Siegfried Kracauer's American Writings: Essays on Film and Popular Culture

305 Pages·2012·1.765 MB·English

by  Siegfried Kracauer

weimar and now: german cultural criticism
Edward Dimendberg, Martin Jay, and Anton Kaes, General Editors
1. Heritage of Our Times, by Ernst Bloch
2. The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890–1990, by Steven E. Aschheim
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4. Batteries of Life: On the History of Things and Their Perception in
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5. Profane Illumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of Surrealist
Revolution, by Margaret Cohen
6. Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany, by
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7. Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, by Richard Wolin
8. The New Typography, by Jan Tschichold, translated by Ruari McLean
9. The Rule of Law under Siege: Selected Essays of Franz L. Neumann
and Otto Kirchheimer, edited by William E. Scheuerman
10. The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the
Institute of Social Research, 1923–1950, by Martin Jay
11. Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture,
edited by Katharina von Ankum
12. Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900–1949, edited by Hans
Wysling, translated by Don Reneau
13. Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture,
1910–1935, by Karl Toepfer
14. In the Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals between Apoca-
lypse and Enlightenment, by Anson Rabinbach
15. Walter Benjamin’s Other History: Of Stones, Animals, Human Beings,
and Angels, by Beatrice Hanssen
16. Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in
America from the 1930s to the Present, by Anthony Heilbut
17. Cool Conduct: The Culture of Distance in Weimar Germany, by
Helmut Lethen, translated by Don Reneau
18. In a Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin, 1945–1948,
by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, translated by Kelly Barry
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23. The Ufa Story: A History of Germany’s Greatest Film Company,
1918–1945, by Klaus Kreimeier, translated by Robert and Rita Kimber
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by Rudy Koshar
25. We Weren’t Modern Enough: Women Artists and the Limits of
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drawings by Hermann Struck. Edited, translated, and with an introduc-
tion by Noah Isenberg
36. No Place Like Home: Locations of Heimat in German Cinema, by
Johannes von Moltke
37. Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture,
by Peter Jelavich
38. Berlin Electropolis: Shock, Nerves, and German Modernity, by Andreas
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Germany and Beyond, by Veronika Fuechtner
44. Cinema and Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and
Theodor W. Adorno, by Miriam Bratu Hansen
45. Siegfried Kracauer’s American Writings: Essays on Film and Popular
Culture, edited by Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson
Siegfried Kracauer’s American Writings
Siegfried Kracauer on vacation, early 1950s. Courtesy of
Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach.
Siegfried Kracauer’s
American Writings
Essays on Film and Popular Culture
siegfried kracauer
Edited by Johannes von Moltke and Kristy Rawson
With an Afterword by Martin Jay
University of California Press
berkeley los angeles london
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© 2012 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kracauer, Siegfried, 1889–1966.
Siegfried Kracauer’s American writings : essays on fi lm and popular
culture / Siegfried Kracauer ; edited by Johannes von Moltke and
Kristy Rawson ; with an afterword by Martin Jay.
p. cm.—(Weimar and now: German cultural criticism ; 45)
In English with some essays translated from German.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-27182-1 (cloth : alk. paper)—isbn 978-0-520-27183-8
(pbk. : alk. paper)—isbn 978-0-520-95200-3 (ebook)
1. Motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures—Reviews. I. Von Moltke,
Johannes, 1966– II. Rawson, Kristy, 1963– III. Title.
PN1995.K6955 2012
791.43—dc23 2011046517
Manufactured in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible
and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on
Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fi ber paper that is FSC
certifi ed, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with
renewable biogas energy. It is acid-free and EcoLogo certifi ed.
Contents
Preface: Notes on This Edition ix
Acknowledgments xi
introduction: affi nities 1
part i. a cultural critic in new york 27
1. Why France Liked Our Films (1942) 33
2. Hollywood’s Terror Films (1946) 41
3. Jean Vigo (1947) 47
4. The Revolt against Rationality (1947) 51
5. On Jewish Culture (1947) 54
6. Filming the Subconscious (1948) 57
7. Psychiatry for Everything and Everybody (1948) 62
8. Those Movies with a Message (1948) 72
9. National Types as Hollywood Presents Them (1949) 81
10. The Mirror Up to Nature (1949) 105
11. Preston Sturges, or Laughter Betrayed (1950) 109
12. Art Today (1961) 115
13. About the State of the Humanities 117
14. A Statement on the Humanistic Approach 124
15. Talk with Teddie (1960) 127
vi / Contents
part ii. fi lm reviews 133
16. An American Experiment (1941) 137
17. Dumbo (1941) 139
18. Film Notes from Hollywood (1941) 141
19. A Few American Films (1941) 142
20. William Wyler’s New Bette Davis Film (1941) 143
21. Flaherty: The Land (1942) 145
22. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) 146
23. Paisan (1948) 150
24. The Decent German (1949) 157
25. The Eternal Jew (1956) 162
26. A Few Notes on The Connection (1961) 165
part iii. book reviews 167
27. In Eisenstein’s Workshop (1943) 171
28. The Russian Director (1949) 173
29. The Movie Colony (1942) 176
30. A Lady of Valor (1947) 178
31. The Teutonic Mind (1948) 181
32. Consciousness, Free and Spontaneous (1948) 183
33. Indologian Holiday (1948) 185
34. Portrait in Film (1948) 188
35. Total Teaching (1949) 190
36. Pictorial Deluge (1950) 192
37. Movie Mirror (1950) 195
38. Réfl exion faite (1952) 197
part iv. toward a theory of fi lm 199
39. Stage vs. Screen Acting (1950) 201
40. The Photographic Approach (1951) 204
Contents / vii
41. Silent Film Comedy (1951) 213
42. The Found Story and the Episode (1956) 217
43. Letter to the Editors of fi lm 56 (1956) 226
afterword: kracauer, the magical nominalist /
martin jay 227
Notes 237
Index 277