Magical History Tour – Theater and Film

This month, our film history series will examine the many and varied links between cinema and theater. From the very start, the relationship between cinema and theater vacillated between delimitation – and thus the reinforcement of an own aesthetic – and inspiration and approximation. Early cinema stood in (also economic) competition with the traditional medium of theater. Although theater was the first aesthetic point of reference for cinema, it soon detached itself from it so as to come upon a unique cinematic form and picture language. Even if cinema has long emancipated itself from theater, it repeatedly makes reference to it – be it by taking up theatrical motifs, in regard to the working method, or by falling back on tried and tested forms. Until today, theater has not lost its fascination for film. This film series seeks to expand the concept of theater and include all forms of theatricality, staging and role play. Many of the films address the variegated connections between life and theater, play and reality, and the ways in which these borders can be crossed.