "The Indian Tomb"
is a typical example.
401
00:39:34,687 --> 00:39:38,849
The script was by Fritz Lang
and his wife Thea von Harbou.
402
00:39:46,406 --> 00:39:51,365
Prussia represented a different kind
of longing for the Germans.
403
00:39:51,566 --> 00:39:55,325
A longing
for the good old days, for order,
404
00:39:55,527 --> 00:40:00,207
and also for grand politics
or what was perceived as such.
405
00:40:01,089 --> 00:40:05,405
Audiences loved Otto Gebühr
in the role of the Prussian King.
406
00:40:05,606 --> 00:40:11,082
The actor played Frederick the Great
eleven times before Hitler came to power.
407
00:40:12,607 --> 00:40:15,686
Germany no longer had an emperor,
but it had Fridericus,
408
00:40:15,887 --> 00:40:18,285
who was taking on
all of Europe in the cinema
409
00:40:18,486 --> 00:40:21,124
in a war of trenches,
gun smoke and suffering
410
00:40:21,325 --> 00:40:24,921
which looked uncannily like
the World War that had just been lost.
411
00:40:25,123 --> 00:40:28,805
There was one difference, though
Fridericus won his war.
412
00:40:33,284 --> 00:40:38,645
Strangely, two generations earlier,
most Germans had hated Prussia.
413
00:40:39,969 --> 00:40:45,761
Now many of them were longing
for this style of authoritarian rule.
414
00:40:47,689 --> 00:40:54,450
Only 10 years later, in March 1933,
Adolf Hitler celebrated Potsdam Day,
415
00:40:54,489 --> 00:40:59,370
thus putting a fatal end
to any dreams of a new Prussia.
416
00:41:00,646 --> 00:41:02,084
A pact with the devil.
417
00:41:02,286 --> 00:41:05,163
"German man
is demonic man personified,"
418
00:41:05,364 --> 00:41:07,647
according to Lotte Eisner.
419
00:41:14,849 --> 00:41:18,004
Murnau innocently
wanted to show cinema's possibilities
420
00:41:18,206 --> 00:41:19,970
by adapting a classic theme.
421
00:41:20,162 --> 00:41:23,490
He turns "Faust"
into circuslike magic and décor.
422
00:41:24,487 --> 00:41:26,367
The flight with Mephisto's magic cloak
423
00:41:26,569 --> 00:41:29,925
demonstrates the effects
the camera can achieve.
424
00:41:46,565 --> 00:41:49,528
Murnau presents the cinema
as an alchemical process,
425
00:41:49,729 --> 00:41:51,206
but also as an evil pact
426
00:41:51,408 --> 00:41:55,129
between director and politics,
between myth and method.
427
00:41:55,886 --> 00:41:58,044
For not only are images reinvented,
428
00:41:58,246 --> 00:42:01,209
but books are being burned,
as are people.
429
00:42:01,410 --> 00:42:04,642
Watching the film today,
we sense there is no way back
430
00:42:04,844 --> 00:42:07,088
to this German mythology.
431
00:42:14,770 --> 00:42:19,690
Another director, Fritz Lang, knew
full well that myths are never innocent.
432
00:42:20,563 --> 00:42:23,564
The Americans would later ask
Chaplin on Keaton?
433
00:42:23,766 --> 00:42:25,770
The French: Godard or Truffaut?
434
00:42:25,962 --> 00:42:28,887
The Italians: Antonioni or Fellini?
435
00:42:34,325 --> 00:42:37,442
We Germans must ask
Lang or Murnau?
436
00:42:46,706 --> 00:42:49,104
Murnau depicts
phantoms and phantasms,
437
00:42:49,363 --> 00:42:51,962
his heroes are driven, possessed,
438
00:42:52,163 --> 00:42:54,724
not of this world just like he himself.
439
00:42:58,128 --> 00:43:00,650
By contrast, Lang is
more reserved, more rational,
440
00:43:00,842 --> 00:43:05,609
he doesn't believe everything he shows,
doesn't give himself over to it.
441
00:43:07,450 --> 00:43:11,727
Fritz Lang basically invented
everything, all the genres,
442
00:43:12,300 --> 00:43:14,300
and...
443
00:43:16,609 --> 00:43:18,565
always postulating
444
00:43:18,767 --> 00:43:20,809
that film was the "seventh art",
445
00:43:21,001 --> 00:43:24,483
it was an art form,
but it was art for the masses.
446
00:43:24,684 --> 00:43:26,247
It was accessible to all.
447
00:43:29,124 --> 00:43:32,404
As a director,
Lang is out-and-out modern.
448
00:43:32,606 --> 00:43:34,322
While Murnau is a romantic,
449
00:43:34,524 --> 00:43:38,849
Lang constantly tells us viewers.
"Stop your romantic gawking!"
450
00:43:41,966 --> 00:43:43,807
Or doesn't he?
451
00:43:45,965 --> 00:43:49,245
At first glance,
Lang's two-part epic "Die Nibelungen"
452
00:43:49,446 --> 00:43:53,043
is just a sensational milestone
in the history of film.
453
00:43:58,807 --> 00:44:02,883
While its story and design are still
expressionist, it's also hyper-modern
454
00:44:03,084 --> 00:44:08,004
and pure fantasy
German nebulous dreams.
455
00:44:16,328 --> 00:44:18,764
The biggest blockbuster of German cinema,
456
00:44:18,966 --> 00:44:21,766
with special effects
that were truly innovative.
457
00:44:21,968 --> 00:44:26,485
A sea of flames,
a magic hood making the hero invisible.
458
00:44:35,010 --> 00:44:39,249
Or the lindworm that Siegfried
fights and that spews real fire.
459
00:45:16,403 --> 00:45:20,248
Siegfried, a blond German superman
who will succeed at anything.
460
00:45:20,450 --> 00:45:22,483
Aided by magic, if necessary.
461
00:45:26,684 --> 00:45:29,609
He can only be defeated
by an act of treason.
462
00:45:45,845 --> 00:45:49,327
SO SPOKE GRIM HAGEN:
THE HUNT IS OVER!
463
00:46:00,327 --> 00:46:02,571
"Die Nibelungen" is fantasy,
464
00:46:02,763 --> 00:46:06,330
New Mythology
and at the same time its deconstruction.
465
00:46:07,165 --> 00:46:09,649
They are part of the political fantasy:
466
00:46:09,850 --> 00:46:12,487
the dirty, barbaric Huns from the East,
467
00:46:12,689 --> 00:46:15,566
bringing the downfall
to the noble Germans.
468
00:46:17,925 --> 00:46:21,522
German audiences loved this -
the fruit of relishing their own fear.
469
00:46:33,126 --> 00:46:36,569
"Die Nibelungen" is an entirely
grown-up revenge drama,
470
00:46:36,770 --> 00:46:38,487
blood-thirsty gothic horror
471
00:46:38,688 --> 00:46:43,244
including a showdown in the burning
palace of Etzel, King of the Huns.
472
00:46:43,445 --> 00:46:46,888
Kriemhild, vengeful queen
and femme fatale.
473
00:46:50,648 --> 00:46:53,208
Hagen, the German psyche's Dark Knight,
474
00:46:53,410 --> 00:46:55,443
a murderer out of national interest,
475
00:46:55,683 --> 00:46:57,802
Gunther, a cunctator on the throne,
476
00:46:57,812 --> 00:47:03,312
a weak ruler, personifying
the 1920s' contempt for politics.
477
00:47:06,971 --> 00:47:11,363
YOU DON'T KNOW
THE GERMAN SOUL, ETZEL!
478
00:47:11,564 --> 00:47:16,446
Something must have been lurking
in the German forests
479
00:47:16,647 --> 00:47:20,522
which eventually
ended up on the screen.
480
00:47:20,723 --> 00:47:22,248
It must be the forests.
481
00:47:22,449 --> 00:47:25,691
Ultimately, it always
comes down to flora and fauna.
482
00:47:47,730 --> 00:47:50,367
By the mid 20s,
the republic had consolidated.
483
00:47:50,569 --> 00:47:53,647
Things were on the up,
the factories were busy.
484
00:47:53,685 --> 00:47:56,563
There was money,
there were more liberties
485
00:48:00,888 --> 00:48:03,285
and occasionally sensations.
486
00:48:08,483 --> 00:48:11,322
The director Gerhard Lamprecht
remained down-to-earth.
487
00:48:11,524 --> 00:48:15,647
An old hand, he was amongst those
filming in the courtyards of Berlin.
