More anniversaries! Sitting in a library on January 10th, reading contemporary reports about some of our favourite films, including Metropolis, slowly it dawned on us that on that very day it was exactly 75 years after Metropolis' Berlin premiere. Of course, in 2002 the film looks younger than ever, reconstructed anew, with Gottfried Huppertz' original music, and upcoming releases on tv, in the cinemas, on video, and dvd. Read the news, below. Then, there was Marlene's 100th birthday. There have been parties, screenings, newspaper headlines, and lots of new writings. Sad news of course is the passing of another great German/American star, director/writer Billy Wilder (1906-2002), who is leaving behind so many great works that it is hard to imagine the last century without his films.
Acclaimed newspaper reporter Uta Kneller from Syke wrote a little piece about us, with a damn big photo, where we predicted the Oscars. We got 4 out of 10 right; damn, Gandalf didn't make it, but Halle saved the day! It's in Sonntags-Tipp of March 24. Go get it, it may become a collector's item. (Dear, a lot of swear words in this paragraph. We're sorry for that. Damn sorry.)
In addition to the usual updates and new entries, we started optimizing the
html code of the entire site for better performance on all browsers (To those
of you not familiar with html coding: click on the right mouse button, then
"view frame source" to see what a document like this really looks
like). For best performance, we recommend the (free) Mozilla
browser. We are sorry for those using older Netscape versions like 4.x, those
browsers are inferior.
Thanks to Thomas Konradt who gave us valuable hints on some information given below. Thanks also to CineGraph, Filmmuseum Berlin, Murnau-Stiftung, Transit-Film, and Kein & Aber Records for various kinds of support.
Last year's fabulous new Metropolis reconstruction is now set for its tv premiere on German/French channel Arte (which by the way celebrates its 10th anniversary). Metropolis will be running on May 31, 23.30, with at least one repeat on June 08, 00.10, running time 148 mins. The transmissions will include the new music by Bernd Schultheis which has been used for the screenings at last year's Berlin film festival (Gottfried Huppertz' original music was not available due to a disagreement with the owners of the rights). A release on video and dvd is planned for later this year, including not Schultheis' new but in fact Huppertz' original score (see videos). For an inside report on the reconstruction of Metropolis see Alpha-Omega's extensive coverage of their work on their
website.
Caligari remains interesting material for theatre producers. After at least three stage adaptations last year, now famous American director/writer/producer Robert Wilson adapted it for the Deutsches Theater, Berlin, Germany. Title of the play is Doktor Caligari, premiere was on March 26. Cast: Christian Grashof (Dr. Caligari), Bernd Stempel (Cesare), Peter Ehrlich (Cesare), Maximilian von Pufendorf (Franzis), Francesco Cordella (Franzis), Volkmar Kleinert (Medizinalrat Dr. Olfen), Ellen Schlootz (Jane), Regine Zimmermann (Jane), Andreas Bisowski (Alan), Michael Gerber (Kommissar), Ursula Staack (policeman, chicken), Michael Schweighöfer (Jakob Straat), Günter Falkenau, Barbara Schnitzler, Heidrun Perdelwitz, Jürgen Huth, Stefan Kurt (voice). Below, some reviews we read:
Unfortunately, the Deutsches Theater didn't answer our enquiries, so we can't tell you whether there will be more performances coming up. We suggest consulting their website. Also, we appreciate information about more reviews. If you know one we didn't mention, tell us.
Two interesting audio cds have been published recently, with texts by/about Fritz Lang, read by actors.
The first is an audio book Fritz Lang -- Eleanor Rosé: excerpts from the correspondence between two lifelong friends, read by Udo Samel and Susanne Lothar (Kein & Aber Records, Zurich, ISBN 303691109X, EFA 232522, approx. 54 mins.)
The
second is a follow-up publication of last year's Berlin film festival's Fritz
Lang retrospective: Fritz Lang -- Actors and colleagues talk about the great
director: Thirty short commentaries about working with Lang, in German and
English language, including an excerpt from Bernd Schultheis' new Metropolis
music (approx. 38 mins., available at the museum's shop of the Filmmuseum Berlin).
For more information look at our
reviews section.
Later this year, coming from McFarland & Co. is a new book on Conrad Veidt, Conrad Veidt on Screen, A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography by John T. Soister (ISBN 0786412895, 416 pp.).
John, a teacher from Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, who also did the books Of Gods and Monsters and Claude Rains (both published in 1999), did a very thorough research on Connie's films, with lots of photos, and a comprehensive filmography. We're eager to see it.
The Murnau Foundation (Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden) and its partner Transit-Film (Munich) will release a boxed set of German silent film classics on video within the next two months. The set comes along with a booklet by Hans Günther Pflaum and contains ten films (five of which directed by Fritz Lang):
The set has been produced along last year's Berlin film festival and had only been available at the libraries of Goethe institutes so far. The films will also be offered separately, for the time being only on vhs. But, a later release on dvd is projected, with a wealth of bonus material, beginning with Metropolis at the end of this year.
Of course, all these will be the most recent restorations, never before released on video, e.g. the 1996 "Project Lumière" restored colour version of Caligari and the newest Metropolis reconstruction as presented on last year's Berlin film festival and transmitted on Arte in May/June 2002.
Metropolis will (in contrast to the Arte transmission) even feature the original music composed by Gottfried Huppertz, interpreted by the symphony orchestra of the Saarländischer Rundfunk, conducted by Berndt Heller. Finally, the Murnau foundation obtained the rights for Huppertz' original score (which was not used for the Berlin festival). The Huppertz soundtrack will not only be put on the vhs and dvd releases but also on the film's prints distributed for cinemas. A preview of this version can be seen at the Cinestar-Metropolis-Kino, Frankfurt/M., Germany, on July 04, 2002.
Look out for more information on the Murnau Foundation's website.
www.filmgeschichte.de,
a source book for early german film edited by olaf
brill & thomas
schultke.
Last update (this page): 27 May 2002.
The texts and images on this site are copyright © by the respective authors,
except where otherwise noted. Mostly, the items were published by kind permission,
but we were not able to find out all the copyright holders or their legal successors.
If you know about them, please let us know, especially if there's anything wrong
with publishing these texts or images. We do not intend to harm anyone's rights
and thought we best serve the purpose of understanding film and general history
displaying this source material and make it available for everyone.
If no author or source is noted, the texts are copyright © 1996-2004 Olaf
Brill & Thomas
Schultke.