Film Museum Berlin: The Exhibition

Filmmuseum Berlin The Exhibition Text Eva Wesemann

FILM MUSEUM BERLIN THE EXHIBITION

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Imprint © 2000 by Pilmmuseum Berlin- Deutsche Kinemachek

and Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhaodlung, Beuermann GmbH, Berlin

Coordinating editors Rolf Aurich Wolfgang Jacobsen Antonia :Meiners Annette Vogler Editor of cranslations Catherine Kerkhoff-Saxon Translatious Andrew Bareham Nicole Gentz Catherine Kerkhoff-Saxon John Lambert Jane Paulick Photos of exhibits Michael Liider, Potsdam

Design and layout Volker Noth Grafik-Design I Ehret Cover photographs Marlene Dietrich ("Naughty Lola Lola card"): :Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin, courtesy of 1-faria and Peter Riva as well as Frieder Roth, Munich "Oscar": © Academy of Motion Pic cure Arts, Los Angeles, USA Praoka Potence in LOLA RENNT: © Tom Tykwer, X Pilme, Berlin "Maschinenmaria": © Bertina Schulze-Mittendorf, Hamburg Copyrigh"t for all other cover photographs: Pilrumuseum Berlin -Deutsche

fhek

Kinema

Typeset and lithography Mega-Sarz-Service, Berlin Peine Heenemann GmbH, Berlin Binding Liidericz & Bauer GmbH, Berlin

ISBN

3-87584-935-3

Contents

Filmmu seum Berlin I

Room 1

Images

Room2

Pioneers and divas

11

Room3

Caligari

19

Room4

The Weimar Republic

23

Room 5

Metropolis

"35

Room6

Transatlantic

41

Room 7

Marlene Dietrich

47

Room 8

Olympia

55

Room 9

National S ocialism

61

Room 10

Exile

69

Room 11

From the p ostwar years to the present

77

7

Filmmu seum Berlin II

Rooms 12 and 13

Artificial worlds: Ray Harryhausen

87

Filmmu seum Berlin: Notes and floor plans

Notes Floor plans Phorographic acknowledgments

96 98 101

Room 1

Images

7

Images

8

Images

..,. LOlA RENNT Tom Tykwer Germany 1 998 Fronko Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu BRENNEN DES GEHEIMNIS Robert Siodmok Germony 1 933 Willi Forst, Hilde Wogner DER VERZAUBERTE TAG Peter Pewos Germany 1 944 Hons Stiiwe, Winnie Markus

It's the middle of the night when B i l l y W i lder wakes up with a start from a d ream: what an idea for a fi lm' He grabs the p enc i l and paper l y i ng next to his bed for just such moments. He quickly jots down the most important sequence, turns over and fal l s back to sleep . W hen he wakes in the morning, he reaches expectant l y for the sl i p of paper, there are only three words on it: boy meets g i r l .

DER TOO IN SEVILlA Urban God Germany 1 9 1 3

This anecdote, which has c i rculated th rough the history of f i l m and sometimes been attri buted to others, epitomizes the very essence of big movies. They are based on small stories or rather always the same sma l l sto r ies, those so very cruc ial f(>r our l i ves. The decisive moments of our existence are deter­ mined by g reat emotions: love and joy, fear and terror, grief. And where do these feel ings reveal themselves more clearly than in the look in someone's eyes' W h ich art comes closer to thei r expression than the c inema and its camera> A tear b reaks away from the eyelashes and we suppress a sob; a sarcastic, rai sed eyebrow achieves the desi red effect, and we know, something is developing here; a smi le brings our rhe w r i nkles round the eyes, and we mel r into sympathy. Vi rtual ­ ly n o other a r t has a greater impact o n people, o n thei r imagin­ ations, thei r d reams and visions. The c i nema remorselessly

9

Images

transfiXes

us.

We see ourselves mirrored in figures' faces, we

dream of beauty, wealth and happiness. We long for a

happy

ending, and hope rhat Billy Wilder's film may indeed culmin­ ate in: boy kisses girl ... The Filmmuseurn Berlin spirits you off into the history of suggestive images that rhe first room's journey back in time prepa_res for;

�Ii the following twelve rooms it tells rhe story of

the beginning of German cinema- of early stars, Caligari and Metropolis - of its heyday. during rhe Weimar Republic, and how it was rhen taken over by National Socialism. It follows the exiles on their exodus and the tracks left by film in divided Gc:rmany

as

articulations of social changes. And of

course, Marlene Dietrich should not· .be forgotten, whose glamorous estate fills several rooms. An independent area is also devoted to the technical development of motion pictures, special effects and the future in virtual worlds. And when, at the end, Han Solo meets Princess lea in rhe vastness of outer space; then it's the same old story: the myth lives on.

10

Room 2

Pioneers and divas

11

Pioneers a n d d ivas

At the begi n n i ng there was l ight - artificial light. Near che

end of rhe 19rh cenrury, rhe invenrion of elccrric lighr led ro

r his first fil m project, ··Twfel..-nitidet'. Oskar Messrer also p u r his technical know ledge at the dis­ posal of the German war ind ustry. His company m anufiK­ tured an ;\lG w111era which was later copied by other com­ panies, such as Aerophor in Amsterdam, 1 9 25. I t was used n1oniror accuracy during target practice.