488
00:48:16,127 --> 00:48:19,810
Using non-professional actors,
his film titles speak for themselves:
489
00:48:20,011 --> 00:48:22,850
"Slums of Berlin",
"Children of No Importance",
490
00:48:23,329 --> 00:48:25,209
"People to Each Other".
491
00:48:25,410 --> 00:48:29,084
A clever way of sensitive enlightenment.
492
00:48:38,607 --> 00:48:43,930
I'd say the experiences
of young people during the 1920s
493
00:48:44,131 --> 00:48:48,284
were shaped by inflation
on the one hand.
494
00:48:49,003 --> 00:48:53,050
But on the other hand,
the enormous acceleration of life -
495
00:48:53,242 --> 00:48:59,169
both the economic upsurge
and fast-growing big city life -
496
00:48:59,370 --> 00:49:05,163
also brought about a certain febrility
and instability which, in a positive way,
497
00:49:05,364 --> 00:49:09,728
constituted a rather explosive mixture.
498
00:49:09,929 --> 00:49:14,370
And it was this exact explosive mixture
that then went on to influence
499
00:49:14,571 --> 00:49:16,930
all that which followed.
500
00:49:18,570 --> 00:49:22,167
There was a new style,
called "New Sobriety".
501
00:49:22,608 --> 00:49:24,804
Expressionism went out of fashion.
502
00:49:25,005 --> 00:49:29,724
The demeanour was post-expressionist,
cool, critical and unaffected.
503
00:49:30,491 --> 00:49:33,368
New Sobriety
was about facts rather than feelings,
504
00:49:33,570 --> 00:49:35,008
types instead of personalities.
505
00:49:37,885 --> 00:49:39,046
One of them is Brigitte.
506
00:49:39,247 --> 00:49:42,364
She just started her job
in a Berlin record store.
507
00:49:42,565 --> 00:49:46,085
Shes the typical example
of the new class of employee.
508
00:49:49,566 --> 00:49:53,767
The filmmakers wanted to take in
all of society objectively,
509
00:49:53,968 --> 00:49:55,925
producing "cross-movies".
510
00:49:56,126 --> 00:49:59,886
Weimar cinema now
was practically anti-expressionist.
511
00:50:04,009 --> 00:50:09,284
Fritz Lang walked through the Weimar
Republic like a political somnambulist.
512
00:50:09,486 --> 00:50:13,245
His most outwardly
political film became "Metropolis".
513
00:50:29,923 --> 00:50:31,486
A science fiction Babylon,
514
00:50:31,687 --> 00:50:34,929
which is both a technological Utopia
in the style of New Sobriety
515
00:50:35,130 --> 00:50:36,962
and a social metaphor.
516
00:50:38,286 --> 00:50:40,568
Brutally enslaved, soulless workers
517
00:50:40,770 --> 00:50:43,848
are worked to death
in subterranean factories
518
00:50:44,049 --> 00:50:45,766
while their masters rule above.
519
00:50:45,968 --> 00:50:47,205
Using a visual telephone,
520
00:50:47,406 --> 00:50:51,568
the industrialist patriarch controls
his foremen - a pioneering method.
521
00:51:07,086 --> 00:51:10,366
"Metropolis" is both politically
and aesthetically schizophrenic.
522
00:51:10,567 --> 00:51:14,163
Time and again, Lang shows
dual concepts and dual characters.
523
00:51:14,365 --> 00:51:16,849
Economic power
is complemented by scientific power.
524
00:51:17,050 --> 00:51:20,167
Two fathers, two tyrants, patriarchs.
525
00:51:20,646 --> 00:51:22,843
Together, they strive
to create a new human.
526
00:51:23,044 --> 00:51:27,810
The robot woman is meant to function even
better than the underground workers
527
00:51:28,002 --> 00:51:30,611
who, yet again, are like somnambulists.
528
00:51:40,249 --> 00:51:44,450
Brigitte Helm plays the dual role
of saint and femme fatale,
529
00:51:45,927 --> 00:51:47,768
innocent and amoral,
530
00:51:48,804 --> 00:51:50,847
serious and playful.
531
00:51:59,286 --> 00:52:04,724
The mechanical, seductive Eve
also represents the "new woman",
532
00:52:04,925 --> 00:52:08,685
no longer conforming
to the stereotypical meek character,
533
00:52:08,886 --> 00:52:10,689
surrounded by children,
534
00:52:10,891 --> 00:52:13,931
sacrificing herself
for husband and nation.
535
00:52:14,123 --> 00:52:18,083
Instead, she asserts herself
as an erotic female
536
00:52:18,285 --> 00:52:22,284
who could potentially
act against the male and the family.
537
00:52:28,882 --> 00:52:34,167
What can be clearly observed in Weimar
era films and expressionist films,
538
00:52:34,368 --> 00:52:38,127
and Kracauer described this brilliantly,
539
00:52:38,329 --> 00:52:41,925
is the sons rebelling
against their fathers.
540
00:52:42,769 --> 00:52:47,449
Although paradoxically,
or rather, typically,
541
00:52:47,651 --> 00:52:50,643
the fathers remain victorious.
542
00:52:51,928 --> 00:52:56,205
In other words, what,
in the language of psychoanalysis,
543
00:52:56,407 --> 00:53:00,051
would constitute
an oedipal revolt, a rebellion,
544
00:53:00,243 --> 00:53:05,402
did take place in German film in this way,
but it was the fathers who benefited.
545
00:53:08,730 --> 00:53:11,607
It wasn't easy for the sons of Weimar.
546
00:53:11,847 --> 00:53:13,842
But revolution is possible.
547
00:53:14,043 --> 00:53:17,563
The masses of the underworld
rise to revolt.
548
00:53:18,963 --> 00:53:24,123
With hindsight, this is a documentary
about the republic's inner turmoil,
549
00:53:24,324 --> 00:53:28,084
a bombastic insight
into the unconscious mind of the 1920s.
550
00:53:28,285 --> 00:53:31,450
A vision of the future,
which anticipates aesthetically
551
00:53:31,767 --> 00:53:34,203
what was to happen politically
not long after.
552
00:53:34,404 --> 00:53:37,128
Kracauer far-sightedly observed early on:
553
00:53:37,329 --> 00:53:40,484
"In 'Metropolis',
the paralysed collective consciousness
554
00:53:40,724 --> 00:53:43,563
seemed to talk in its sleep
with unusual clarity.
555
00:53:43,764 --> 00:53:46,891
'Metropolis' was full
of subterraneous content
556
00:53:47,082 --> 00:53:51,331
which crossed the boundaries
of the conscious mind like contraband."
557
00:53:51,523 --> 00:53:53,690
The aesthetics of social partnership,
558
00:53:53,882 --> 00:53:56,606
a New Deal, with a hint of Riefenstahl.
559
00:54:47,962 --> 00:54:52,249
While "Metropolis" takes place away from
the surface in the bowels of the city,
560
00:54:52,451 --> 00:54:57,006
Walter Ruttmann's film of the same year
shows us the reality above the surface.
561
00:54:57,207 --> 00:55:00,085
Ruttmann had been working
in early broadcasting
562
00:55:00,286 --> 00:55:04,372
while also making a name for himself
as an avant-garde film-maker.
563
00:55:04,611 --> 00:55:08,889
Soon he was employed by the UFA
to carry out specialist tasks.
564
00:55:12,610 --> 00:55:16,887
He filmed the near-abstract
falcon dream scene in "Die Nibelungen",
565
00:55:17,088 --> 00:55:20,407
a highlight of 1920s animated film.
566
00:55:41,688 --> 00:55:45,927
Walter Ruttmann is one of the most
important directors or personalities
567
00:55:46,128 --> 00:55:49,571
of Weimar cinema who are yet to be
discovered, for different reasons.
568
00:55:49,763 --> 00:55:53,168
He is definitely a member
of the cinematic avant-garde.
569
00:55:53,369 --> 00:55:56,927
But at the same time,
many of his avant-garde films
570
00:55:57,128 --> 00:55:59,046
were commissioned by others.
571
00:56:00,725 --> 00:56:06,604
He demonstrates to which extent
the industry and advertising
572
00:56:06,805 --> 00:56:12,243
shaped and influenced
the stylistic possibilities of the cinema.
573
00:56:25,123 --> 00:56:28,163
Ruttmann's film,
"Berlin - Symphony of a Metropolis"
574
00:56:28,364 --> 00:56:30,369
depicts the city in a realistic way,
575
00:56:30,570 --> 00:56:34,445
while elevating it
to a different kind of mythology.
576
00:56:34,646 --> 00:56:37,523
He emphasises the structures
of mass society.
