Introduzione
Introduction

Film in programma / Films scheduled

DAS ALTE GESETZ (Baruch) (Comedia-Film GmbH, Berlin, DE 1923)
Regia/dir: Ewald André Dupont; scen: Paul Reno, dalle memorie di/from the memoirs by Heinrich Laube; f./ph: Theodor Sparkuhl; scg./des: Alfred Junge, Curt Kahle; cost: Ali Hubert; cast: Ernst Deutsch (Baruch), Henny Porten (Erzherzogin/Archduchess Elisabeth Theresia), Ruth Weyher (dama di corte/Lady in waiting), Hermann Vallentin (Heinrich Laube), Avrom Morewsky (Rabbi Mayer), Grete Berger (sua moglie/his wife), Robert Garrison (Ruben Pick), Fritz Richard (Nathan), Margarete Schlegel (Esther), Jakob Tiedtke (direttore della compagnia teatrale/Director of the theatre company), Olga Limburg (seine Frau/his wife), Alice Hechy (la figlia/their daughter), Julius M. Brandt (il vecchio attore/old comedian), Robert Scholz, Alfred Krafft-Lortzing, Dominik Löscher, Philipp Manning, Wolfgang Zilzer, Kálmán Zátony; riprese/filmed: 1923; data v.c./censor date: 18.10.1923; première: 29.10.1923, Marmorhaus, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 3028 m.; 35mm, 2920 m., 107’ (24 fps); fonte copia/print source:Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

BUDDENBROOKS (Dea-Film GmbH Albert Pommer, Berlin, per/for Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin, DE 1923)
Regia/dir: Gerhard Lamprecht; prod: Albert Pommer; scen: Alfred Fekete, Luise Heilborn-Körbitz, Gerhard Lamprecht, dal romanzo di/from the novel by Thomas Mann; f./ph: Erich Waschneck, Herbert Stephan; scg./des: Otto Moldenhauer; cast: Peter Esser (Thomas Buddenbrook), Mady Christians (Gerda Arnoldsen), Alfred Abel (Christian Buddenbrook), Hildegard Imhoff (Tony Buddenbrook), Mathilde Sussin (Elisabeth Buddenbrook), Franz Egénieff (armatore/shipowner Arnoldsen), Rudolf del Zopp (Console/Consul Kröger), Auguste Prasch-Grevenberg (Babette), Ralph Arthur Roberts (Bendix Grünlich), Charlotte Böcklin (Aline Puvogel), Karl Platen (procuratore/clerk Marcus), Kurt Vespermann (Renée Throta), Elsa Wagner (Sesemi Weichbrodt), Rudolf Lettinger (postiglione / coachman Grobleben), Emil Heyse (Kesselmeyer), Friedrich Taeger (Borgomastro/Burgomaster Oeverdieck), Philipp Manning, Hermann Vallentin (Smith), Robert Leffler (Capitano/Captain Kloot); riprese/filmed: 1923; data v.c./censor date: 16.8.1923; première: 31.8.1923, Tauentzien-Palast, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2383 m.; 35mm, 2301 m., 85’ (24 fps), col. (imbibizione originale riprodotta su pellicola a colori/printed on colour stock, reproducing original tinting); fonte copia/print source: Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlin. Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

DIE CARMEN VON ST. PAULI(Gestrandet) (Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin, DE 1928)
Regia/dir: Erich Waschneck; prod: Alfred Zeisler; scen: Bobby E. Lüthge, Erich Waschneck; f./ph: Friedl Behn-Grund; scg./des: Alfred Junge; cast: Jenny Jugo (Jenny Hummel), Willy Fritsch (Klaus Brandt), Fritz Rasp (“il dottore”/“The Doctor”), Wolfgang Zilzer (“Pince-nez”/“The Nipper”), Tonio Gennaro (“Heinrich il cortese”/“Gentle Heinrich”), Otto Kronburger (“Karl, il pilota”/“Karl the Pilot”), Walter Seiler (“Alfred il lascivo”/“Randy Alfred”), Charly Berger (“Il capitano”/“The Captain”), Fritz Alberti (armatore/shipowner Rasmussen), Max Maximilian (Hein, il suo vecchio servitore / Rasmussen’s old servant), Betty Astor (Marie, la fidanzata di Klaus/Klaus’ fiancée), Friedrich Benfer (Jimmy Swing, il ciclista/racing cyclist), Alfred Zeisler; riprese/filmed: 1928; data v.c./censor date: 26.5.1928; première: 10.10.1928, Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2333 m.; 35mm, 2376 m., 114’ (18 fps); fonte copia/print source: Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique/Koninklijk Filmarchief, Bruxelles.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

