About

The Australian Cinémathèque presents a major retrospective season showcasing German film in an expressionist vein from the silent period onwards. In Berlin after World War One, a striking style of filmmaking developed that experimented with set design, lighting and shadow. These 'expressionist' films, rich in symbolism, played on images of madness, monsters and modernity. Ranging from classics to lesser known films setting the scene for the period, 'Out the Shadows' includes Weimar musicals and comedies, classic film monsters, cities of the future, battles against nature, femme fatales, as well as recent films influenced by expressionist aesthetics. The program also charts the move of German directors to America in response to the rise of Nazism, their influence on Hollywood film production and on the development of film noir and horror genres.

Program curated for the Australian Cinémathèque by Russell Merritt PhD, Adjunct Professor of Film Studies at University of California, Berkeley (USA). The Australian Cinémathèque acknowledges the generous assistance of Andrew Youdell (British Film Institute), Klaus Krischok and Claudia Kuehn (Goethe-Institut Australien), the National Film and Sound Archive (Canberra) and Anke Hahn (Deutsche-Kinemathek).

List of Works

• WEIMAR SMILES: MUSICALS, COMEDIES, AND TRUFFLES
• Die Puppe (The Doll) 1919 | Director: Ernst Lubitsch
• Die Drei von der Tankstelle (Three from the Filling Station) 1930 | Director: Wilhelm Thiele
• Monte Carlo 1930 | Director: Ernst Lubitsch
• Die 3groschenoper (Threepenny Opera) 1931 | Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• Lady in the Dark 1944 | Director: Mitchell Leisen
• Pennies from Heaven 1981 | Director: Herbert Ross
• CALIGARI AND HIS SIDESHOWS: MENTAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL INSTABILITY
• Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari) 1919 | Director: Robert Wiene
• Genuine: The Tale of a Vampire 1920 | Director: Robert Wiene
• Von Morgens Bis Mitternacht (From Morn to Midnight) 1920 | Director: Karl Heinz Martin
• Raskolnikov 1923 | Director: Robert Wiene
• Schatten - Eine Nächtliche Halluzination (Warning Shadows) 1923 | Director: Arthur Robison
• Kurutta Ippêji (Page of Madness) 1926 | Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
• La Chute de la Maison Usher (The Fall of the House Usher) 1928 | Director: Jean Epstein
• The Life and Death of 9413 - A Hollywood Extra 1928 | Directors: Robert Florey, Slavko Vorkapich
• The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T 1953 | Director: Roy Rowland
• The Night of the Hunter 1955 | Director: Charles Laughton
• Jeunet La Cité des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children) 1995 | Directors: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre
• The Heart of the World 2000 | Director: Guy Maddin
• WEIMAR'S BIG SHOWS: SPECTACLE, HISTORY, FOLKLORE
• Madame DuBarry aka Passion 1919 | Director: Ernst Lubitsch
• Die Müde Tod (Destiny aka Between Two Worlds) 1921 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Siegfried) 1923 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Kriemhilde's Revenge) 1923 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (Waxworks) 1924 | Directors: Leo Birinsky, Paul Leni
• Faust - Eine Deutsche Volkssage (Faust: A German Folk-Tale) 1926 | Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
• The Man Who Laughs 1928 | Director: Paul Leni
• Hunchback of Notre Dame 1939 | Director: William Dieterle
• What's Opera Doc? 1957 | Director: Chuck Jones
• Faust 1960 | Director: Peter Gorski
• Mephisto 1981 | Director: István Szabó
• SHRECKLICHKEIT: CLASSIC MONSTERS AND THEIR SPAWN
• Golem, wie er in die Welt cam (The Golem) 1920 | Directors: Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
• Nosferatu 1922 | Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
• Orlacs Hände (The Hands of Orlac) 1925 | Director: Robert Wiene
• Mad Love 1935 | Director: Karl Freund
• Bride of Frankenstein 1935 | Director: James Whale
• Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu the Vampyre) 1979 | Director: Werner Herzog
• Shadow of the Vampire 2000 | Director: Letzebuergesh, E Elias Merhige
• CITIES OF THE FUTURE
• Metropolis 1926 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Just Imagine 1930 | Director: David Butler
• Things to Come 1936 | Director: William Cameron Menzies
• The Fifth Element 1997 | Director: Luc Besson
• COLD CITY STREETS
• Die Strasse (The Street) 1923 | Director: Karl Grune
• Isn't Life Wonderful? 1924 | Director: D W Griffith
• Die Freudlose Gasse (The Joyless Street) 1925 | Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• Mutter Küsters' Fahrt ins Glück (Mother Küsters' Goes to Heaven aka Mother Küsters' Journey to Happiness) 1929 | Director: Piel Jutzi
• Polizeibericht Überfall (Accident) 1929 | Director: Ernö Metzner
• Berlin Alexanderplatz 1931 | Director: Piel Jutzi
• Tianming (Daybreak) 1932 | Director: Sun Yu
• Phantom Lady 1944 | Director: Robert Siodmak
• Dark City 1950 | Director: William Dieterle
• Mutter Küsters' Fahrt zum Himmel (Mother Küsters' Ascent to Heaven) 1975 | Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
• THE WONDERS OF CITY STREETS
• Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt (Berlin: Symphony of a City) 1927 | Director: Walter Ruttmann
• Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans 1927 | Director: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
• Asphalt 1929 | Director: Joe May
• Moulin Rouge 1928 | Director: Ewald André Dupont
• Menschen am Sonntag (People on Sunday) 1929 | Director: Robert Siodmak, Edgar G Ulmer
• Piccadilly 1929 | Director: Ewald André Dupont
• Der Himmel Über Berlin (Wings of Desire) 1988 | Director: Wim Wenders
• MOUNTAIN FILMS
• Die Weisse Hölle Vom Piz Palü (White Hell of Pitz Palu) 1929 | Directors: Arnold Fanck, Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• With Byrd at the South Pole 1930 | Directors: William Van der Veer, Joe Rucker
• Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light) 1932 | Director: Béla Balázs, Leni Riefenstahl
• 90º South 1933 | Director: Herbert G Ponting
• Die Letzte Chance (The Last Chance) 1945 | Director: Leopold Lindtberg
• Careful 1992 | Director: Guy Maddin
• FEMME FATALES
• Alraune (A Daughter of Destiny) 1927 | Director: Henrik Galeen
• Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box) 1929 | Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• Tagebuch Einer Verlorenen (Diary of a Lost Girl) 1929 | Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• Blaue Engel (Blue Angel) 1930 | Director: Josef von Sternberg
• The Scarlet Empress 1934 | Director: Josef von Sternberg
• Scarlet Street 1945 | Director: Fritz Lang
• FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: OPS, SURVEILLANCE, AND SABOTEURS
• Dr Mabuse, der Spieler: Der grosse Spieler, Ein Bild der Zeit (Teil 1) (Dr Mabuse, The Gambler: The Great Gambler, A Picture of our Time (Part 1))1921 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Dr Mabuse, der Spieler: Inferno, Ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit (Teil 2) (Dr Mabuse, The Gambler: Inferno, Men of our Time (Part 2)) 1922 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Spione (Spies) 1928 | Director: Fritz Lang
• M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (M – A Town is looking for a Murderer) 1931 | Director: Fritz Lang
• Ministerium der Angst (Ministry of Fear) 1944 | Director: Fritz Lang
• The Black Book aka Reign of Terror 1949 | Director: Anthony Mann
• ON THE WAR FRONT
• Westfront 1918 1930 | Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
• The Doomed Battalion 1932 | Directors: Cyril Gardner, Karl Hartl, Luis Trenker
• Five Graves To Cairo 1943 | Director: Billy Wilder
• LOST SOULS
• Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) 1919 | Director: Richard Oswald
• Der Reigen - Ein Werdegang (The Merry- Go-Round) 1920 | Director: Richard Oswald
• Die Hintertreppe (Backstairs) 1921 | Directors: Leopold Jessner, Paul Leni
• Scherben (Shattered) 1921 | Director: Lupu Pick
• Sylvester Tragödie Einer Nacht (Sylveste