How Film Writes History Differently Frieda Grafe – 30 Films (2)

"These films have to be watched with an audience," writes Frieda Grafe in a text about John Ford. "Both with those for whom they were made and those who place themselves above their alleged sentimentality and simplicity, for they have never learnt to see form as a prerequisite for content." With so much time having passed, it doesn't get any easier to imagine the sort of audiences for whom John Ford made his films. One thing is for certain though: the second and middle part of the retrospective of Frieda Grafe's thirty favorite films is more American than either of the others (the first part took place in April, with the third to follow from 30.10-3.11.): Ford and Lubitsch, Corman and Mankiewicz, Leisen and Walters. In 1995, film critic and author Frieda Grafe (1934–2002) compiled a list of her favorite 30 films for the magazine Steadycam. It included works made between 1926 and 1986, some of which, such as films by Mizoguchi, Godard and Mankiewicz, were to be expected, whereas other choices were more surprising, such as works by Pagnol, Barnet, Capra, or Langdon's silent movie "The Strong Man" and Roger Corman's "Little Shop of Horrors", the latter of which was shot in just one and a half days. It is the American films showing in June in particular for which music forms the easiest point of entry; it is here that the intention behind Grafe's list comes into sharpest focus. As in April already, all ten films will be introduced by the authors who have written texts on the films for the book being published by Brinkmann & Bose at the same time.