577
00:56:37,725 --> 00:56:41,887
His editing style creates coherence,
it links and compacts.
578
00:56:42,769 --> 00:56:46,490
This was the "cross-movie"
the New Sobriety had dreamt of.
579
00:56:47,603 --> 00:56:50,250
Ruttmann shows
how the systems are linked.
580
00:56:50,451 --> 00:56:54,086
This seems more important
than observing the fleeting.
581
00:57:01,691 --> 00:57:05,364
Fast-paced, rhythmic montages
of the city in its own right,
582
00:57:05,566 --> 00:57:08,011
a symphony of mass society.
583
00:57:09,009 --> 00:57:12,404
A beguiling journey into past realities.
584
00:57:21,927 --> 00:57:24,046
In a newspaper serial turned book,
585
00:57:24,248 --> 00:57:29,283
Kracauer discovered a new and
highly modern class of society in 1929:
586
00:57:29,484 --> 00:57:31,162
the employees.
587
00:57:31,651 --> 00:57:35,651
Young, modern citizens are now working
behind desks or shop counters,
588
00:57:35,842 --> 00:57:38,326
with regular working hours.
589
00:57:39,650 --> 00:57:43,850
"Berlin today is a city
with a pronounced employee culture.
590
00:57:44,090 --> 00:57:48,531
A culture created
by employees for employees,
591
00:57:48,722 --> 00:57:52,568
and perceived as culture
by the majority of employees.
592
00:57:52,770 --> 00:57:55,848
They fill the cities,
but they do not belong anywhere.
593
00:57:56,049 --> 00:57:57,248
The monthly salary,
594
00:57:57,450 --> 00:58:01,123
the so-called mental work
and other meaningless features,
595
00:58:01,324 --> 00:58:05,928
are currently founding the existence
of large parts of the population.
596
00:58:06,887 --> 00:58:10,771
The building of bourgeois values
has collapsed,
597
00:58:10,963 --> 00:58:13,245
its foundations having been eroded.
598
00:58:13,446 --> 00:58:16,889
The salaried masses
are spiritually homeless.
599
00:58:17,964 --> 00:58:23,890
Along with health, transport and gifts,
the employees' cultural needs include,
600
00:58:24,082 --> 00:58:29,367
amongst other things, tobacco products,
bars, and intellectual or social events.
601
00:58:29,923 --> 00:58:35,169
Many employees' lives escape
from their wretchedness into distraction,
602
00:58:35,370 --> 00:58:38,123
dissolving into the nocturnal void."
603
00:59:21,769 --> 00:59:25,365
A weekend at the Wannsee.
Four young people are having a picnic.
604
00:59:25,566 --> 00:59:29,124
They hardly know each other,
but spend the day swimming,
605
00:59:29,326 --> 00:59:31,771
listening to music,
flirting and lazing around.
606
00:59:31,963 --> 00:59:34,322
It all ends in the evening,
as does the film,
607
00:59:34,524 --> 00:59:39,885
but the day belongs to them, etched
into our memories with the film's images.
608
00:59:41,208 --> 00:59:45,044
Its title mirrors its content
"People on Sunday".
609
00:59:57,723 --> 01:00:01,089
We've already met
Christel and Brigitte earlier on.
610
01:00:01,291 --> 01:00:04,810
They are typical of the new class
of employees Kracauer describes:
611
01:00:05,012 --> 01:00:08,129
young, female, urbane and poorly paid,
612
01:00:08,139 --> 01:00:10,139
but at least they have Sundays off.
613
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:14,990
On the previous day, Christel met a man.
614
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:18,700
The way this is initiated is one
of masterstokes of Weimar cinema.
615
01:00:18,927 --> 01:00:22,572
As if by accident,
the camera strolls across the crowd.
616
01:00:22,764 --> 01:00:27,492
Seemingly randomly, it rests
on the couple, moves on, comes back...
617
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:32,100
moves on and comes back again.
618
01:00:33,649 --> 01:00:37,523
Now we watch the approach -
a hunter and his prey.
619
01:00:38,329 --> 01:00:40,372
At first, the camera keeps its distance,
620
01:00:40,563 --> 01:00:45,004
even retreating to a panoramic view
as we recognise the couple,
621
01:00:45,205 --> 01:00:46,845
as if not to disturb them.
622
01:00:47,842 --> 01:00:52,446
An ethnological perspective,
ancient gestures and rituals.
623
01:00:54,287 --> 01:00:57,567
As the couple sit in the café,
the camera moves in closely,
624
01:00:57,769 --> 01:01:00,444
similar to Soviet style photography.
625
01:01:06,726 --> 01:01:08,404
Getting closer.
626
01:01:09,325 --> 01:01:11,646
How do you impress a woman?
627
01:01:12,451 --> 01:01:16,249
By doing something special,
affectionate, exciting.
628
01:01:34,452 --> 01:01:37,128
And she likes it.
629
01:01:43,208 --> 01:01:44,445
A different couple:
630
01:01:44,646 --> 01:01:47,926
Erwin is a cab driver,
his girlfriend Annie is a model.
631
01:01:48,128 --> 01:01:52,165
Soon they are arguing, about nothing,
just the daily battle of the sexes,
632
01:01:52,367 --> 01:01:56,932
the baseless annoyance of long-term
relationships, little rivalries.
633
01:01:57,124 --> 01:01:59,723
Here, they attack substitute photographs,
634
01:01:59,924 --> 01:02:02,091
fetish objects of the cinema.
635
01:02:02,964 --> 01:02:07,366
But it's not just any stars being mauled
by shaving cream and curling tongs.
636
01:02:07,568 --> 01:02:12,008
They are Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey,
the era's dream film couple.
637
01:02:12,209 --> 01:02:14,847
Only a few minutes in,
the film ironically mocks
638
01:02:15,048 --> 01:02:17,446
the celebrity cinema culture of its time
639
01:02:17,647 --> 01:02:19,412
a programmatic statement.
640
01:02:19,604 --> 01:02:23,651
"People on Sunday"
tells us about itself: "I am different".
641
01:02:25,684 --> 01:02:29,645
What kind of film is this?
Starting in such an unusual manner?
642
01:02:29,846 --> 01:02:31,371
It is the work of a collective.
643
01:02:31,563 --> 01:02:35,524
It was created not by one,
but several young film enthusiasts.
644
01:02:39,523 --> 01:02:43,004
The most prominent
was cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan.
645
01:02:43,206 --> 01:02:46,812
He had worked on "Metropolis"
as part of Fritz Lang's team.
646
01:02:47,406 --> 01:02:51,329
His agile camera work delves
into the light of the summer,
647
01:02:51,530 --> 01:02:54,004
on the meadow, in the water.
648
01:02:56,843 --> 01:02:59,845
The other creators
would become even more famous.
649
01:03:00,046 --> 01:03:03,930
The film was co-directed
by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer.
650
01:03:03,969 --> 01:03:06,644
The script was by Billy Wilder.
651
01:03:08,409 --> 01:03:12,811
This young man from Vienna
made a living as reporter in Berlin.
652
01:03:13,003 --> 01:03:16,571
Full of drive and curiosity,
and under eight different pseudonyms,
653
01:03:16,772 --> 01:03:19,764
he wrote about daily life,
a chronicler of the urbane,
654
01:03:19,966 --> 01:03:23,409
and an example
of the new type of "roving reporter".
655
01:03:24,205 --> 01:03:26,372
His first script already reveals Wilder
656
01:03:26,564 --> 01:03:30,170
as the genius storyteller
later celebrated by Hollywood -
657
01:03:30,889 --> 01:03:33,450
both funny and cool at the same time.
658
01:03:42,724 --> 01:03:46,569
The film's concept is obvious:
spontaneity, fragmentation.
659
01:03:46,771 --> 01:03:50,367
Particles of reality
and inventions merge into one.
660
01:03:50,569 --> 01:03:53,609
The found supports the invented.
661
01:04:06,163 --> 01:04:10,171
Found were as well the protagonists,
discovered on the streets,
662
01:04:10,363 --> 01:04:14,008
all four of them amateurs,
all four playing themselves.
663
01:04:14,209 --> 01:04:17,124
"People on Sunday"
is Nouvelle Vague avant la lettre -
664
01:04:17,326 --> 01:04:19,532
30 years before Godard and Truffaut,
665
01:04:19,723 --> 01:04:22,044
a feast of the casual.
666
01:04:24,404 --> 01:04:27,885
A critic mentions the "magical
effortlessness of the flowing images,
667
01:04:28,086 --> 01:04:30,887
more musical than any film with sound".
