Film und Foto: Towards a language of silent film
Afterimage, Dec. 1979, v. 7, no. 5, pp. 8-11
In this essay, Jan-Christopher Horak reexamines the 1929 exhibition Film und Foto, organized by the German Werkbund as a summary of all international avant-garde practices in both mediums. Spanning Soviet montage designed to optimistically construct the revolution’s “new man,” the formalist exercises of Hans Richter, and critically acclaimed but commercial work such as Frank Urson’s Chicago, the exhibition presented no clear manifesto beyond the celebration of film itself. Sadly, occurring at the dawn of the sound film and the rise of fascism in Europe, the exhibition now reads more as a eulogy for a bygone era of optimism and experimentation.
ITEM 1979.059 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
De Brug – Joris Iven
Pont Transbordeur Marseille – Herbert Bayer
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc – Carl Dreyer
The Man with the Movie Camera – Dziga Vertov
The Wonder of Cinema – Dr. Edgar Beyfuss
Tragedy of the Street – Bruno Rahn
The Battleship Potemkin – Sergei Eisenstein
October – Sergei Eisenstein
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Robert Wiene
Chicago – Frank Urson
L'Etoile de Mer – Man Ray
Berlin Symphonie der Großstadt – Walter Ruttmann
In the Shadow of Machines – A. V. Blum
Hunger in Waldenburg – Piel Jützi
Clear Across Russia – Arthur Holitscher
The Little Match Girl – Jean Renoir
Melody around the World – Walter Ruttmann
Earth – Alexander Dovzhenko