Polizeibericht Überfall and Die Austernprinzessin

When Jay Leyda came to the East German State Film Archive (SFA), he helped to watch and identify the holdings that had not yet been registered. One of the archive’s collection priorities was German films from the period before 1945, and Leyda used the opportunity to fill gaps in his own knowledge. In those years, he also regularly passed through Checkpoint Charlie to watch films at the Deutsche Kinemathek in West-Berlin, talking at length about early cinema with its head and founder Gerhard Lamprecht. Three programs on November 7 & 8  are dedicated to discoveries that Leyda made in Berlin. POLIZEIBERICHT ÜBERFALL is a short crime thriller located somewhere between the avantgarde and a worker’s film: a penny fished out of the gutter brings its finder both adventure and difficulty. In Ernst Lubitsch’s grotesque DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN featuring Ossi Oswalda, social critique emerges from this eccentric comedy about the daughter of an American billionaire.

Films:
Polizeibericht Überfall Ernö Metzner Germany 1928 35 mm 20 min.
Die Austernprinzessin Ernst Lubitsch Germany 1919 DCP 57 min.

Both films were made available by the Deutsche Kinemathek Berlin.