The Promise of Cinema: German Film Theory, 1907–1933 (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism)

Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism #49

by Anton Kæs (Editor), Nicholas Baer (Editor), Michæl Cowan (Editor)

Rich in implications for our present era of media change, The Promise of Cinema offers a compelling new vision of film theory. The volume conceives of “theory” not as a fixed body of canonical texts, but as a dynamic set of reflections on the very idea of cinema and the possibilities once associated with it. Unearthing more than 275 early-twentieth-century German texts, this ground-breaking documentation leads readers into a world that was striving to assimilate modernity’s most powerful new medium. We encounter lesser-known essays by Béla Balázs, Walter Benjamin, and Siegfried Kracauer alongside interventions from the realms of aesthetics, education, industry, politics, science, and technology. The book also features programmatic writings from the Weimar avant-garde and from directors such as Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau. Nearly all documents appear in English for the first time; each is meticulously introduced and annotated. The most comprehensive collection of German writings on film published to date, The Promise of Cinema is an essential resource for students and scholars of film and media, critical theory, and European culture and history.

Genres: Film, Germany

704 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2015

Reviews

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literally only read the collection of essays in chapter 13, (quite a few tho), for an assignment for uni. BUT, I felt like doucmenting it here because I found the essays very interesting!! So if you're interested in film and art, and especially German Expressionism, these essays are actually really cool to read because they're actually from the "era" (aka 20s) of expressionism.