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From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses
From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses
7.9
/10
382 Ratings

FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER: GERMAN CINEMA IN THE AGE OF THE MASSES

Von Caligari zu Hitler: Das Deutsche Kino im Zeitalter der Massen

Directed by Rüdiger Suchsland
Germany, 2014
Documentary, History, Biography

Synopsis

Using a montage of footage from the highest quality restorations, the film illustrates Siegfried Kracauer’s 1947 thesis that the rise of Nazism is anticipated in many themes found throughout Weimar cinema, while situating Kracauer in the philosophy and histories of the time.

Synopsis

Using a montage of footage from the highest quality restorations, the film illustrates Siegfried Kracauer’s 1947 thesis that the rise of Nazism is anticipated in many themes found throughout Weimar cinema, while situating Kracauer in the philosophy and histories of the time.

Our take

What does the cinema know that we don’t? Rüdiger Suchsland’s sweeping doc on the cinema of Weimar Germany visualizes Siegfried Kracauer’s potent thesis from the influential 1947 book. Using beautiful restorations of films by Lang, Murnau and others, it contextualizes the period and its masterpieces.