From Caligari to Hitler a psychological history of the German film

433 Pages·2019·122.879 MB·English

by  Kracauer, Siegfried;Quaresima, Leonardo(Introduction)

FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER
A PSYCHOLOGICAL HISTORY OF T HE GERMAN FILM

FROM CALIGARI TO H I T L ER
A P S Y C H O L O G I C AL H I S T O RY
OF T HE G E R M AN F I LM
REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION
By SIEGFRIED KRACAUER
Edited and introduced by Leonardo Quaresima
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright © 1947, 2004 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New lersev 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TR
All Rights Reserved
First published 1947
Revised and Expanded Edition, 2004
First Princeton Classics edition, 2019
Paperback ISBN 978 0 691 19134 8
The Library of Congress has cataloged the last edition of this book as follows:
Kracauer, Siegfried, 1889-1966.
From Caligari to Hitler : a psychological history of the German film / by Siegfried
Kracauer ; edited and introduced by Leonardo Quaresima.— Rev. and expanded ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-11518-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-691-11519-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—Germany—History. 2. Motion pictures—Germany—
Psychological aspects. 3. National socialism and motion pictures. I. Quaresima,
Leonardo. II. Title.
PN1993.5.G3K7 2004
791.43Ό943Ό9041— dc22 2003066416
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
Printed on acid-free paper. °o
press.priiiceton.edu
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
EDITOR'S NOTE xiii
INTRODUCTION TO THE 2004 EDITION XV
PREFACE li
INTRODUCTION 3
I: THE A R C H A IC PERIOD (1895-1918)
1. PEACE AND WAR 15
2. FOREBODINGS 28
3. GENESIS OF UFA 35
II: THE POSTWAR PERIOD (1918-1924)
4. THE SHOCK OF FREEDOM 43
5. CALIGARI 61
6. PROCESSION OF TYRANTS 77
7. DESTINY 88
8. MUTE CHAOS 96
9. CRUCIAL DILEMMA 107
10. FROM REBELLION TO SUBMISSION 115
III: THE STABILIZED PERIOD (1924-1929)
11. DECLINE 131
12. FROZEN GROUND 138
13. THE PROSTITUTE AND THE ADOLESCENT 153
14. THE NEW REALISM 165
15. MONTAGE 181
16. BRIEF REVEILLE 190
IV: THE PRE-HITLER PERIOD (1930-1933)
17. SONGS AND ILLUSIONS 203
18. MURDERER AMONG Us 215
ν
vi CONTENTS
19. TIMID HERESIES 223
20. FOR A BETTER WORLD 232
21. NATIONAL EPIC 251
SUPPLEMENT: PROPAGANDA A ND T HE NAZI WAR FILM
1. NAZI VIEWS AND MEASURES 275
2. FILM DEVICES 277
3. THE SWASTIKA WORLD 280
4. SCREEN DRAMATURGY 288
5. CONFLICT WITH REALITY 297
NOTE ON THE INACCURACIES 309
BIBLIOGRAPHY 315
UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY 327
NAME INDEX 333
FILM INDEX 339
ILLUSTRATIONS
Facing page
1. PASSION: The threat of mass domination 68
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
2. CALIGARI: Insane Authority 68
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
3. CALIGARI: A draftsman's imagination 69
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
4. CALIGARI: The three flights of stairs in the lunatic asylum
symbolize Dr. Caligari's position at the top of the hierarchy 69
(From the Film Museum of Berlin)
5. NOSFERATU: The vampire, defeated by love, dissolves into
thin air 84
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
6. DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER: Interpénétration of realistic
and expressionist style, betraying the close relationship
between Mabuse and Caligari 84
(From the collection of Charles L. Turner)
7. WAXWORKS: A phantasmagoria—Jack-the-Ripper pursuing
the lovers 84
(From the BFI Collections)
8. WAXWORKS: Ivan the Terrible, an incarnation of insatiable
lusts and unheard-of cruelties 84
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
9. DESTINY: The huge wall symbolizing Fate's inaccessibility 85
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
10. NIBELUNGEN: Triumph of the ornamental over the human 85
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
11. NIBELUNGEN: The patterns of Nibelungen are resumed in
Nazi pageantry 85
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
12. TRIUMPH OF THE WILL: The patterns of Nibelungen are
resumed in Nazi pageantry 85
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
13. NEW YEAR'S EVE: The suicide of the café owner 100
vii
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
14. THE LAST LAUGH: Humiliation incarnate 100
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
15. THE LAST LAUGH: The revolving door—something
between a merry-go-round and a roulette wheel 101
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
16. A GLASS OF WATER: With its stress on symmetry, the décor
breathes romantic nostalgia 101
(From the Film Museum of Berlin)
17. PEAK OF DESTINY: Mountain climbers are devotees
performing the rites of a cult 120
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
18. THE GOLEM: The Golem, a figure of clay, animated by his
master, Rabbi Loew 120
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
19. WARNING SHADOWS: Magical therapy—the Count and his
guests follow their shadows into the realm of the
subconcious 121
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
20. FRIDERICUS REX: The young king 121
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
21. THE STREET: Mute objects take on life 128
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
22. THE STREET: This gesture—recurrent in many German
films—is symptomatic of the desire to return to the
maternal womb 128
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
23. VARIETY: Jannings' bulky back plays a conspicuous role in
the prison scene 129
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
24. VARIETY: The inquisitive camera breaks into the magic
circle of action 129
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
25. WAYS TO HEALTH AND BEAUTY: Tableau vivant of a Greek
gymnasium 148
(From the BFI Collections)
26. TARTUFFE: The grand-style manner 148
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
27. METROPOLIS: Sham alliance between labor and
capital 149
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
28. METROPOLIS: Ornamental despair 149
(From the Film Museum of Berlin)
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
29. THE JOYLESS STREET: Asta Nielsen in one of the roles in
which she discards social conventions in her abundance
of love 164
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
30. KAMPF DER TERTIA: One of the many youth films
expressing a longing for adolescence 164
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
31. IkE JOYLESS STREET: The ghastliness of real life 165
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
32. THE JOYLESS STREET: Realism, not symbolism 165
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
33. SECRETS OF A SOUL: Dreams cinematically externalized 180
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
34. THE LOVE OF JEANNE NEY: The orgy of anti-Bolshevist
soldiery—a scene elicited from life itself 180
(From the BFI Collections)
35. THE LOVE OF JEANNE NEY: The broken mirror, a silent
witness, tells of glamour and destruction 181
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
36. THE LOVE OF JEANNE NEY: Casual configurations of life 181
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
37. BERLIN: Patterns of movement 196
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
38. BERLIN: What once denoted chaos is now simply part of
the record—a fact among facts 196
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Library)
39. BERLIN: A close-up of the gutter illustrates the harshness
of mechanized life 197
(From the BFI Collections)
40. ACCIDENT: The use of distorting mirrors helps to defy
deep-rooted conventions 197
(From the BFI Collections)
41. DREI VON DER TANKSTELLE: A playful daydream woven of
the materials of everyday life 212
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)
42. SONG OF LIFE: A symbolic scene which glorifies vitality 212
(From the collection of Herman G. Weinberg)
43. THE MAN WITHOUT A NAME: The nightmarish workings
of bureaucracy 213
44. THE VICTOR: Hans Albers, the embodiment of popular
daydreams 213
(From the Museum of Modern Art Film Stills Archive)