A Filmmaker's Guide to: Weimar Cinema

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Weimar Cinema

When we talk about Weimar Cinema, we are not really just talking about the cinema that was produced as a result of the Weimar Republic, but we are also talking about film that was produced as a reaction against the Weimar Republic. And in comparison, the reactionary films have becoming more endearing than the propaganda ones.

The Weimar Cinema era lasts from the year 1918 all the way through to around 1933 when it fades out and is replaced by the propagandist films of the Hitlerian Regime that were, in a filmmaker's opinion, just god awful. For those German actors and actresses (however few there were) that converted from doing simply Weimar cinema to making Hitlerian film, after the regime was defeated in 1945 - these actors would find it impossible to get work in the cinema ever again. For example: take Murnau's "Faust" which is a direct reaction against the Weimar regimes. The man who portrays the demon (often referred to in the Marlovian text as Mephistopheles) found work in producing and acting in Hitlerian film only to find that when that regime fell, he could no longer find work and was therefore, pushed into retirement prematurely.

When it comes to the early half of Weimar Cinema, during the first regime of 1918 through to 1933, there were many German filmmakers (who fled during the Hitlerian regime) who made films criticising Germany's support of this often tyrannical court. Films such as: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Nosferatu" and "Metropolis" have often been accredited with presenting a great amount of extended metaphor within an early, but now iconic film of silent cinema.

Later on, we have films such as "M" by Fritz Lang and "Der Golem" which explore the monstrosity of the regime whilst playing the tune of a different storyline not necessarily directly connected to any kind of politics. Within a deeper reading, we can see that the intention of the filmmakers was to share their vision with the world whilst also showing the world why that was not really allowed the vast majority of the time.

In conclusion, if we were to look at Weimar Cinema of this era in intense detail, we can see not only through the films but through the setting, the colour and the music that there is a definite want to criticise the government handling of what is considerably ‘other’ and often not in line with what the government thinks the population should be viewing. Ironically so, these went on to become some of the most famous films of the Weimar Era with the films of Robert Weine, Fritz Lang and F.W Murnau being immortalised to this day in various formats.