668
01:04:35,212 --> 01:04:37,648
It's also the film of a generation,
669
01:04:37,849 --> 01:04:41,206
its creators are almost the same age
as their protagonists,
670
01:04:41,407 --> 01:04:43,690
young urbanites of the moment,
671
01:04:43,891 --> 01:04:46,049
prosaic, yet carefree,
672
01:04:46,250 --> 01:04:48,763
hopeful, yet sceptical,
673
01:04:48,965 --> 01:04:51,727
humorous and ironic.
674
01:04:53,290 --> 01:04:56,771
Contemporaries called it
a "generation without temper",
675
01:04:56,963 --> 01:05:01,605
without the pathos or the religious zeal
of a youth movement.
676
01:05:02,286 --> 01:05:06,045
The coolness of the New Sobriety
is also a freshness.
677
01:05:08,807 --> 01:05:13,804
People living in a post-war era,
which is not aware, it is also a pre-war era.
678
01:05:28,928 --> 01:05:33,646
It sometimes seems as if their faces
already show a premonition of the future.
679
01:05:33,848 --> 01:05:35,603
Male bonding.
680
01:05:35,804 --> 01:05:39,727
Where would these young men be
in 10 or 15 years' time?
681
01:05:39,928 --> 01:05:42,968
Who would be in London or Mexico?
682
01:05:43,170 --> 01:05:45,490
Who at the Eastern Front?
683
01:06:00,288 --> 01:06:03,770
Robert Siodmak
went on to direct two more films.
684
01:06:09,965 --> 01:06:10,809
What's this?
685
01:06:11,049 --> 01:06:14,492
A few years later, he,
like all of the film's creators,
686
01:06:14,684 --> 01:06:17,292
went into exile in Hollywood.
687
01:06:19,172 --> 01:06:23,689
It was an import of the art of storytelling.
688
01:06:28,369 --> 01:06:31,563
Raul Czinner
shot Arthur Schnitzler's "Fräulein Else".
689
01:06:31,764 --> 01:06:35,130
He transferred the plot
to the elegant ski resort of Sankt Moritz
690
01:06:35,332 --> 01:06:37,883
and happened to shoot
during the Winter Olympics
691
01:06:38,084 --> 01:06:40,050
and in a luxury hotel.
692
01:06:48,768 --> 01:06:53,851
Dark days at the stock market, again.
Fictitious, for the time being.
693
01:07:06,683 --> 01:07:11,564
Else, from a good family, spoilt,
but neither dim nor big-headed,
694
01:07:11,766 --> 01:07:15,007
is fed to the creditors by her parents.
695
01:07:15,209 --> 01:07:19,045
She is supposed to seduce a rich man
to ensure continuous credit,
696
01:07:19,246 --> 01:07:23,245
a very mundane,
and therefore immense sacrifice.
697
01:07:24,329 --> 01:07:27,043
The well-bred Else
is expected to turn into a whore.
698
01:07:27,245 --> 01:07:30,285
She has many talents,
but this is beyond her.
699
01:07:34,812 --> 01:07:39,808
Czinner's direction of the magnificent
Elisabeth Bergner is a masterpiece.
700
01:07:45,371 --> 01:07:48,363
The film owes it all
to cinematographer Karl Freund
701
01:07:48,564 --> 01:07:52,170
who had worked
with Wegener, Murnau, and with Lang.
702
01:07:52,372 --> 01:07:57,128
Once again an unleashed camera
totally unbound in terms of this era,
703
01:07:57,330 --> 01:08:00,447
yet also calm, as if lying in ambush.
704
01:08:16,367 --> 01:08:21,248
This long, continuous shot shows
Else's hesitating, and its overcommg,
705
01:08:21,450 --> 01:08:25,008
and the ancient interplay of the sexes.
706
01:08:29,410 --> 01:08:34,291
A ballet of looks and movements,
perfectly choreographed.
707
01:08:37,485 --> 01:08:40,209
Almost abstract as if shot by Antonioni.
708
01:08:59,207 --> 01:09:02,804
Let's focus entirely on
the timing of the era for a moment.
709
01:09:55,330 --> 01:09:56,884
And then, desperation.
710
01:09:57,085 --> 01:09:59,368
Let's just focus on her hands.
711
01:10:00,010 --> 01:10:03,492
Using them, Elisabeth Bergner
tells the entire story.
712
01:10:22,049 --> 01:10:24,849
"Fräulein Else" is psychological realism
713
01:10:25,051 --> 01:10:29,251
and a portrait of society
in a nutshell - full of foreboding,
714
01:10:29,443 --> 01:10:32,445
and ahead of its time
also in artistic terms.
715
01:10:33,567 --> 01:10:38,209
A generation of morally corrupt parents
gambles away their children's future.
716
01:10:38,410 --> 01:10:42,371
The problem lies not with the heirs,
but with the current owners.
717
01:10:51,012 --> 01:10:54,445
At the same time, Bergnen's Else
is an example of the new modern woman,
718
01:10:54,647 --> 01:10:57,284
a variant of Marlene Dietrich
and Louise Brooks.
719
01:11:18,843 --> 01:11:22,411
In "Fräulein Else" and "Mabuse",
the market crash is fictitious,
720
01:11:22,613 --> 01:11:24,368
but ominously prescient.
721
01:11:24,569 --> 01:11:27,849
These are films
about a growing discontent in culture.
722
01:11:28,050 --> 01:11:29,844
Lang depicts the stock exchange
723
01:11:30,045 --> 01:11:32,884
as delusional incarnation
of a hysterical society.
724
01:11:36,720 --> 01:11:40,652
The advent of crime and of panic
in borgeois society.
725
01:11:44,968 --> 01:11:49,283
In the Great Depression
the world of "Mabuse" became commonplace.
726
01:12:14,828 --> 01:12:18,841
In 1929, society was torn, in a turmoil,
727
01:12:19,042 --> 01:12:21,968
longing for both freedom and order,
728
01:12:22,169 --> 01:12:27,530
more guessing than sensing that the earth
beneath their feet started to shake.
729
01:12:27,731 --> 01:12:29,966
A dance on the volcano.
730
01:12:30,570 --> 01:12:36,085
Maybe it's this sarcastic existence,
the lust for life in the here and now,
731
01:12:36,286 --> 01:12:40,209
that we mean when we refer
to the "roaring twenties" today.
732
01:12:40,410 --> 01:12:44,093
When we, somewhat naively,
long for the era to return,
733
01:12:44,284 --> 01:12:46,366
when we consume its art and fashion,
734
01:12:46,567 --> 01:12:49,809
we connect with both
the utopias and the decadence,
735
01:12:50,010 --> 01:12:52,129
liberties and modernity.
736
01:12:53,290 --> 01:12:58,248
The freedom also extended to sexuality.
Berlin was a hotbed of sensuality
737
01:12:58,449 --> 01:13:02,008
with an abundance of possibilities
and not many taboos.
738
01:13:19,050 --> 01:13:22,406
All of society was excited by sports
and a new-found physicality,
739
01:13:22,608 --> 01:13:25,207
sporting events
became mass entertainment,
740
01:13:25,408 --> 01:13:29,407
distraction, but also a way
of publicly disciplining the body.
741
01:13:29,609 --> 01:13:32,208
A new, totally modern order.
742
01:13:32,572 --> 01:13:35,651
Revue shows like the one
by the Tiller Girls were booming,
743
01:13:35,661 --> 01:13:37,661
celebrating the mechanics
of the human body.
744
01:13:38,400 --> 01:13:44,000
In 1927, Kracauer wrote an essay
on this "Mass Ornament":
745
01:13:44,090 --> 01:13:48,089
"These products of distraction factories
are no longer individual girls,
746
01:13:48,291 --> 01:13:50,928
but indissoluble girl clusters,
747
01:13:51,130 --> 01:13:54,083
ornaments composed of thousands of bodies.
748
01:13:55,167 --> 01:13:59,809
The structure of the mass ornament
reflects the contemporary situation.
749
01:14:00,010 --> 01:14:04,086
Like the pattern in the stadium, the
organisation stands above the masses,
750
01:14:04,288 --> 01:14:06,167
a monstrous figure.
751
01:14:06,685 --> 01:14:10,004
The mass ornament is the aesthetic
reflex of the rationality
752
01:14:10,205 --> 01:14:14,166
to which the prevailing
economic system aspires."
753
01:14:20,850 --> 01:14:25,492
"Diary of a Lost Girl"
depicts this girl ornament in everyday life.