DER FARMER AUS TEXAS (The Cowboy Count) (Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin, DE 1925)
Regia/dir., prod: Joe May; scen: Joe May, Rolf E. Vanloo, dalla pièce/from the play Kolportage di/by Georg Kaiser; f./ph: Carl Drews, Antonio Frenguelli; scg./des: Paul Leni; cast: Mady Christians (Mabel Bratt), Edward Burns (Erik), Willy Fritsch (Akke), Lilian Hall-Davis (Alice), Christian Bummerstedt (Conte/Count von Stjernenhoe), Clara [Clare] Greet (Mrs. Appelboom), Hans Junkermann (Barone/Baron Barrenkrona), Pauline Garon (Miss Abby Grant), Frida Richard (zia/aunt Jutta), Ellen Plessow, Emmy Wyda; riprese/filmed: 1925; data v.c./censor date: 25.7.1925; première: 22.10.1925, Tauentzien-Palast, U.T. Turmstraße, Ufa-Palast Königstadt, U.T. Alexanderplatz, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2540 m.; 35mm, 2447 m., 106’ (20 fps); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in inglese / English intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

EIN GLAS WASSER (Das Spiel der Königin) (Decla-Bioscop AG, Berlin, per/for Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin, DE 1923)
Regia/dir: Ludwig Berger; prod: Erich Pommer; scen: Ludwig Berger, Adolf Lantz, dalla pièce/from the play Le Verre d’eau di/by Eugène Scribe; f./ph: Günther Krampf, Erich Waschneck; scg./des: Hermann Warm, Rudolf Bamberger; cost: Karl Töpfer, Otto Schulz; cast: Mady Christians (Regina Anna/Queen Anne), Lucie Höflich (Duchessa di Marlborough/Duchess of Marlborough), Hans Brausewetter (John William Masham), Rudolf Rittner (Lord Bolingbroke), Helga Thomas (Abigail), Hugo Döblin (gioielliere/jeweller Tomwood), Hans Wassmann (Lord Richard Scott), Bruno Decarli (Marquis von Torcy), Max Gülstorff (Thompson), Franz Jackson (Hassan), Josef Römer, Gertrud Wolle; riprese/filmed: 1922; data v.c./censor date: 19.1.1923; première: 1.2.1923, Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2558 m.; 35mm, 2537 m., 110’ (20 fps); fonte copia/print source:Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

DER HERR DES TODES (Maxim Film, Ebner & Co., Berlin, DE 1926)
Regia/dir: Hans Steinhoff; scen: Hans Szekely, dal romanzo di/based on the novel by Karl Rosner; f./ph: Hans Theyer, Willibald Gaebel; scg./des: Robert Neppach; mus. (1926 Berlin premiere): Pasquale Perris; cast: Alfred Solm (Peter von Hersdorff), Hertha von Walther (Maja), Simone Vaudry (Heid von Düren), Eduard von Winterstein (colonello/Colonel von Hersdorff), Heinrich Peer (consigliere segreto/Privy Councillor von Düren), Erna Hauck (Daisy Brown), Jenny Marba (Sig.ra /Mrs. von Hersdorff), Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein (Consigliere segreto della moglie di von Düren/Privy Councillor von Düren’s wife), Ferdinand von Alten (Barone/Baron von Bassenheim),Szöke Szakall (impresario Bordoni), Georg John, Hugo Döblin, Maria Forescu, Teddy Bill, Paul Rehkopf, Mammey-Bassa, John Essaw; data v.c./censor date: 22.11.1926; première: 26.11.1926, Tauentzien-Palast, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2318 m.; 35mm, 2388 m., 95’ (22 fps); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

