MENSCHEN AM SONNTAG (Germany 1930) produced by the “Filmkollektiv 1929”: Robert and Curt Siodmak, Eugen Schüfftan (camera), Edgar G. Ulmer, Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder (screenplay). One of the most beautiful Berlin films of the late silent film era. A blend of observation, fiction, and satire; with documentary in the background. Fascinating image design, vividness, editing. A film to watch and to discuss again and again. E.G. finds the film misogynistic. We got to know one another during a conversation about this film, after a screening.
LA BÊTE HUMAINE (France 1938) Jean Renoir.
Poetic realism out of 1930s France. French films of this period are amongst our favourites because of the actors and because of the screenwriters and decorators who consistently created poetic realist structures as central components within films.
SUDJBA CHELOVYEKA (The Destiny of a Man) (USSR 1959) Sergey Bondarchuk.
A film that helped change the image of Russia in Germany. Our interest in more recent Soviet cinema was bolstered by this film.
OBYKNOVENNYJ FASCHISM (Triumph Over Violence) (USSR 1965) Mikhail Romm.
An examination of Nazi newsreel footage from a very personal standpoint. Different readings of the film are possible, which caused a sensation at the time of its making. To this day one of the best documentaries about the Nazi regime. We invited the director to a discussion of his work at Berlin’s Academy of Arts.
GRÜN IST DIE HEIDE (Germany 1951) Hans Deppe.
A gaze into the abyss of the German Heimatfilm (“homeland film”). A box office hit.
DAS WACHSFIGURENKABINETT (Germany 1924) Paul Leni.
One of the high points of cinematic expressionism. Opened our events at the
Academy of Arts in 1963. We combined it with short films of the “New German Cinema” period.
LEHRER IM WANDEL (Germany 1963) Alexander Kluge.
Kluge’s earliest short films displayed a signature that fascinated us. In his work, a dialogue was begun with the new generation of post-Oberhausen filmmakers with whom we felt a kinship.
GESCHWINDIGKEIT (Germany 1963) Edgar Reitz.
A first experiment with cinematic language in the context of “New German Cinema.” Seen by some at the time as a (still unfamiliar) example of an exciting new film genre.
DER GETEILTE HIMMEL (GDR 1964) Konrad Wolf.
Konrad Wolf’s film about the division of Germany and the necessity and anguish of making decisions. Wolf came to the Academy in West Berlin in December 1964. The discussion was controversial but (contrary to expectations after the building of the Wall in 1961) peaceful, and showed that people wanted to and could talk with one other.
THE CHELSEA GIRLS (USA 1966) Andy Warhol.
A triumph for Mr. Liepe, our projectionist! Two 16mm projectors, two pictures side by side. The “Tagesspiegel” published an excellent piece by art critic Heinz Ohff.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SKETCHES—SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF ANDY WARHOL (USA 1965) Jonas Mekas.
Mekas’ nervous camera work and the sound of his voice are incomparable.
DUCK SOUP (USA 1933) Leo McCarey, with Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx.
The Marx Brothers, as yet unknown in Germany, received a sensationally enthusiastic reception (even without subtitles!) after our first screening of various Marx Brothers films at the Academy of Arts in May 1967, which continued throughout their Germany-wide theatrical distribution.
COME BACK, AFRICA (USA 1959) Lionel Rogosin.
The very first film of our archive, a copy left in storage in our apartment by Jimmy Vaughan, Rogosin’s representative, with the promise to show the film and pass it on upon request—the beginning of our distribution. A magnificent and shattering documentary picture of life in the apartheid state. Brilliant closing sequence. The film contains beautiful, moving music sequences and a debut appearance by Miriam Makeba.
APA (Father) (Hungary 1965) István Szabó.
Evocation of a father figure from the spirit of myth, expectation, and fantasy. A projection of personal experiences. Perhaps the greatest film from Hungarian director István Szabó. Simultaneously a retrospective of his country’s history and an analysis of the psychological effects of living under a dictatorship. Surprisingly, the film won the top prize at the Moscow Festival.
LA HORA DE LOS HORNOS (The Hour of the Furnaces) (Argentina 1968) Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino.
A fast-moving agit-film on the exploitation of the Third World through imperialism. Perfect mastery of the cinematic medium, particularly montage. Became a cult film of the student movement.
NOSFERATU (Germany 1922) F.W. Murnau.
