Published in conjunction with The Museum of Modern Art's presentation of
75 feature-length films from the Weimar era, many only recently
restored, Weimar Cinema reconsiders the broad spectrum of influential
films made in Germany between the World Wars. German and American films
competed on the world market, and the stylistic accomplishments of the
many German film artists who emigrated to Hollywood before Hitler took
power deeply affected American cinema. Weimar Cinema is the first
comprehensive survey of this period to include popular films--musicals,
comedies, the "daydreams" of the working class--along with the
nightmarish classics such as Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse der Spieler and
M; F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens; and G.W.
Pabst's Pandora's Box. Richly illustrated with film stills, the book
examines how and why our understanding of these films has changed in the
last half century, and investigates important themes in films from this
period, including the portrayal of women and the role of sound.
Supplementing the essays is a detailed illustrated filmography of the 75
films featured in the exhibition; each film is accompanied by a brief
description and excerpts from contemporaneous reviews.
