Berkeley and Pacific Film Archive: Fritz Lang and German Expressionist Film Festival

Fritz Lang and German Expressionist film, December 2018-February 2019

The Berkeley and Pacific Archive is running this magnificent program of mostly silent German films from the Weimar era.  Show times and details are available at the above address.

For those who cannot make it to the festival a poor substitute for it is provided below.  All available films are Youtube videos except the last one, which is a dailymotion.com video. It is unknown how long any of these videos will be available. All addresses worked at the time this post was added. If any do not, simply search youtube by author or title of the film. Most of the films are directed by Fritz Lang, but there are also films by Joe May, F.W. Murnau, Paul Wegener, and Robert Wiene.

The films are listed below in the order that they are shown in the program. All films have English subtitles, either built in or via closed captioning. Three of the films (M, Liliom, and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse), are sound films. This program is about as good a sampling of Weimar cinema in one place as any I've seen. If you are in or near the Bay Area, I cannot recommend it highly enough. If not, these videos are links to the best versions I could find. Watching them on a smart phone or even laptop, to say the least, does not do them justice. Hook your device to the largest screen you have available to get a flavor of what they really look like. Note that both Youtube and Dailymotion have an icon to expand the videos to full screen.

Click on "view details" for any of the films listed at the above program address for more information (including selected reviews) of these films.

Below the video links a brief bibliography of video and print works on German film in the Weimar period is provided. The best place to start is Cinema Europe: Part III--The Unchained Camera

Feedback is always welcome: jbsolock1@gmail.com.

Enjoy

--------------------------------

Unless otherwise specifically stated, Lang is the Director of these films.

=================================

Metropolis (2:30:11) (1927). CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Added Dec. 30, 2018: Exposition: Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell: Observations on Film Art: Metropolis Unbound 

============================

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1:14:22) (1920). ROBERT WIENE. This version has English subtitles built in. (Changed April 8, 2019)

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: Roger Ebert: The Great Movies: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 

============================

The Last Laugh (1:30:14) (1924) F.W. MURNAU. No dialog. Some title cards. CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: Rahul Hameed: Senses of Cinema
Added Jan. 8, 2019: Video Review: (4:31) Richard Brody, New Yorker 

============================

Faust (1:55:41) (1926) F.W. MURNAU. Built in English subtitles. Best music.

Shorter version (1:46:27), HD. Built in English subtitles. Pedestrian music.

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: Philip French: Guardian
Added Jan. 8, 2019: Video Review: (4:04) Richard Brody: New Yorker 
============================

The Spiders, Pt. 1 and 2 (2:17:19) (1919, 1920). Built in English Subtitles.

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: Vincent Canby: New York Times

============================

Harakiri/Madam Butterfly (1:26:34) (1919). CC should be underlined to get Spanish subtitles. If not, click on it. Then click on settings (gear icon), subtitles--->Auto-Translate--->English.

Another version (59:50) (1919) CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it. Very much inferior in quality to the version above. Provided for those might have trouble with instructions to get to English subtitles above. Original version of this was removed by Youtube. This is the same version, from another source (changed April 8, 2019)

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: J.E. de Cockborne: A Cinema History

============================

The Golem (1:41:23) (1920) PAUL WEGENER. Built in English subtitles.

Better, longer version (2:00:22). German only subtitles.

Added Jan. 8, 2019: Review: Chris Justice: classichorror.com

============================

Destiny (Der Mude Todt) (1:38:15) (1921) CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Added Jan. 8, Book chapter: Lotte Eisner: The Haunted Screen: Chapter 5: The Stylized Fantastic (P. 89-94) (Google Books)

============================

Nosferatu (1:32:33) (1922) F.W. MURNAU. Built in English subtitles.

Added April 7, 2019:
Nosferatu: The Great Films, by Roger Ebert
Murnau Before Nosferatu, by David Bordwell and Kristen Thompson
============================

M (1:48:55) (1931) SOUND with built in English subtitles

Added April 7, 2019
Fritz Lang's M: the Blueprint for the Serial Killer Movie, by Jeff Andrew (British Film Institute)

============================

Die Nibelungen Pt 1: Siegfried's Death and Pt. 2: Kriemhild's Revenge (4:35:08) (1924) built in English subtitles. Only copy I could find with English subtitles. Multiple copies (usually split into two videos) with German or French subtitles (search Youtube on title).

Added April 7, 2019
Siegfried the Dragon Slayer: Die Nibelungen Revisited, by Colm McAuliffe (the quietus.com).

============================

Spies (2:24:35) (1928) CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Added April 7, 2019
Spies: A Silent Film Review, by Fritzi Kramer (moviessilently.com)

============================

Asphalt (1:33:27) (1929) JOE MAY. CC should be underlined to get Spanish subtitles. If not, click on it. Then click on settings (gear icon), subtitles--->Auto-Translate--->English.

Another version (1:30:22) (1929) JOE MAY.  Built in English subtitles. Inferior version. Provided for those might have trouble with instructions to get to English subtitles above.

Added April 7, 2019
Asphalt, by Shari Kizirian (Senses of Cinema)

===========================

Woman in the Moon (2:49:48) 1929. Built in English subtitles.

Better version (2:42:09) Built in Spanish only subtitles.

Added April 7, 2019
Woman in the Moon, by Philip French (Guardian)

============================

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler Pt. 1: A Portrait of our Time and Pt. 2: Inferno, a Play of People in our time: (4:28:51) (1922). CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

OR

Pt. 1: (2:35:10) CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Pt. 2: (1:55:40) CC should be underlined to get English subtitles. If not, click on it.