DER HIMMEL AUF ERDEN (Reinhold Schünzel-Film GmbH, Berlin, DE 1927)
Regia/dir: Alfred Schirokauer; prod., supv: Reinhold Schünzel; scen: Reinhold Schünzel, Alfred Schirokauer, dalla pièce/from the play Der Doppelmenschdi/by Wilhelm Jacobi & Arthur Lippschütz; f./ph: Edgar S. Ziesemer; scg./des: O.F. Werndorff; cast: Reinhold Schünzel (Traugott Bellmann), Charlotte Ander (Juliette), Adele Sandrock (presidentessa della lega per la moralità/morality league president), Emmy Wyda, Erich Kaiser-Titz (Dr. Dresdner), Otto Wallburg (Louis Martiny), Paul Morgan (Herr Kippel), Szöke Szakall (manager), Ellen Plessow (Frau Kippel), Johanna Ewald, Frigga Braut, Ida Perry (Frau Martiny), Maria Kamradek; riprese/filmed: 1926-27; data v.c./censor date: 27.1.1927; première: 25.7.1927, Gloria-Palast, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2410 m.; 35mm, 2450 m., 97’ (22 fps); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note


DIE HOSE(A Royal Scandal) (Phoebus-Film AG, Berlin, DE 1927)
Regia/dir: Hans Behrendt; scen: Franz Schulz, dalla pièce di/from the play by Carl Sternheim; f./ph: Carl Drews; scg./des: Heinrich Richter, Franz Schroedter; cast: Werner Krauss (Theobald Maske), Jenny Jugo (Luise), Rudolf Forster (Scarron), Veit Harlan (Mandelstam), Christian Bummerstedt (principe/Prince), Olga Limburg (dirimpettaia/the woman across the street), Martin Held; riprese/filmed: 1927; data v.c./censor date: 20.7.1927; première: 20.8.1927, Capitol, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2425 m.; 35mm, 2170 m., 86’ (22 fps); fonte copia/print source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

LOOPING THE LOOP(Die Todesschleife / Il cerchio della morte) (Universum-Film AG (Ufa), Berlin, DE 1928)
Regia/dir: Arthur Robison; prod: Gregor Rabinowitsch; scen: Arthur Robison, Robert Liebmann; f./ph: Carl Hoffmann; scg./des: Robert Herlth, Walter Röhrig; cast: Werner Krauss (Botto), Jenny Jugo (Blanche Valeite), Warwick Ward (André Melton), Gina Manès (Hanna), Siegfried Arno (Sigi), Max Gülstorff, Lydia Potechina (parenti di Blanche/Blanche’s relatives), Harry Grunwald, Julius von Szöreghy [Julius Szöreghi] (agente/agent);riprese/filmed: 1927/1928; data v.c./censor date: 24.05.1928; première: 15.9.1928, U.T. Universum, Berlin; 35mm, 2880 m., 125’ (20 fps); fonte copia/print source:Filmmuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, München.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

LUMPEN UND SEIDE (De Klaplooper / Una coppa di champagne) (Richard Oswald-Film AG, Berlin, DE 1925)
Regia/dir: Richard Oswald; scen: Adolf Lantz, Heinz Goldberg, da un’idea di/from an idea by Richard Oswald; f./ph: Mutz Greenbaum, Emil Schünemann; scg./des: Kurt Richter; cast: Reinhold Schünzel (Max), Mary Parker (Irene), Johannes Riemann (Erik), Einar Hanson (Werner), Maly Delschaft (Ulrike), Mary Kid (Hilde, una ragazza del popolo/a girl of the people), Ferdinand Bonn (il padre di Hilde/Hilde’s father); riprese/filmed: 1924; data v.c./censor date: 2.12.1924; première: 9.1.1925, Richard-Oswald-Lichtspiele, Alhambra Kurfürstendamm, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2456 m.; 35mm, 1748 m., 69’ (22 fps); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in olandese / Dutch intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