754
01:14:25,684 --> 01:14:30,412
In the reformatory for wayward girls,
gymnastics is a means of drilling them.
755
01:14:52,412 --> 01:14:55,846
Jolly uniformity
becomes tyrannical synchronisation.
756
01:14:59,807 --> 01:15:04,688
Georg Wilhelm Pabst is one
of the few unforgotten Weimar directors.
757
01:15:04,889 --> 01:15:08,006
Nevertheless, he is yet
to be discovered properly.
758
01:15:11,804 --> 01:15:15,372
A master of thematic
and stylistic variety.
759
01:15:16,053 --> 01:15:18,891
He does not follow his own agenda
like Lang or Murnau.
760
01:15:19,083 --> 01:15:22,210
Instead, he observes closely
and unapologetically.
761
01:15:22,411 --> 01:15:26,324
This makes him the quintessential
director of New Sobriety,
762
01:15:32,328 --> 01:15:34,850
But he clearly prefers certain motifs:
763
01:15:35,051 --> 01:15:39,329
the inextricable entanglements
of power, passion and money,
764
01:15:39,530 --> 01:15:43,251
the unadorned depiction
of universal desires.
765
01:15:44,400 --> 01:15:45,900
A fetishist.
766
01:15:50,367 --> 01:15:54,645
"Diary of a Lost Girl" recounts the way
of passion of a wellraised daughter.
767
01:15:54,846 --> 01:15:58,164
She passes through all institutions
of societal imprint -
768
01:15:58,366 --> 01:16:02,211
reformatory, brothel,
inheritance and marriage.
769
01:16:07,927 --> 01:16:09,970
The star is Louise Brooks.
770
01:16:10,171 --> 01:16:12,924
Discovered by Pabst
and fresh off the steamer from America,
771
01:16:13,125 --> 01:16:17,690
she becomes the shimmering sylph
and ghost light of Weimar cinema.
772
01:16:22,725 --> 01:16:24,845
An androgynous companion,
773
01:16:25,449 --> 01:16:27,492
a childlike femme fatale.
774
01:16:35,289 --> 01:16:40,247
Pure innocence,
pure sex, pure pragmatism -
775
01:16:41,000 --> 01:16:43,000
she typifies the new woman.
776
01:16:43,210 --> 01:16:45,493
It's a purely cinematic performance,
777
01:16:45,685 --> 01:16:49,684
Brooks doesn't have to act,
she only has to be herself.
778
01:17:20,565 --> 01:17:23,931
But Brooks also shines as a great actress.
779
01:17:35,171 --> 01:17:40,005
Her versatility enables her to handle
the director's sharp-witted psychology.
780
01:17:45,011 --> 01:17:48,252
Brooks repeatedly
comes across as a blank sheet.
781
01:17:48,444 --> 01:17:51,446
An intuitive creature
with alert intelligence,
782
01:17:52,444 --> 01:17:56,692
Brooks is far from being cunning,
she's beyond good and evil.
783
01:17:56,884 --> 01:18:00,125
Intellect and hedonism
do not exclude each other.
784
01:18:00,931 --> 01:18:03,050
Nothing about her was truly mysterious,
785
01:18:03,252 --> 01:18:06,446
and this is what scared
the Germans of her time.
786
01:18:06,647 --> 01:18:11,126
Lulu's presence held up a mirror to them
reflecting their own vices.
787
01:18:12,852 --> 01:18:17,129
If Louise Brooks is international,
Marlene Dietrich is truly German.
788
01:18:21,771 --> 01:18:22,883
An earthy being,
789
01:18:23,085 --> 01:18:26,451
a woman of the people,
seemingly tangible to all
790
01:18:26,652 --> 01:18:28,245
physicality and voice,
791
01:18:28,446 --> 01:18:30,086
the body as language.
792
01:18:30,968 --> 01:18:33,845
Acting replaced by presence and psyche,
793
01:18:34,047 --> 01:18:36,013
down-to-earth glamour.
794
01:18:42,966 --> 01:18:46,764
Even the harlot is ruled
by the eroticism of the housewife.
795
01:18:54,244 --> 01:18:58,771
One of the first talkies, von Sternberg's
and Pommer's "The Blue Angel",
796
01:18:58,972 --> 01:19:01,485
marked the birth
of a second global film star.
797
01:19:01,686 --> 01:19:03,413
My dear Miss Lola,
798
01:19:03,604 --> 01:19:06,731
I have something for you.
799
01:19:07,450 --> 01:19:11,488
Would you accept this as a gift from me?
800
01:19:13,166 --> 01:19:17,645
This marriage proposal has proved unique
in the history of German film.
801
01:19:18,652 --> 01:19:22,526
And with it, may I ask
for your hand in marriage?
802
01:19:23,888 --> 01:19:25,528
You wanna marry me?
803
01:19:42,685 --> 01:19:44,929
God, how cute you are.
804
01:19:45,131 --> 01:19:48,449
Sternberg discovered Marlene Dietrich
and in a way created her.
805
01:19:48,651 --> 01:19:52,007
On the night of the premiere,
she left for Hollywood with the director,
806
01:19:52,209 --> 01:19:56,208
lost several pounds
and turned ethereal Venus of the screen.
807
01:19:56,409 --> 01:19:59,852
Falling in love again
Never wanted to.
808
01:20:00,207 --> 01:20:03,084
What am I to do?
809
01:20:04,331 --> 01:20:05,568
Can't help it.
810
01:20:07,170 --> 01:20:10,728
Love's always been my game
811
01:20:10,929 --> 01:20:13,250
Play it as l may...
812
01:20:14,286 --> 01:20:18,486
In many ways, the new world
meets the old in "The Blue Angel",
813
01:20:18,688 --> 01:20:21,325
the 20th century meets the 19th,
814
01:20:21,526 --> 01:20:24,365
bourgeois society egalitarian republic,
815
01:20:24,567 --> 01:20:29,410
romantic expressionism once again meets
the cool surfaces of the New Sobriety,
816
01:20:29,611 --> 01:20:31,884
silent movie meets sound.
817
01:20:32,891 --> 01:20:35,289
ALMOST 4.5 MILLION UNEMPLOYED
818
01:20:44,927 --> 01:20:46,644
OVER 5 MILLION UNEMPLOYED
OR ON SHORT HOURS
819
01:20:48,533 --> 01:20:50,288
The crisis had arrived.
820
01:20:50,489 --> 01:20:54,326
Following Black Friday,
unemployment figures rose sharply,
821
01:20:54,527 --> 01:20:57,884
inflation returned, and with it, misery.
822
01:21:14,446 --> 01:21:18,292
There was more to Weimar cinema
than expressionism.
823
01:21:18,484 --> 01:21:21,725
Alongside Escapist adventure,
gangster and revue films
824
01:21:21,927 --> 01:21:25,331
there had already been
a leftist social cinema
825
01:21:25,533 --> 01:21:28,813
that actively targeted
poverty and the crisis.
826
01:21:31,891 --> 01:21:36,571
The famous "Kuhle Wampe" and
"Mother Krause's Journey to Happiness"
827
01:21:36,773 --> 01:21:40,292
unjustly overshadow "Wage Clerk Kremke".
828
01:21:41,252 --> 01:21:45,644
Marie Harder was one of very few
female directors during the 1920s.
829
01:21:45,845 --> 01:21:49,605
This was to remain the only film
by this forgotten artist.
830
01:21:50,132 --> 01:21:55,052
She was head of the SPD's film service
when she went into exile in 1933.
831
01:21:55,244 --> 01:21:59,090
She died two years later
while carrying out research in Mexico.
832
01:22:02,245 --> 01:22:03,808
It's the story of an old man
833
01:22:04,010 --> 01:22:07,088
being steamrolled by the new era
and its machines.
834
01:22:07,289 --> 01:22:09,725
At some point
he feels let down by everyone
835
01:22:09,927 --> 01:22:12,411
and cannot cope with the disappointment.
836
01:22:19,891 --> 01:22:24,006
I really liked Brothers,
it was a new discovery for me,
837
01:22:24,926 --> 01:22:31,170
One reason was the wonderful,
magical footage of Hamburg,
838
01:22:31,371 --> 01:22:34,008
which also features
in "Raid in St. Pauli",
839
01:22:34,210 --> 01:22:39,887
but "Brothers" takes it a little further,
into the world of the workers.
840
01:22:43,685 --> 01:22:47,608
I like the harsh lighting
in the German films of the 1920s.