Added April 7, 2019
Ten Best Films of 1922: by Kristen Thompson and David Bordwell

============================

Liliom (2:00:00) (1934) SOUND: At this time there is no watchable version available on the Internet. Later remade as Carousel.

Synopsis and Review

Excerpt 1: (2:24) French

Excerpt 2: (5:47) French

Added April 7, 2019
Liliom, by Harold Schonburg (New York Times, Mar. 18, 1935

============================

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (2:01:02) (1933). SOUND. Found a new copy in one piece. CC should be underlined to get Spanish subtitles. If not, click on it. Then click on settings (gear icon), subtitles--->Auto-Translate--->English. (Changed April 8, 2019).

Added April 7, 2019)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, by Michael Keller (sensesofcinema.com)

==============
==============

For further reading/viewing:

Video:

Cinema Europe: The other Hollywood--Part 3: The Unchained Camera (58:09). Deals with German silent cinema from from 1919 until the end of the silent era.

Added Jan. 7, 2019: An excellent documentary film: From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses (1:53:50)

Added April 7, 2019: The Haunted Screen: Post World War I German Cinema, by Peter Buchka (1:00:00)

Books:

From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, by Siegrfried Kracauer (1947; this is the 2004 edition--for the upcoming 2019 edition see). Still the classic, if somewhat now dated, treatment of the connection between Weimar expressionist cinema and the coming of the Nazis. (See Weimar Cinema and After below)

German National Cinema, by Sabine Hake (2002). P. 27-63. A more modern treatment of Weimar cinema.

The Haunted Screen; Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, by Lotte Eisner (1952; this is the 2008 edition). Influence of Romanticism and theatricality on Weimar cinema.

Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War, by Anton Kaes (2009). Exhaustive modern study of the films of the period. Emphasis on Wiemar cinema as an expression of PTSD of an entire society after the First World War.

Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary, by Thomas Elaesser (2000). Revises Kracauer theories based on new information and restored films, among other topics.

Herr Lubitch Goes to Hollywood, by Kristin Thompson (2005) (.pdf format, 154p.) Have not read, but a cursory glance says I want to. :)

Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy, by Eric D. Weitz (2007; this link is to the 2018 Centennial edition. ). Exhaustive history of the Weimar period.

1972 Interview with Fritz Lang, by Lloyd Chesley and Michael Gould. An edited version of this interview appeared in Moviemaker Magazine in February 2004. Audio version (must be purchased) is available here. (Added April 16, 2019).

Thanksgiving--AND ME

This year I had two Thanksgivings, one on Thursday and one on Friday, both with wonderful friends. Much good food and friendly conversation. It's really the only American secular holiday. The best thing about it was that never once in two celebrations was I or anyone else asked what we were thankful for. It's a question that has always made me feel uncomfortable when I've had to respond in front of a group. Once when this happened, after about 10 "I'm thankful for family" responses, I responded, "I'm thankful for Abe Lincoln, for making it a national holiday.  I thought it was funny. No one else did.

In my youth, I celebrated many Thanksgiving holidays with my nuclear and extended Jewish family. They were loud and raucous, sort of like the Thanksgiving scene in Annie Hall (1:20-2:28 on the video). Value judgments, opinionated comments about family members who weren't there, and general blowhardiness from genuine blowhards flowed like a river. I loved every minute of it, especially the food.

In our Thanksgivings the question of what we were thankful for never came up. The answer to the question was as obvious as unnecessary to verbalize. The elder elders were thankful that they had gotten the hell out of the Pale and emigrated to the US before they were either victims of  pogroms or drafted into the Russian Army. The younger elders were grateful that their parents had gotten out of the Pale, and so they were not victims of the Nazis. And also thankful that their parents were able to emigrate before the US closed its doors after the First World War. Life in the US was not all it was cracked up to be, no gold flowing through the streets, and then the one-two punch of Depression and War that robbed them of their childhoods. But they were alive and glad to be so. In my youth, the US was a great place for Jews to be, antisemitism slowly ebbing as the new Baby Boomers assimilated and the old language and culture (in my family anyway) slowly died out.

The Thanksgivings were, as mentioned above, always loud and chaotic, filled with laughter. But they could have jagged edges. As a young child these edges went right over my head.

As I grew older they became more interesting. One of these was the most interesting and memorable of my life. The other Thanksgivings sort of blend together but this particular one has remained etched in my consciousness. It was at a relative's house. One of the young Boomers in the family had been estranged for some time, over what I never knew. Lets call him Euripides Pants (or EP for short--BTW he had a brother named Eumenides Pants). While a battalion of relatives was chowing down on a ton of feast, EP tinkled his glass. No response. He tinkled it louder. No response. He got up and banged on it almost hard enough to break it. The chatter slowly stopped. He gave a short speech about how sorry he was to have done things that estranged him, how he wanted this to be a new beginning, because in the end family was everything.

As he finished his speech his mother replied: "Oh EP, blow it out your ass."

I must admit that to this day I am ashamed of my response, but my head was buried low enough in the dressing and potatoes that hopefully it was not too obvious. It was my most memorable Thanksgiving.

Life is as messy as the remains of a plate of Thanksgiving feast. We are all human, riddled with human faults and contradictions. EP was later accepted back into the family as a member in good standing. I lost track of him many years ago. That was a jagged Thanksgiving, but a living, pulsating one. I'm glad I was there.