An artistic, highly stylised horror film based on the novel by Bram Stoker. Highly poetic imagery, with many anthology sequences.
DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS BEIM ELFMETER (Germany 1971) Wim Wenders
The beginning of our work coincided with the first films from Wim Wenders, so we had an especially close connection to these. In 1971 we had already published a booklet titled “Wim Wenders: Texte zu Filmen und Musik” (today a sought-after rarity). DIE ANGST DES TORMANNS, Wenders’ second full-length film, was on the program of the second Forum in 1972. It’s not a soccer film, but rather a crime film based on a novel by Peter Handke, shot in the style of American models.
TOKYO MONOGATARI (Tokyo Story) (Japan 1953) Yasujirō Ozu.
The most famous classic from Japan’s master of minimalist imagery. Great actors: Setsuko Hara, Chishū Ryū. We received a 35mm copy as a gift, now our most prized possession.
BRONENOSEZ POTEMKIN (Battleship Potemkin) (USSR 1925) Sergei Eisenstein.
The brilliantly orchestrated staircase sequence is referenced time and time again. In Germany the film was met with bans from censors in 1926, but found critical enthusiasm as well (compiled in “Kinemathekheft” 38, November 1967) and established the myth of the “Russian film.” Our first copy was a 16mm version with commentary from Friedrich Luft. In the 1990s, we did screenings at the Arsenal of a compilation of all the films inspired by POTEMKIN and that reference the staircase sequence.
THE BIRDS (USA 1963) Alfred Hitchcock.
One of Hitchcock‘s most fascinating films, masterful in its subtle, creeping building of suspense, in its evocation of horror from the depiction of ordinariness. The film conveys a vision of an uncanny threat, almost of an apocalypse.
MADE IN GERMANY AND USA (GERMANY 1974) Rudolf Thome.
After leaving Munich, Thome made films in Berlin that we liked very much and which we showed at the Arsenal and the Forum. For a while, Thome was part of the Arsenal team. He created information handouts with very good texts which he distributed himself, and wrote out the daily programme with chalk on a children’s slate that hung in the display case. The old Kino Arsenal makes a brief appearance in this film.
ROTE SONNE (GERMANY 1970) Rudolf Thome.
“ROTE SONNE is one of those very rare European films that do not want to merely imitate American cinema […], but rather have adopted from American films an approach of unfurling nothing but their surface layer, without obtrusiveness, for 90 minutes. This mindset is evident in every frame of this film.” (Wim Wenders)
ME AND MY PAL (USA 1933) Charley Rogers, Lloyd French, with Laurel and Hardy.
Films with Laurel and Hardy, especially the short ones, were among the most frequently shown in the Arsenal. We had the 16mm copies (obtained from Blackhawk Film in the USA) around the corner in our film storage, so we could quickly bring them in any time. Our favourite films with L&H were/are BIG BUSINESS and TWO TARS, as well as LIBERTY. The films were also hits at our screenings for children.
O.K. (GERMANY 1970) Michael Verhoeven.
The film that triggered the breakdown of the Berlinale in 1970 and at the same time gave rise to the establishment and rise of the International Forum. A parable of the Vietnam War, set on the outskirts of Munich in Grünwald Forest. Shocking in content, biting and fascinatingly modern in style.
GESCHICHTEN VOM KÜBELKIND (GERMANY 1969-1971) Edgar Reitz, Ula Stöckl.
Innovative and utopian in its invention of a series of 26 short films that viewers could put together however they liked. The segments in the series tell the sometimes humorous, sometimes macabre life story of a girl who comes from a bin (Kübel) and is thus shut out from society. Screened at the first Forum in 1971.
L’ÂGE D’OR (France 1930) Luis Buñuel.
High point of Buñuel's early era, made in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. An outcry of fury against the prevailing social order, staged in surrealist style. Created a scandal at its premiere in Paris, led to the destruction of a movie theatre, and remained missing for decades afterward. Buñuel gave us permission to show the film at the Arsenal in 1970.
OTHON (Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer, ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour) (Germany, Italy 1970) Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub.
Corneille’s tragedy about the Roman emperor Otho, told in the ascetic style of Straub and Huillet, inserted against the backdrop of a vibrant city.
NICHT DER HOMOSEXUELLE IST PERVERS, SONDERN DIE SITUATION, IN DER ER LEBT (Germany 1971) Rosa von Praunheim.