DER MÄDCHENHIRT (Künstlerfilm GmbH, Berlin, DE 1919)
Regia/dir: Karl Grune; scen: Karl Grune, Beate Schach, dal romanzo di/from the novel by Egon Erwin Kisch; f./ph: Felix Xaver; scg./des: August Rinaldi, Karl Grune; cast: Magnus Stifter (commissario di polizia/Crime Commissioner Duschnitz), Fritz Richard (Chrapot), Lotte Stein (sua molie/his wife), Henri Peters-Arnolds (Jaroslav, “Jarda l’elegante”/“Jaunty Jarda”), Lo Bergner (Betka Dvorak), Roma Bahn (Luise Heil), Rose Liechtenstein [Lichtenstein] (Illonka Sereniy), Paul Rehkopf (Albert Wessely, “Adalbert il lascivo”/ “Randy Adalbert”), Franz Kneisel (Anton Novotny, “Toni il nero”/“Black Tony”), Alfred Kühne; riprese/filmed: 1919, in Praha (Prague); data v.c./censor date: 10.1919; première: 9.1919 (presentazione alla stampa/press screening), Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: ?? m.; 35mm, 1553 m., 75’ (18 fps), col. (imbibizione e viraggio originali riprodotti su pellicola a colori/printed on colour stock, reproducing original tinting and toning); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

RIVALEN (Apex Film Company Limited, Berlin, DE 1923)
Regia/dir: Harry Piel; prod: Harry Piel, Louis Zimmermann, Heinrich Nebenzahl; scen: Alfred Zeisler, Victor Abel, [Harry Piel]; f./ph: Georg Muschner; scg./des: Hermann Warm, Albert Korell; acrobazie/stunts: Hermann Stetza; cast: Harry Piel (Harry Peel), Adolf Klein (Professor Ravello), Inge Helgard (Evelyn), Charly Berger, Karl Platen, Heinz Stieda, Albert Paulig, Maria Wefers, Erich Sandt; riprese/filmed: 10.1922-1.1923; data v.c./censor date: 23.2.1923; première: 23.2.1923, Berlin (Schauberg); lg. or./orig. l.: 2476 m.; 35mm, 2437 m., 105’ (20 fps); fonte copia/print source: Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, Berlin.
Didascalie in tedesco / German intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

RUTSCHBAHN (Luna Park / The Whirl of Life) (Eichberg-Film GmbH, Berlin, per/for British International Pictures, London, DE 1928)
Regia/dir., prod: Richard Eichberg; scen: Adolf Lantz, Helen Gosewish, Ladislaus Vajda, dal romanzo/from the novel Das Bekenntnis di/by Clara Ratzka; f./ph: Heinrich Gärtner; scg./des: Robert Herlth; cast: Fee Malten (Heli), Heinrich George (Jig Hartford), Fred Louis Lerch (Boris Berischeff), Harry Hardt (Sten), Erna Morena (Blida), Arnold Hasenclever (Olaf), Szöke Szakall (Sam), Jutta Jol (Sonja), Grete Reinwald (Nadja Berischeff); riprese/filmed: 1928; data v.c./censor date: 5.12.1928; première: 20.12.1928, Alhambra, Berlin; lg. or./orig. l.: 2703 m.; 35mm, 2468 m., 89’ (24 fps); fonte copia/print source: Nederlands Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.
Didascalie in olandese / Dutch intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

WEGE ZU KRAFT UND SCHÖNHEIT (Forza e bellezza / The Way to Strength and Beauty) (Universum-Film AG (Ufa) – Kulturabteilung, Berlin, DE 1924-25)
Regia/dir., scen: Wilhelm Prager; f./ph: Friedrich Weinmann, Eugen Hrich, Friedrich Paulmann, Max Brinck, Kurt Neubett, Jakob Schatzow, Erich Stocker; scg./des: Hans Sohnle, Otto Erdmann; cast: La Jana, Maria Caramonte [= Eva Liebenberg], Hertha von Walther, Kitty Cauer, Hubert Houben, Rudolf Kobs, Luber, Artur Holz, Herrmann Westerhaus, Henry Carr, Helen Wills; Charles William Paddock, Loren Murchison, Arthur Porrit (velocisti/sprinters); Leni Riefenstahl, membri della/members of the Bode-Schule, Laban-Schule, Schule Hellerau für Rhythmus, Musik und Körperbildung, Gymnastik-Schule Bess Mensendiek, Gymnastik-Schule Loheland (culturisti/body culture performers); Lydia Impekoven, Tamara Karsavina, Peter Wladimiroff, Jenny Hasselqvist, Bac Ishii, Konami Ishii, Mary Wigman, Carolina de la Riva (danzatrici/dancers); data v.c./censor date: 16.2.1925; première: 16.3.1925, Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Berlin; nuova versione/new version (1926):data v.c./censor date: 4.6.1926, première: 11.6.1926, Ufa-Palast am Zoo, Berlin; 35mm, 2536 m., 100’ (22 fps);fonte copia / print source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden.
Didascalie in inglese / English intertitles.
Scheda - Programme note

