From Caligari to Hitler

May 28, 2015

1h 54m

★ 7.4

What does Cinema know, that we don't?

Overview

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of Weimar is born, to 1933, when the Nazis come into power. (Followed by Hitler's Hollywood, 2017.)

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

ZDF

LOOKSfilm

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung

ARTE

From Caligari to Hitler Trailers

Cast

Self - Narrator (voice)

Rüdiger Suchsland

Self - Narrator (voice)

Hans Henrik Wöhler

Self - Filmmaker

Volker Schlöndorff

Self - Filmmaker

Fatih Akin

Self - Film Historian

Thomas Elsaesser

Self - Historian

Eric D. Weitz

Self - Cultural Critic

Elisabeth Bronfen

Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Fritz Lang

Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Ernst Lubitsch

Self - Politician (archive footage)

Friedrich Ebert

Self - Politician (archive footage)

Joseph Goebbels

An exploration —manipulated and staged— of life in Las Hurdes, in the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, as it was in 1932. Insalubrity, misery and lack of opportunities provoke the emigration of young people and the solitude of those who remain in the desolation of one of the poorest and least developed Spanish regions at that time.

7.8

The Untouchables

Jun 3, 1987

Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.

6.7

Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed

Mar 11, 2018

The story of the Bugattis of Milan and Molsheim, the eccentric family behind the brand: Carlo, the patriarch and furniture designer; Rembrandt, the troubled sculptor; Ettore, the gifted engineer; Jean, the unfortunate heir. Art and design. Beauty and luxury. The fastest cars. Races. The need for speed.

0.0

Blue Sky

Apr 21, 2006

In 1920, a combat flight training school named "Willows" is founded in California. People who want to fight for Korea’s independence from Japan gather at the school. Their mission is to bomb the palace of the Japanese emperor. The pilots’ ardent desire for Korea’s independence grows, but as they prepare for their mission, a spy in the school ruins their plans. However, KIM Ja-jung and the other pilots manage to get on board for what will most likely be their last flight.

7.0

Grisha

Nov 8, 1996

An up-close look into the life of the often misunderstood movie director Grigori Kromanov through the lens of old friends and colleagues.

5.3

The Imperial Lullaby

Mar 21, 2020

The armies of Fascist Italy conquered Addis Ababa, capital of Abyssinia, in May 1936, thus culminating the African colonial adventure of the ruthless dictator Benito Mussolini, by then lord of Libya, Eritrea and Somalia; a bloody and tragic story told through the naive drawings of Pietro Dall'Igna, an Italian schoolboy born in 1925.

0.0

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults

Apr 21, 1986

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults is a two-hour live American television special that was broadcast in syndication on April 21, 1986, and hosted by Geraldo Rivera. It centered on the live opening of a secret vault in the Lexington Hotel in Chicago once owned by noted crime lord Al Capone.

7.3

I Am Alfred Hitchcock

May 2, 2021

Interviews and archival footage weave together to tell the story of the Master of Suspense, one of the most influential and studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.

No Image

6.0

The Trap

Apr 27, 1951

The course of an organized strike by workers from North Moravian steelworks in 1931 to resist mass layoffs during the economic crisis.

5.7

Amelia

Oct 22, 2009

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

7.1

Lost in La Mancha

Feb 11, 2002

Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.

7.4

Anarchist from Colony

Jun 28, 2017

Based on the life of the Korean anarchist Park Yeol, the film shows his struggle to counter the massacre of Koreans by the government during the 1923 great Kanto earthquake, focusing on his activities as the leader of the anti-Japanese organization Bulryeongsa and his relationship with Japanese comrade Fumiko Kaneko.

7.9

Mein Kampf

Apr 24, 1960

Using exclusively archival footage, Erwin Leiser traces the rise and collapse of the Third Reich, from Adolf Hitler’s early years to the devastation of Europe and his suicide in 1945. The film draws heavily on material produced and preserved by the Nazi propaganda apparatus to confront the mechanisms, imagery, and consequences of totalitarian power.

8.0

Atatürk, Father of Modern Turkey

Oct 22, 2023

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first president from 1923 until his death in 1938.

7.4

City of Life and Death

Apr 22, 2009

In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a six week period wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.

8.5

Sarabha

Nov 3, 2023

Young revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha fights for Indian Independence in the early 1900s.

7.0

The Five Obstructions

Nov 7, 2003

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

6.8

The Tracker

Aug 8, 2002

Somewhere in Australia in the early 20th century outback, an Aboriginal man is accused of murdering a white woman. Three white men are on a mission to capture him with the help of an experienced Indigenous man.

7.4

Matewan

Aug 28, 1987

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.

0.0

Capture a Beat

Dec 6, 2023

Actors work with a director to find the rhythm of a scene.