Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! – Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III [NOTE: I had planned to be finished adding new movies to this blog, but little did I realize that the long-lost experimental film Miss Butterfly (Fräulein Schmetterling) was about to be released with English subtitles by the … Continue reading Miss Butterfly
Category: Artists
Carola Lamberti
Romance and intrigue at the circus in this DEFA-in-name-only film from the fifties. The circus film is a genre that doesn’t get much attention although it’s one of the oldest film genres. Studios started making them during the silent era (The Circus Man, Crown and Whip, and Circus Days) and the genre reached an apex … Continue reading Carola Lamberti
Novalis: The Blue Flower
In this wild, surreal film, the German poet Novalis reflects on moments in his life as he lays dying. Novalis: The Blue Flower (Novalis – Die blaue Blume) is recognized as the last film to be released by DEFA before the East Germany film production company closed its doors. The film is told episodically as … Continue reading Novalis: The Blue Flower
Dusk: 1950s East Berlin Bohemia
Just off the Schiffbauerdamm, a street that runs along the River Spree on the north side of the river, sits the Berliner Ensemble Theater. It was founded in 1954, after Bertolt Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel left the Deutsches Theater to start their own theater. It was an ambitious project featuring a revolving stage … Continue reading Dusk: 1950s East Berlin Bohemia
Elective Affinities
Ask the average American who Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is, and you’ll either get: “He was a writer, wasn’t he?” Or: “I don’t know.” A well-read American might be familiar with Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther, but that’s about it. In Germany, on the other hand, Goethe resides deep in the soul. He’s … Continue reading Elective Affinities
Käthe Kollwitz – Images of a Life
In 1966, director Ralf Kirsten made The Lost Angel, a film about a day in the life of sculptor Ernst Barlach. That film centers around Barlach’s sculpture Der schwebende, which was destroyed by the Nazis for being “degenerate art.” The sculpture was inspired by Barlach’s fellow artist Käthe Kollwitz. So much so that the face … Continue reading Käthe Kollwitz – Images of a Life
East German Cinema Blog 