In an interview published in 1967, Fritz Lang told Peter Bogdanovich: "I
made (Halbblut) in five days -- do you think it can be good? I mean,
it was my first picture, I wanted to do it, but ... By the way, there were good
actors in it."
Who were these actors? Ressel Orla and Carl de Vogt were in the leading roles,
Gilda Langer in the supporting cast, all of them film stars of the year 1919,
all of them almost forgotten by now, 2001. Fritz Lang went on to become the
great director we know, but what happened to his three early stars? How did
their careers turn out? What was their fate? There is a new comprehensive Carl
de Vogt website under construction by our friend Joan McDonald from Denver,
USA, which should be up and running in August or September. Also, as you probably
know, we have been researching life and career of Gilda Langer for quite some
time now. Right now, we're desperately seeking information about her place of
birth. The information is in the files of the registry office Berlin-Charlottenburg,
but they will only give it to direct descendants (oh, come on girls, it's only
a town's name!). Gilda was born Hermengild Langer on May 16, 1896, and died
January 31, 1920 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. She had three brothers: Victor, Albert,
and Heinrich Langer, and apparently no children. Any information is greatly
appreciated.
There's a lot of new stuff on the entire site, so look it up, and drop us a
note if you wish to supply or comment on anything. For a start, see for instance
our new articles on Ressel, Carl, and Gilda.
This weekend, a new The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari musical premieres at
the 2nd Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival (New York). Produced by
John Chatterton, written by Richard Lawton and Douglas Hicton, with music and
lyrics by Douglas Hicton, this promises a very fine show. Performances run from
July 13 to July 29, 2001. So, if you're anywhere near New York at that time,
go see it (and tell us about
it). You can find more info on Gilda Tabarez' Conrad
Veidt Home Page, which is also a good starting point for silent film web
research, full of information about Connie and related topics.
The well-known German ensemble Trioglyzerin did a live performance of
Metropolis in Dolby Digital 5.1 in February. In their repertoire are
also silent classics Caligari and Nosferatu. They have a website.
We'd like to mention three more books about Fritz Lang, two of which already
appeared last year:
Tom Gunning: The Films of Fritz Lang, Allegories of Vision and Modernity,
London: BFI 2000 (ISBN 0851707432 (pbk), 0851707424 (hbk), 528 pages).
Tom Gunning is a professor in the department of Art History and the Committee
on Film and Media at the University of Chicago. He is especially known for his
essays on early cinema, including "The Cinema of Attractions" and
"Primitive Cinema" (both in Thomas Elsaesser (ed.): Early Cinema,
Space, Frame, Narrative, London: BFI 1990). This book is his account of Lang's
films. It is not a research of the production or reception, but rather a reading
of those films. Gunning states that "a thoroughly researched historical
study of the production and reception of Lang's films still needs to be done"
(p. ix), but there is also a need for interpretations of the film texts themselves,
because Lang has been rather neglected in the past, and Gunning hopes "that
writing on Lang will become a major preoccupation of film studies in the future"
(p. xi). The Berlin retrospective and its outcomes indeed justify the hope that
there is a growing interest in Lang which will produce more works and academic
studies like this one in the future.
Wolfgang Jacobsen, Werner Sudendorf (eds.): Metropolis, Ein filmisches Laboratorium
der modernen Architektur, A Cinematic Laboratory for Modern Architecture, Stuttgart:
Edition Axel Menges 2000 (ISBN 3930698854, 240 pages)
is a big photo book about Metropolis, containing many of the photographs
taken by still photographer Horst von Harbou during the shooting, and including
essays on the history and architecture of Metropolis, and, most important,
Martin Koerber's text on the proliferation of the film and his new 2001 reconstruction.
We learn that the new version is based on the "American" original
negative made for Paramount rather than the "German" original negative
extant in Ufa archives, which was used for instance for the earlier Metropolis
reconstruction by Enno Patalas and his Munich team: "A direct comparison
with the Paramount material clearly shows that in this negative very many scenes
have been edited in -- not from camera material, but from dupe negatives. The
continuity often is less than successful, and the performance of the actors
is often far inferior to that in the Paramount negative, all of which leads
us to believe that this original negative was probably not the negative of the
German version (even a modified one), but a substitute version assembled after
the original negative wore out." (p. 217)
A new book in German is
Georges
Sturm: Die Circe, der Pfau und das Halbblut, Die Filme von Fritz Lang 1916-1921.
Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag 2001 (ISBN 3884764349, 248 pages).
This is such "a thoroughly researched historical study of the production
and reception of Lang's films" of which Tom Gunning above stated that it
"still needs to be done". Sturm examines a definite period of Lang's
work, and that is his early films such as Pest in Florenz, Halbblut,
and Kämpfende Herzen: those works before Der müde Tod
about which little is known (with the exception of Die Spinnen). Now
we know more. A very important book! Need we say that it's just about the films
and people we study in the first place?
Also see our reviews
section.
Here we list some references which were published along the Fritz Lang retrospective at the Berlin film festival in February. There are probably more. If you know something we didn't mention here, please give us a note. We also again list the books published shortly before the retrospective in Germany, most of which are reviewed here.
Bookswww.filmgeschichte.de,
a source book for early german film edited by olaf
brill & thomas
schultke.
Last update (this page): 17 Nov 2001.
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