841
01:22:52,364 --> 01:22:56,565
The theme of "Brothers"
the summoning of the proletariat,
842
01:22:56,766 --> 01:23:00,852
the effects of the Russian Revolution,
843
01:23:01,044 --> 01:23:04,889
the waves this made
go all the way into this film.
844
01:23:05,091 --> 01:23:08,524
You don't find anything like this today,
845
01:23:08,726 --> 01:23:11,689
a political idealisation such as this.
846
01:23:16,571 --> 01:23:20,292
It's a film emerging
from a political vacuum.
847
01:23:21,567 --> 01:23:24,732
This is what really
appealed to me in "Brothers".
848
01:23:27,091 --> 01:23:29,009
A proletarian manifesto,
849
01:23:29,211 --> 01:23:33,488
the story of a harbour strike,
heavily influenced by Soviet cinema.
850
01:23:38,926 --> 01:23:42,206
The term "class struggle"
still meant something then.
851
01:23:42,407 --> 01:23:46,406
The film also serves as a reminder
of the lives of the proletarians,
852
01:23:46,608 --> 01:23:48,526
of their poverty and their pride.
853
01:24:08,531 --> 01:24:10,171
How do these people live,
854
01:24:10,891 --> 01:24:13,729
the frugally furnished workers' houses.
855
01:24:13,931 --> 01:24:18,093
It was more than just watching
and consuming a film.
856
01:24:18,285 --> 01:24:23,291
It was a journey in time,
an anthropological experience.
857
01:24:46,327 --> 01:24:50,173
Hochbaum was also able to create
an intricate cinema of motion.
858
01:24:56,205 --> 01:24:58,613
A burglar and a prostitute fall in love.
859
01:24:58,804 --> 01:25:00,924
The boundaries between misery and crime,
860
01:25:01,125 --> 01:25:04,089
gangsters and proletarians are dissolving.
861
01:25:06,927 --> 01:25:08,213
They are after me.
862
01:25:12,288 --> 01:25:14,370
Excuse me,
we need to search the room.
863
01:25:14,571 --> 01:25:16,364
What do you want?
864
01:25:19,050 --> 01:25:22,732
He is one of the few directors
sympathetic to breaking the law,
865
01:25:22,924 --> 01:25:27,528
a German film maker depicting the police
not as protectors, but as a threat,
866
01:25:27,729 --> 01:25:30,165
and rebuffing them completely.
867
01:25:43,045 --> 01:25:44,090
Are they gone?
868
01:26:06,532 --> 01:26:09,773
Hochbaum focuses
on the nightlife's demimonde,
869
01:26:09,965 --> 01:26:15,125
but very differently compared to Pabst's
fascination or Sternberg's clichés,
870
01:26:15,326 --> 01:26:19,450
showing sympathy for the mundane,
not the sensational.
871
01:26:20,409 --> 01:26:22,126
While we do see the fascination
872
01:26:22,327 --> 01:26:25,406
with the thriving high life
of the roaring twenties,
873
01:26:25,607 --> 01:26:28,206
Hochbaum never forgets where he stands.
874
01:26:36,051 --> 01:26:40,530
17th precinct here. Suicide?
Unemployed. All right, we'll come.
875
01:26:40,731 --> 01:26:45,210
I don't understand
why they throw in the towel so easily.
876
01:26:45,411 --> 01:26:49,132
How are the likes of us
coping with the banking situation?
877
01:27:03,767 --> 01:27:06,213
Hochbaum is one
of the most modern of his era,
878
01:27:06,405 --> 01:27:08,965
his films are German Neorealism.
879
01:27:09,167 --> 01:27:12,610
In the end,
the brittle status quo is restored.
880
01:27:12,811 --> 01:27:15,372
But the workers' struggle continues.
881
01:27:16,647 --> 01:27:18,805
This is how some of them are living.
882
01:27:19,007 --> 01:27:20,647
Others, however...
883
01:27:26,525 --> 01:27:30,131
Crossing the city at dawn
884
01:27:30,764 --> 01:27:33,805
Rained on by dust, not dew
885
01:27:34,533 --> 01:27:38,485
The great, grey army of workers
It marches on
886
01:27:38,495 --> 01:27:41,325
Money is calling them to the machines
887
01:27:41,333 --> 01:27:44,210
Master, give us our daily bread
888
01:27:45,131 --> 01:27:49,571
Hochbaum's films aren't far away
from the so-called "asphalt films".
889
01:27:49,773 --> 01:27:53,292
On more than one level,
cinema discovered the streets.
890
01:27:53,484 --> 01:27:56,246
Joe Mays "Asphalt"
is the very last silent film
891
01:27:56,448 --> 01:27:58,692
to come out of the Weimar Republic.
892
01:28:42,568 --> 01:28:46,730
"Accident" unleashes a succession
of randomly dealt blows.
893
01:28:46,931 --> 01:28:48,725
Everybody's after money,
894
01:28:48,926 --> 01:28:51,765
but whoever owns it
is cursed by bad luck.
895
01:29:10,572 --> 01:29:13,449
Escapism and genre
combine even more tellingly
896
01:29:13,650 --> 01:29:17,410
in Lang's entertainment films
following "Metropolis".
897
01:29:18,810 --> 01:29:21,332
The Germans
had already made it to the moon.
898
01:29:21,534 --> 01:29:26,406
Wernher von Braun, who went on
to invent "reprisal weapons" for the Nazis
899
01:29:26,607 --> 01:29:29,609
and later designed
the US Apollo programme,
900
01:29:29,810 --> 01:29:32,208
making the actual moon landing possible,
901
01:29:32,409 --> 01:29:35,651
worked as expert advisor
on Lang's "Woman in the Moon".
902
01:29:41,645 --> 01:29:45,049
There is a countdown
and discarded rocket stages,
903
01:29:45,251 --> 01:29:47,850
just like Apollo 11 forty years later.
904
01:29:58,006 --> 01:30:01,046
And there is,
even more magically, zero gravity.
905
01:30:14,290 --> 01:30:16,765
For decades, "Spies"
was unjustly overshadowed
906
01:30:16,966 --> 01:30:20,093
by the masterpieces
"Mabuse", "M" and "Metropolis".
907
01:30:20,284 --> 01:30:25,693
It's a tremendously thrilling,
aesthetically innovative espionage film,
908
01:30:25,885 --> 01:30:27,928
a modern action movie.
909
01:30:28,446 --> 01:30:31,448
It features a secret agent, a femme fatale,
910
01:30:31,649 --> 01:30:33,452
murders, sabotage,
911
01:30:33,654 --> 01:30:36,013
and a bank as a criminal organisation.
912
01:30:36,406 --> 01:30:40,290
A prescient film,
inventive, logical and gripping.
913
01:30:44,000 --> 01:30:46,200
With the exploration
of the Alps by tourists,
914
01:30:46,294 --> 01:30:48,893
"mountain films" became a popular genre
915
01:30:49,084 --> 01:30:51,127
that was unique to Germany.
916
01:30:51,329 --> 01:30:54,369
German westerns portraying nature
as massive, dangerous
917
01:30:54,570 --> 01:30:56,651
and clearly superior to man.
918
01:30:57,332 --> 01:31:00,612
Luis Trenker and the later
Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl,
919
01:31:00,814 --> 01:31:02,530
became the stars of this genre.
920
01:31:02,732 --> 01:31:05,494
A German must always
scale the highest peaks,
921
01:31:05,685 --> 01:31:08,486
in these films as well,
in which there were no stuntmen
922
01:31:08,687 --> 01:31:10,893
and almost everything was authentic.
923
01:31:13,166 --> 01:31:16,849
Director Arnold Fanck
made mountain films his speciality.
924
01:31:17,050 --> 01:31:22,411
With great skill and physical effort,
he made them as authentic as possible
925
01:31:22,613 --> 01:31:28,568
and repeatedly showed desperate Germans
pitted against the unforgiving elements.
926
01:31:32,769 --> 01:31:37,526
They are surrounded by romantic backdrop
of ice and rocks, blue light or sunshine.
927
01:31:47,087 --> 01:31:50,607
Fanck's mountain world,
presenting nature as fateful entity,
928
01:31:50,808 --> 01:31:52,487
both dangerous and idyllic,
929
01:31:52,525 --> 01:31:55,249
also serves as an
alternate world to the conflicts,
930
01:31:55,450 --> 01:31:58,212
rifts and class struggles
of the modern era.
931
01:31:58,768 --> 01:32:01,166
Alienation is replaced by innocence.
932
01:32:01,559 --> 01:32:04,005
An extension
of the youth movement's desires.