18

to

Room 3

Caligari

19

Caligari

Between the end of December 1 9 1 9 and the end of January 1 9 20, a fil m was prod uced at Lixi"-Film-Atelicr char made history : DAS C A B I N E T D E S DR. CALI G A R I . For many it stands fc>r the beginning and

p rototype of expressionist fil m ,

although above all i t i s a manifestation o f a rime haunred by the specters of a lost war and collapsing world order. The film

gives fears and visions, madness and destruction for m . And so it is not without reason that the fil m opens with the words "there are spirits everyw here aro und us" . The story of D r. Caligari and his somna m b u l ist Cesare portrayed by the two g reat mimes of cinema d u ring the Weimar Rep ub lic, Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt- is con­ fusing and complex . It begins as a tale of a yo ung m an named francis, as the story of what h e experienced at a fun fair: a magician, Dr. Caligari, introd uces rhe somna m b u l ist, Cesare, to the astonished crowd and then wakes him from his d eep sleep, bringing him back

ro

life. Yet b riefly afterwards, g hast­

ly things happen: a friend of Francis is m u rdered and the fol­ lowing night his fiancee is kidnapped . francis suspects Cesare and the mysterious magician Dr. Caligari. He fol lows Caligari, who then flees inro an insane asy l u m . W hen Francis goes to warn the director of rhe asy l u m , he discovers that Dr. Caligari himself is the director. In the d octor's swdy, Francis

Werner Krauss. Conrad Veidt

finds a book about somnambu lism . He reads how in 1 7 03 in Italy a certain Dr. Caligari experim ented with a som nambu­ list cal led Cesare and forced him to commit c rimes. Francis also discovers the director's diary which says that Cesare is still alive and the director sees himself as Caligari's successor. Yet as it turns o ut, Cesare does not have m uch longer to live. Driven to despair by the crimes he has been forced ro c o m m it, Cesare kills himself. W hen his corpse is brought into the insane asylum, Dr. Ca ligari flies into a rage. A straitjacket puts an end to his freedo m . However, the fil m is not over here. Again we see the young man, Francis, as in the op ening scene. B ut now we can also see char he is in a gard en - the gar­ den of an insane asy l u m , and that the heroes of his tale are his listeners, a l l inmates like himself. In the final scene, the director joins them with a smile. It is D r. Caligari again. The .1't'rij1! for DAS C A B I N E T DES D R. CAL!G A I U - an original copy has been preserved in Werner Krauss' estate - was writ­ ten by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz. In it, the fil m also

20

,.. OAS CABINET DES DR . CAllGARI Robert Wiene Germany 1 920 Conrad Veidt, Lil Oogover

C a l igari

Austrion premiere poster Artwork: Atelier ledl Bernhord Coligori Foxtrot Iitle page of the score Composer: Otto Weber Vienna/leipzig/Berlin 1 920 Advertisement for the film

reflecrs on itself as a medium. T h rouJr i n s tance, asked Paul Kohner f(>r an affidavit by w r i t i n g : "The text whose enchancing spell I am ask i ng you to cas t is one u s i ng the set formula for such occas ions, corres­ pond i ng almost completely to the trmh and harboring no ri sks worth mentioning. (As far as my ' h igh moral charac rer' i s concerned , you were j us c m i s rake n . )" Ochers, such as che Vien nese composer Ralph Benatzky, were dr iven to despai r by the e n forced i nac tivi ty. His self-righreous and unj ust letter to

Billy Wilder, Hollywood, 1 940s

Kohner i s an expression of his b i t terness .

On the bock of this photogroph for scriptwriter Mox Colpet, Billy Wilder odded the comment "Der lubitsch·Einfluss." ("The lubitsch touch ." ) .

Comedy and rragedy Ernst Lubirsch rook the rragicorn ical tlemenr which exi le had for many in rhe movie busi ness and developed ic i n co an aes­ thetic p rocess. In 1 9 4 2 , he masrerfu l ly d i rected che comedy TO BE O R NOT TO BE about a group of actors in Poland who

in o rder

co

survive have to play rheir roles nor only on rhe

stage bur also in real l i fe . The fi lm abounds wirh u n i f(>rmed fig u res, wirh real and false Ges tapo agents, deceivers and rhe deceived . U s i ng w i c , d isguise and coscumes, che group of actors defear rheir German adversaries. Yet TO B E OR NOT TO BE u n leashed a storm of protest.

73

Exile

I n v i e w of t h e N a z i c r i m e s com m i t ted i n Pol a n d m a n y i n

rlw a u d i e n c e , and n or o n l y i n Pol a n d , c o n s i d ered t h e c o m e d y i n h a d r a s t e . L u b i tsch h o m: v e r d e fe n d e d h i m s e l f by say i n g : .. \\! hat I made fu n of i n t h e fi l m are t h e Naz i s a n d t h e i r r i ­ d i c u lo u s i d eology. ·· T h e t:m10 u s ' L u h i tsch r o u c h ' was e n o r m ­ o u s l y s uccessfu l and se rved as a m o d e l l(>r B i l l y W i l d e r, w h o W