The film that launched a liberation movement. Its premiere at the 1971 Forum, which we approached with apprehension as well as excitement, was accompanied by a long and involved discussion.
DIE KINDER VON GOLZOW cycle (GDR/Germany 1961-2007) Barbara and Winfried Junge.
Over the course of 20 films, Barbara and Winfried Junge followed the lives of 18 people born between 1953 and 1955. Begun in 1961 and concluded in 2007, the series of films not only provides insight into the lives of the protagonists, but also paints a picture of the development of East Germany and its unification with West Germany. We screened the films of the Golzow cycle as part of the Forum again and again until its conclusion. They are a monument in the history of documentary film.
STALKER (USSR 1981) Andrei Tarkovsky.
One of Tarkovsky’s most beautiful films, continually being reinterpreted. “The Stalker is a Dostoevsky figure (superbly played by Alexandr Kajdanowski), someone on a painful quest for something like dignity: the world is devoid of hope and for him—everywhere, in every place—a prison” (Karena Niehoff). Though STALKER was under a festival ban (imposed by Goskino), we were nonetheless able to show the film at the Forum with the help of our friend Sergio Gambaroff, a man in the film business with connections to Moscow.
SHOAH (France 1974-1985) Claude Lanzmann.
A film that defies description in words. Through 9½ hours of visual montage, Lanzmann allows the true dimension of the drama of the extermination of the Jewish people of Europe to unfold in the viewer’s consciousness in an unbelievably intense way. Its screening at the 1986 Forum, the German premiere of the film with Claude Lanzmann in attendance, was a milestone in the history of the Forum and the Berlinale.
TOM, TOM, THE PIPER’S SON (USA 1970) Ken Jacobs.
The film takes as its starting point an archaic short film from the early days of cinematography, altering its structure via repetition, stillness, and manipulation of individual images in such a way that the viewer is immersed into the world of these images as if through a dreamlike process. The film requires a great deal of patience from the viewer, but became a classic nonetheless. A study in seeing.
TULITKKUUTEHTAAN TYTTÖ (The Match Factory Girl) (Finland 1990) Aki Kaurismäki.
Aki Kaurismäki was and is a staunch supporter of the Forum. We have shown many of his films and welcomed him as a guest numerous times, once even with the Leningrad Cowboys. There were unforgettable discussions with him at the Delphi. His images, his characters, actors, and dialogues are unforgettable. His global fame began with us.
PERMANENT VACATION (USA 1980) Jim Jarmusch.
A new voice in American cinema, discovered by us in 1980 at the Independent Feature Project in New York. The film depicts two and a half days in the life of a 16-year-old boy who drifts aimlessly through the streets of New York. “The camera is somewhere in the netherworld between documentary and theatrical (neorealism in colour?)” (Jim Jarmusch)
SIU NGO GONG WOO (The Swordsman) (Hong Kong, Taiwan 1990) King Hu, Tsui Hark.
A brilliant and funny kung fu film, brutal and stylised at the same time. The plot revolves around a book of martial arts secrets stolen from the emperor’s library, with various parties hot on its trail. Together with other films from Hong Kong, it found enthusiastic reception, including from critics, as part of the Forum’s “Midnight Series.”
DIE ALLSEITIG REDUZIERTE PERSÖNLICHKEIT – REDUPERS (Germany 1978) by and with Helke Sander.
West Berlin, 1977: Edda Chiemnyjewski, a single mother and freelance press photographer for local editorial outlets, comes to realize that “a cook has no time to run state affairs.” The photo project about (West) Berlin that she is working on with a group of women is already a balancing act, considering the conditions. “REDUPERS is a moderately comical contribution to the question of why women so rarely become something.” (Helke Sander). Today the film comes across as a document of life in the enclave of West Berlin.
HUNGERJAHRE (Germany 1980) Jutta Brückner.
A story from West Germany in the 1950s, a half of a country after a war. The story of a mother and daughter and their destructive love-hate-love relationship. A film about being alone and foreign in one’s own country.
DEUTSCHLAND, BLEICHE MUTTER (Germany 1980) Helma Sanders-Brahms. With Eva Mattes!
A film that one watches with fright and admiration. A portrait of a woman, a portrayal of an interdependent mother-daughter relationship, and at the same time a portrait of a country in which nothing will be made right again.
Ulrich and Erika Gregor
January 23rd, 2022