933
01:32:04,206 --> 01:32:06,249
Anti-urbanism and nature kitsch,
934
01:32:06,450 --> 01:32:10,967
often nature mythology,
and always escapism.
935
01:32:15,000 --> 01:32:16,850
Writes Kracauer
936
01:32:17,652 --> 01:32:21,488
"Lyrical heroes with boisterous instincts,
937
01:32:22,332 --> 01:32:25,209
deification of glaciers and rocks."
938
01:32:26,053 --> 01:32:31,050
"A heroic idealism
expressing itself as touristic feats
939
01:32:31,251 --> 01:32:35,413
due to its ignorance
towards more substantial ideas."
940
01:32:35,452 --> 01:32:38,089
This strange idolisation of nature,
941
01:32:38,290 --> 01:32:42,808
the connection with nature
and people's own impulses and desires,
942
01:32:43,009 --> 01:32:46,212
is like the counterpart
of a different side,
943
01:32:46,414 --> 01:32:49,128
namely, the interest in the metropolis,
944
01:32:49,329 --> 01:32:54,450
all the movement of the metropolis,
the cars, the trams,
945
01:32:54,652 --> 01:32:57,327
as well as all that makes
the metropolis possible,
946
01:32:57,529 --> 01:33:03,245
not just the workers,
but also prostitution,
947
01:33:04,491 --> 01:33:08,769
bars, and a variety of escapism options.
948
01:33:15,607 --> 01:33:18,091
Men in uniform, albeit still non-military,
949
01:33:18,292 --> 01:33:20,651
and marching music,
albeit still entertainment,
950
01:33:20,853 --> 01:33:22,848
this was
"The Three from the Filling Station",
951
01:33:23,049 --> 01:33:26,530
a German-French evergreen
in both language versions.
952
01:33:26,732 --> 01:33:30,290
It set off a whole series
of German musical films.
953
01:33:30,491 --> 01:33:34,126
Early sound films
found songs easier to do than dialogue.
954
01:33:37,204 --> 01:33:40,053
But they are mainly remembered
due to Willy Fritsch
955
01:33:40,245 --> 01:33:42,652
and especially Lilian Harvey.
956
01:33:43,093 --> 01:33:46,171
They were the dream couple
of the early 30s.
957
01:33:49,490 --> 01:33:54,525
Lilian Harvey, half-English,
born in London and raised in Switzerland,
958
01:33:54,726 --> 01:33:59,406
became one of the most German of German
stars, despite her internationality.
959
01:34:00,413 --> 01:34:04,690
The mass media termed her
"the cutest girl in the whole world".
960
01:34:05,726 --> 01:34:08,249
Harvey personified
the ordinary girl's dreams
961
01:34:08,450 --> 01:34:10,972
of the big world
and its fairy tale princes.
962
01:34:11,174 --> 01:34:14,808
Happiness and easy life
at the height of the crisis.
963
01:34:15,010 --> 01:34:18,808
This only happens but once in life.
964
01:34:19,009 --> 01:34:21,291
Tomorrow it may all be gone...
965
01:34:21,493 --> 01:34:26,211
UFA films, particularly
the comedies and revue films,
966
01:34:26,413 --> 01:34:30,009
did indeed create a new sense of life
967
01:34:30,211 --> 01:34:37,605
which was quite complex and partly
accompanied by a certain sordidness,
968
01:34:37,806 --> 01:34:41,172
but could also carry
a new and positive outlook,
969
01:34:41,374 --> 01:34:46,850
especially in terms of sexuality,
sensuality and consumption.
970
01:34:49,209 --> 01:34:52,326
The most accomplished of these films
is "A Blonde Dream",
971
01:34:52,527 --> 01:34:54,407
which was written by Billy Wilder.
972
01:34:54,609 --> 01:34:58,531
It's a conservative Germanic
variation of surrealist fantasticism.
973
01:34:58,732 --> 01:35:00,814
Truth is revealed in a dream.
974
01:35:22,967 --> 01:35:25,892
"A Blonde Dream" is also
the most revealing of its kind.
975
01:35:26,094 --> 01:35:31,369
The old dream of becoming a princess
has now changed to Hollywood film star.
976
01:35:31,570 --> 01:35:35,492
The film pursues this dream with its
protagonist, but also against her,
977
01:35:35,694 --> 01:35:38,245
as it all turns into a nightmare,
978
01:35:38,446 --> 01:35:42,129
from which the star
awakes to a German idyll.
979
01:35:42,925 --> 01:35:45,332
Don't dream, girl, stay humble.
980
01:35:48,967 --> 01:35:50,645
Show us what you can do,
981
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:05,600
Is that all?
982
01:36:06,565 --> 01:36:11,092
For I just want to find
983
01:36:11,293 --> 01:36:18,285
Love and happiness with you
984
01:36:33,092 --> 01:36:34,646
What's happened here?
985
01:36:38,569 --> 01:36:40,525
I was in Hollywood.
986
01:36:42,050 --> 01:36:44,332
Are you still dreaming
of becoming a film star?
987
01:36:44,534 --> 01:36:49,492
I think, the Weimar cinema
was not as ideological
988
01:36:49,693 --> 01:36:51,890
as it was always portrayed.
989
01:36:52,091 --> 01:36:57,567
Starting in 1919 and until
the invention of the talkies in 1930,
990
01:36:57,769 --> 01:37:01,087
essentially all of the genres
had been invented
991
01:37:01,288 --> 01:37:02,928
and put into practice.
992
01:37:03,130 --> 01:37:06,448
And that, for me, is the Weimar era.
993
01:37:20,086 --> 01:37:21,812
Chaplin in Berlin.
994
01:37:22,205 --> 01:37:26,770
In March 1931, the genius
Hollywood comedian visits the capital.
995
01:37:26,971 --> 01:37:30,012
In Germany, too,
he is loved like no other film star.
996
01:37:30,213 --> 01:37:32,812
Everyone can relate
to his "tramp" character.
997
01:37:33,013 --> 01:37:34,605
Chaplin stayed for seven days,
998
01:37:34,807 --> 01:37:38,211
met Marlene Dietrich,
Hans Albers and Albert Einstein.
999
01:37:39,046 --> 01:37:41,405
Only the Nazis agitated against him.
1000
01:38:42,093 --> 01:38:46,054
A child killer causes horror and hysteria
amongst Berlin's population.
1001
01:38:46,246 --> 01:38:52,134
He is chased not only by police, but also
by the stirred-up criminal underworld.
1002
01:38:53,007 --> 01:38:54,493
Uncle.
- What is it?
1003
01:38:54,685 --> 01:38:58,013
You got a white stain there.
- Where?
1004
01:38:58,205 --> 01:39:00,171
There, on your shoulder.
1005
01:39:03,048 --> 01:39:05,053
Come, let's go.
1006
01:39:09,368 --> 01:39:11,488
He is soon driven into a corner.
1007
01:39:13,492 --> 01:39:16,571
"M" features a manhunt,
it is a portrait of a city,
1008
01:39:16,772 --> 01:39:20,407
a film noir of the nightly streets
and questionable morals,
1009
01:39:20,608 --> 01:39:23,447
ambiguous and unfathomable.
1010
01:39:23,648 --> 01:39:26,765
Humans as beasts
and cogs in the system.
1011
01:39:26,967 --> 01:39:29,211
The murderers are among us
1012
01:39:31,973 --> 01:39:36,365
Fritz Lang's masterpiece would become an
allegory for the rising totalitarianism.
1013
01:39:36,567 --> 01:39:39,770
Lang's view is more distanced than ever,
sociologically precise,
1014
01:39:39,971 --> 01:39:41,688
and yet socially committed -
1015
01:39:41,889 --> 01:39:45,006
a psychopathological insight
into violence.
1016
01:40:02,173 --> 01:40:05,290
Peter Lorre embodies
terrifying human-abysses.
1017
01:40:05,491 --> 01:40:07,726
The camera captures the murderous gaze
1018
01:40:07,927 --> 01:40:11,409
and appropriates it
as the child becomes an object -
1019
01:40:11,610 --> 01:40:14,487
the perverse nature
of the consumer world.
1020
01:41:06,247 --> 01:41:09,613
Stop going on about engaging the public.
1021
01:41:09,814 --> 01:41:12,691
The mere thought of it
makes me want to puke.
1022
01:41:12,893 --> 01:41:15,252
Pardon my language, Mr President.
1023
01:41:15,453 --> 01:41:18,446
But when you really need some
useful information from the public,
1024
01:41:18,647 --> 01:41:23,730
then all of a sudden they can't
for the life of them remember a thing.
