New Objectivity (film)

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Films of the New Objectivity emerged in German film in the 1920s as a way out of the mannerist metaphor of the stylistically predominant film expressionism . They tried to achieve realism in their plot topic, the way the actors played, but also in the selection of authentic film sets , so that in some cases it is also referred to as reality films . A forerunner of this new style, which took the path of objectification and comprehensibly portrayed real human fates, was the miners' film Schlagende Wetter (1923) by Karl Grune , which was made outside the film studios in the Ruhr area . German and English critics noted the realism of this film as something extraordinary and new. However, it was not until Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Die joudlose Gasse (1925), which was counted among the first of the New Objectivity, that an extensive departure from Expressionism began, and numerous films were made with socially critical and realistic themes.

In Austria, the first forerunner of the New Objectivity was made in 1920, based on the social reports by the journalist Emil Kläger , through the quarters of misery and crime . In the following years, several productions were published that dealt with the dreary situation in inflation-ridden Austria after the First World War : Women from the Vienna suburbs (1925), Haifische der Postwarszeit (1926), In the shadow of the electric chair (1927), Other women (1928) or A Whore Has Been Murdered (1930).

The New Objectivity in film reached its peak in the second half of the 1920s. In addition to Pabst, Gerhard Lamprecht was one of the most important representatives of the New Objectivity. In 1925 he turned the first film of a trilogy about problems of the social lower class with Die Verrufenen , which was continued in 1926 with Die illegelichen und Menschen und Menschen . Other important films were The Adventures of a Zehnmarkschein (1926) by Berthold Viertel , the films Phil Jutzis and Leo Mittler's Jenseits der Straße produced by Berlin-based Prometheus Film , and also Hamburg SPD films in the style of Werner Hochbaum's brothers . With Menschen am Sonntag (1930), Pabst's Kameradschaft (1931), but also Victor Trivas ' Niemandsland (1931) and the classic of the proletarian film Kuhle Wampe or: Who Owns the World? (1932, Slatan Dudow ) the New Objectivity trend came to an end in the early 1930s with the new National Socialist film policy . In terms of film history, the New Objectivity is sometimes seen as an aesthetic forerunner of National Socialism, especially with regard to mountain films .

literature

  • Kappelhoff, Hermann: The furnished person. GW Pabst and the utopia of objectivity. A poetological attempt at Weimar auteur cinema . Berlin: Vorwerk 8 1995.
  • Lethen, Helmut: The behavior of the cold. Life attempts between the wars . Frankfurt: Suhrkamp 1994.
  • Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. Henschel Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Philipp Brunner: New Objectivity . In: Lexikon der Filmbegriffe, edited by Hans. J. Wulff and Theo Bender.
  2. ^ Hermann Kappelhoff: New Objectivity . In: Thomas Koebner (Hrsg.): Sachlexikon des Films . 2nd Edition. Reclam, 2006, ISBN 978-3-15-010625-9 , pp. 470 f .
  3. ^ Dahlke, Karl: p. 84.
  4. ^ Dahlke, Karl: p. 116.