From Caligari to Hitler

Fantastic interlude with an old German film, showing that even silent film could captivate and still does today, with some scenes being simply unforgettable. The sound films of the 1930s have their great examples, where M is simply a brilliant work, and the scenes captured here are chilling. But even better than a documentary will be the actual watching of the films themselves. (08/16/2017)

Siegfried Kracauer wrote two key texts in American exile in the 1940s: "Propaganda and the Nazi War Film" (1942) and "From Caligari to Hitler" (1947). This documentary is based on the latter study. In addition to numerous examples, the commentary is supplemented by the likes of Thomas Elsaesser and Volker Schlöndorff. Today, we know that although Kracauer was a contemporary of the German film miracle of the Weimar years, he had by no means seen everything and at the time of writing had not even had the opportunity to refresh his memory of some of the major films years later. Yet (or perhaps because of this) his text became so fundamental in its time that its legacy must be reckoned with to this day.  There is no need to dramatically agree or disagree; with today's possibilities, we can consider this documentary as one of the tools that can direct us to further study. (03/05/2022)