1025
01:41:23,931 --> 01:41:29,686
The scenes interspersing the police
briefings with the gangsters are famous.
1026
01:41:29,887 --> 01:41:33,608
Although the police are also shown
to uphold morality and safety,
1027
01:41:33,809 --> 01:41:37,051
the lines between state and crime
become increasingly blurred.
1028
01:41:37,252 --> 01:41:40,206
We see two competing systems
and their managers.
1029
01:41:40,408 --> 01:41:41,808
We must catch him.
1030
01:41:43,500 --> 01:41:44,800
Ourselves.
1031
01:41:50,449 --> 01:41:54,285
In the end, the more effective
police are the gangsters.
1032
01:41:54,486 --> 01:41:59,253
This efficiency is accompanied
by latent, unscrupulous brutality
1033
01:41:59,454 --> 01:42:01,334
which still today can be identified
1034
01:42:01,526 --> 01:42:04,173
as Lang's anticipation
of future developments.
1035
01:42:04,374 --> 01:42:07,731
Gründgens as gangster boss,
a glittering angel of brutality
1036
01:42:07,932 --> 01:42:11,452
leading the gangsters' charge
against the captured perpetrator,
1037
01:42:11,653 --> 01:42:14,291
exposes the true face of the era.
1038
01:42:15,010 --> 01:42:17,446
The accused maintains
1039
01:42:17,647 --> 01:42:20,006
that he has no choice.
1040
01:42:20,208 --> 01:42:24,207
In other words, he is compelled to kill.
1041
01:42:25,933 --> 01:42:28,206
By this, he confirmed
his own death sentence.
1042
01:42:28,408 --> 01:42:29,568
Bravo! Very true!
1043
01:42:29,769 --> 01:42:36,253
A man who admits that he
compulsively annihilates other lives,
1044
01:42:36,454 --> 01:42:40,290
this man must be exterminated
like a damaging fire.
1045
01:42:40,492 --> 01:42:44,730
This man must be eradicated,
he must disappear!
1046
01:43:08,649 --> 01:43:12,571
"M" comes across as a caustic commentary
on the Republic's turmoil
1047
01:43:12,773 --> 01:43:16,810
between the emergency decrees
and the emerging National Socialism.
1048
01:43:17,012 --> 01:43:21,932
Since the outbreak of the economic crisis,
governments changed continuously.
1049
01:43:30,966 --> 01:43:33,526
The Nazi party
became stronger and stronger
1050
01:43:33,728 --> 01:43:36,413
and the Democrats were failing.
1051
01:44:01,166 --> 01:44:04,053
The films were beginning to summarize.
1052
01:44:04,254 --> 01:44:08,014
Once again, Fritz Lang
confronts order with chaos.
1053
01:44:08,205 --> 01:44:12,128
Weimar cinema
begins and ends with a lunatic asylum.
1054
01:44:30,446 --> 01:44:33,371
One final appearance by Mabuse,
1055
01:44:33,534 --> 01:44:37,773
now sitting in his cell,
manically filling page after page.
1056
01:44:38,569 --> 01:44:41,129
What is he writing there, behind bars?
1057
01:44:42,366 --> 01:44:46,327
It's in "Dr. Mabuse", isn't it?
He's writing a book in prison.
1058
01:44:46,529 --> 01:44:49,214
That's it, he's writing
"Mein Kampf", isn't he?
1059
01:44:49,406 --> 01:44:51,727
Dr. Mabuse is really writing "Mein Kampf".
1060
01:44:51,928 --> 01:44:55,007
Wasn't that why the Nazis
banned the film?
1061
01:44:56,330 --> 01:45:00,933
For the ultimate goal of crime
1062
01:45:01,375 --> 01:45:06,573
is to establish
the absolute reign of crime.
1063
01:45:15,290 --> 01:45:18,733
The interiors in "The Testament
of Dr. Mabuse" are fantastical,
1064
01:45:18,935 --> 01:45:21,773
compulsive deceptions
and psychic illusions.
1065
01:45:22,253 --> 01:45:24,574
The return of the "haunted screen".
1066
01:45:24,766 --> 01:45:27,528
The therapist is turned into a psychopath.
1067
01:45:28,487 --> 01:45:29,887
The circle closes.
1068
01:45:30,088 --> 01:45:32,726
The dazzling director
of a mental hospital,
1069
01:45:32,927 --> 01:45:38,250
oscillating between sanity and madness,
postulates the "reign of crime".
1070
01:45:44,886 --> 01:45:48,809
And so the film ends in a long,
frantic drive into the night.
1071
01:45:56,088 --> 01:46:01,689
The Germans, too, were to embark on a
journey into the dark evils of the abyss.
1072
01:46:01,890 --> 01:46:05,093
Psychopaths and criminals
took over the steering wheel.
1073
01:46:10,646 --> 01:46:13,571
Nevertheless, the story
could also be told differently.
1074
01:46:16,000 --> 01:46:19,800
Hello, gentlemen,
would you like to come along?
1075
01:46:19,815 --> 01:46:21,330
For the last time.
1076
01:46:30,048 --> 01:46:34,210
A few years earlier, just after
"People on Sunday" and Black Friday,
1077
01:46:34,411 --> 01:46:39,206
cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan
shot his only film as director.
1078
01:46:43,129 --> 01:46:45,929
It depicts four young people
from the heart of the city,
1079
01:46:46,131 --> 01:46:47,454
children of the crisis.
1080
01:46:47,464 --> 01:46:52,464
They get together and drive off
on a whim, "Into the Blue".
1081
01:46:54,935 --> 01:46:58,128
It's a film of motion,
of changing positions.
1082
01:47:03,614 --> 01:47:06,894
The automobile, now affordable
for the new class of employees,
1083
01:47:07,086 --> 01:47:11,574
also represents a place of freedom,
of privacy and intimacy,
1084
01:47:11,612 --> 01:47:13,089
a substitute home.
1085
01:47:13,291 --> 01:47:15,851
Hello! A car journey!
1086
01:47:33,009 --> 01:47:35,406
They are driving out to the Wannsee.
1087
01:47:35,569 --> 01:47:40,134
It's a film full of happiness,
full of high spirits and human solidarity.
1088
01:48:04,647 --> 01:48:08,733
Once again, Schüfftan
shows the best of the Weimar Republic:
1089
01:48:09,000 --> 01:48:10,400
departure,
1090
01:48:10,753 --> 01:48:12,153
youth,
1091
01:48:12,763 --> 01:48:14,163
freedom,
1092
01:48:14,773 --> 01:48:16,173
irony,
1093
01:48:16,783 --> 01:48:18,283
curiosity.
1094
01:48:39,087 --> 01:48:42,529
What does cinema know,
that we don't?
1095
01:48:53,491 --> 01:48:56,368
Brigitte married and survived the war.
1096
01:48:56,493 --> 01:49:00,732
She lived to over 100 years old
and died in Hamburg in 2011.
1097
01:49:00,972 --> 01:49:04,290
Christel went into exile
in the spring of 1933.
1098
01:49:04,415 --> 01:49:08,491
She died in 1960, at age 48,
in a plane crash in New Mexico.
1099
01:49:13,132 --> 01:49:15,799
Siegfried Kracauer went into exile
in Paris in February 1933.
1100
01:49:15,808 --> 01:49:17,813
After the occupation of France
by the German Wehrmacht
1101
01:49:17,928 --> 01:49:21,131
he managed to flee to the USA in 1941,
where he wrote his most significant books.
1102
01:49:21,246 --> 01:49:23,049
He only saw Germany again on short visits.
1103
01:49:23,174 --> 01:49:24,929
Siegfried Kracauer died in 1965 in New York.
1104
01:49:27,048 --> 01:49:28,631
Fritz Lang emigrated to Paris in March 1933.
1105
01:49:28,650 --> 01:49:30,328
His last Weimar film,
"The Testament of Dr. Mabuse"
1106
01:49:30,453 --> 01:49:31,767
was banned in Germany prior to release.
1107
01:49:31,891 --> 01:49:33,330
From 1934 on, Lang worked in Hollywood.
1108
01:49:33,455 --> 01:49:35,411
He filmed his last three films
in West Germany in 1959 and 1960.
1109
01:49:35,526 --> 01:49:37,454
In 1963, he played himself
in Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt".
1110
01:49:37,569 --> 01:49:38,806
Fritz Lang died in 1976 in Los Angeles.
1111
01:49:39,286 --> 01:49:43,074
The following filmmakers
left Germany after Hitler came to power.
1112
01:49:43,170 --> 01:49:45,730
Most of them never returned
and died in exile.96695
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