Introduction
German silent cinema from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari to the coming of the talkies is one of the most celebrated eras in film history, and an endless source of themes and theses for film studies.  Which makes it ironical that it is also the most consistently misrepresented region of cinema history.  The generally accepted concept of the cinema of the Weimar period is narrowly blinkered, over-defined by the outlook and parameters of two strongly influential books: Siegfried Kracauer’s From Caligari to Hitler (1947), written in exile in the USA, and Lotte H. Eisner’s L’Écran démoniaque (The Haunted Screen), first published in France in 1952.
The corpus of Weimar cinema, as generally viewed, consists of less than 20 “classic” directors and perhaps a repertory of 50 films. German silent cinema, according to this vision, is Caligari, Metropolis, Nosferatu, Waxworks … Expressionism and dark tales of ghosts and shadows and horror … grim Kammerspiele of authoritarian fathers and right-wing tales of the Prussian King Frederick the Great … some experiments by avant-garde animators and Lotte Reiniger’s silhouettes … Leni Riefenstahl and mountain films … and a dash perhaps of Neue Sachlichkeit and lower-class backyard romances.
These were the films that won critical attention and an export market (though not always the home audience). They suited Kracauer’s psycho-sociological perspective, and Eisner’s essentially Romantic view of German art history; and for readers emerging from the rubble and destruction of World War II it made emotional, even political, sense to view past German film history as the story of a cinema of fear and folly, premonition and nightmare. At the same time this focus on a select group of films further consolidated the canon of titles selected for preservation by the archives (especially the Nazi-Reichsfilmarchiv in Berlin), thus bequeathing the “haunted screen” view of  Weimar Cinema to the next generation of archivists and historians.
But it is now time to move on, and explore more of the film archives’ storerooms: this year’s Giornate presents the first of two or more series intended to set the record straight. Post-World War I Germany had a flourishing and prolific industry (more than 3,000 feature films were released between 1918 and 1929), which fostered the rise of an extensive generation of gifted, original directors, technicians, and actors – many of whom remain to be rediscovered and revalued. A good number of names, of course, became eclipsed by the larger historical cataclysms which followed the end of the Weimar Republic. A majority of the directors and actors featured in this presentation were Jewish, and forced into exile by the rise of Nazism. In many cases they were unable to pursue careers abroad; and their names and films were simply forgotten. A few other directors became so notoriously associated with Nazi propaganda films that critics chose simply to ostracize them and write off their earlier, generally apolitical films – a situation now remedied in Hans Steinhoff’s case by the restoration work of the Steinhoff Project, on view in recent years at the Giornate. Other figures have been disregarded by “serious” historians because their work was unashamedly Publikumsfilme, “commercial” or appealing successfully to a large popular market.
Drawing largely on the explorations undertaken over more than 25 years by the CineGraph group with their publications and Film History Conferences in Hamburg, we have chosen 15 films by directors who for one reason or another we feel have been undeservedly eclipsed, and who are rarely honoured in historical retrospectives. Working in different genres – the circus drama, the prestige literary adaptation, the spicy comedy, the slice of hokum – all of them reveal high professional skills, coupled with a quest for originality and genuine invention: qualities which can only enrich our previously restricted knowledge of German silent cinema.
This retrospective would have been impossible without the support of those institutions that for long years preserved and restored the riches of the German film heritage, in particular the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv (Berlin), Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen (Berlin), Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF (Frankfurt), and the Filmmuseum München. The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung (Wiesbaden), as copyright-holder, preserver, and publisher of the majority of pre-1945 German films, has also performed invaluable work for this film heritage, and been an equally cherished partner in this series. – Hans-Michael Bock, Geoff Brown, David Robinson