Magical History Tour – Breaks in the History of Film

In April, the Magical History Tour focuses on moments of transformation, radical change and crisis in the history of film. We will present examples directly related to or influenced by technical, aesthetic, economic, social and political changes (e.g., the early sound film SOUS LES TOITS DE PARIS) as well as films in which specific breaks resonated only with a delay (THERE IS A STRONG WIND IN BEIJING). Obvious cinematic reflections of far-reaching events (GERMANIA ANNO ZERO) are shown alongside works whose reflections of past crises are revealed only at second sight, for example, Fritz Lang's DIE 1000 AUGEN DES DR. MABUSE (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse), which we will screen on the occasion of the book presentation, Filmgeschichte als Krisengeschichte by Michael Wedel. Once again, viewing the history of film at its interfaces and dawns of new epochs allows one to regard it not as a continuous line of development obliged to an alleged "belief in progress," but as a network of discontinuities and ruptures that can be read in very different ways and is tied into a cultural field of tension influenced by the most various factors.