#Ufa Universum

[lorenzlund]

Hollywood wird sich wieder mehr anstrengen müssen bessere Filme herauszubringen! (Es  hat jetzt wieder mehr Konkurrenz!!)

Schriftsteller und Regisseur Anton Raiter vor wenigen Tagen erst traf er erstmals sogar in Babelsberg bei Berlin ein per Zug, das ist so etwas wie das deutsche Hollywood!

Mit ihm stieg eine junge berühmte Autorin aus!

“Wir suchen nach einem Haus mit Garten für den Herrn hier!” (besagte Autorin)

“Selber wollen sie nicht mit im Haus wohnen??”

“Es handelt sich bei uns um kein Ehepaar! Ich werde deswegen separat eine Wohnung beziehen!”

“Erstaunlich, aber dieses Buch es kam mir im Garten abhanden, obwohl du beides doch, Haus wie Garten, nur erfandest, liebe Freundin, in einem deiner Gedichte!”

“Wir könnes es vielleicht in ihm wiederfinden, wohnst du erst in der Villa als ihr neuer Mieter, bist du dort also erstmal eingezogen!”

“Ich schätze dass ich neue Freunde wie dich fand, mit jeder Menge an auch eigener Fantasie!”

“Wann erhalte ich also das allererste Drehbuch von dir??”

“Ich habe ja selber noch nie eines geschrieben!”

“Na, dann ist es jetzt spätestens Zeit dafür! Schau dich um, wir sind in Babelsberg!”

“Wer hier erfolgreich war, landet später in Hollywood!”

“Auch brauche ich dann keinen amerikanischen Autoren damit erst vielleicht beauftragen!”

“Zudem hat dich dein bereits schon auch erstes Buch so extrem bekannt gemacht, verarmen würden wir dabei beide gewiss nicht, zumindest das erscheint als gesichert! Eher das genaue Gegenteil davon dürfte zutreffen: 

Schnell könnten wir uns dann eine auch noch zweite sehr geräumige Villa vor Ort genauso hinzupachten, ähnlich wie diese es auch ist oder zu sein scheint! 

Die lediglich nur angemietete Wohnung aber bisherige von dir, liebe Freundin, du könntest sie danach auch wieder aufgeben!”

“Und um was für ein Drehbuch sollte es sich dann dabei handeln!”

“Wichtig ist nur, es wäre eines von dir!! Alle würden sie mit zusehen wollen!”

“Entscheide du über den Inhalt der Story!! Ich wäre immer begeistert davon! Und es kann dann sogar ein humoristischer Stoff sein, statt dem vielleicht durchgängig nur ernsten! 

Solche Stoffe fallen mir oft sogar leichter zu verfilmen als die Dramen!!”

“Es würde keine berühmtere Autorin geben als dich auf der Welt!!”

[wdr2-rlbmut]

Please keep the tags in reposting links. Thanks.

[holmesoldfellow]

Title card in the opening for "Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war" (1937, directed by Karl Hartl)

[celluloidchronicles]

Metropolis

🇩🇪 | Aug 25, 1927

directed by Fritz Lang

screenplay by Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang

produced by Universum Film (UFA)

starring Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Theodor Loos

2h29 | Drama, Science Fiction

𐄂 not watched

Browse through collections

German Movies | director Fritz Lang | writer Thea von Harbou | writer Fritz Lang | studio Universum Film (UFA) | actor Gustav Fröhlich | actress Brigitte Helm | actor Alfred Abel | actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge | actor Theodor Loos

Browse through genres

Drama | Science Fiction

Links

trakt.tv | letterboxd

[thinkingimages]

Alexander Binder  (1888–1929) | Lya De Putti in the film Manon Lescaut (1926) by Arthur Robinson, UFA Universum-Film AG.

[brooklynbutterflyarts]

Metropolis Poster Framed Metropolis Movie Poster(Various sizes available) Molding:Professional 1" Flat Top Black (solid-wood) Matte: 100% acid free board, Black & Blue/Grey Print: Full Color dry mounted glossy print Glass is included, Comes Fully Assembled Ready For Your Wall Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang, and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang[6][7] from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name. Intentionally written as a treatment, it stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre.[8] Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks,[9] or the equivalent of about €21 million. Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart". The poster print is bonded to foam core on a hot vacuum press. This bonding gives the print a perfect flat and smooth texture. This process also insures the print will never fold or fade with age or moisture. This wonderful display makes a thoughtful and original gift containing a classic vintage touch yet modern design, allowing it to fit alongside both modern and classic decor. BUY WITH CONFIDENCE. ALL OF MY DELICATE ITEMS ARE SHIPPED WITH A SPECIAL 3 LAYER PROTECTION SYSTEM.

[brassmusiccafe]

Zarah Leander: Merci Mon Ami (1930s and 1940s German Songs Remastered) 2CD-New $29.99

Zarah Leander (15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned Universum Film AG (UFA). Although no exact record sales numbers exist, she was probably among Europe’s best-selling recording artists in the years prior to 1945. The career of Berlin singer Zarah Leander has…

[dweemeister]

The Last Command (1928)

Before their professional rupture while making The Blue Angel (1930), both Josef von Sternberg and Emil Jannings came from German-speaking environments to find success in Hollywood. But while von Sternberg’s family emigrated to the United States from Austria in his teenage years, Jannings carved out a reputation of playing larger-than-life protagonists in Universum-Film AG (UFA) films such as F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924) and Faust (1926). His rising star spurred Paramount to offer Jannings a short-term contract that lasted two-and-a-half years and six features. Of Jannings’ extant movies at Paramount*, The Last Command is the one that has brought the most acclaim.

We open in 1928 Hollywood. While shooting a Russian Revolution picture, Russian expatriate director Leo Andreyev (an underutilized William Powell) selects Sergius Alexander (Jannings; whose character is living in poverty and takes jobs as a Hollywood extra) out of a heap of casting photos. Leo’s decision to cast Sergius is less magnanimous than it first appears to be, but to say more would be to spoil the ending. While in the dressing room, Sergius reminisces about events a decade prior. Flash back to 1917 Imperial Russia. Grand Duke Sergius Alexander, cousin of the Tsar, Commanding General of the Russian Armies (for students of Russian history and politics, this is analogous to “Chief of the General Staff”), is commanding the tsarist troops to battle Bolshevik revolutionaries. Informed that two actors entertaining his soldiers are actually Bolshevik agents, he orders that they be ushered into his office so that he might humiliate them. Sergius has his way with one of the agents, Leo Andreyev. But for Natalie Dabrova (Evelyn Brent), Sergius finds himself attracted to her. Despite the dangers involved, he keeps Natalie by his side. Revolutionary zeal and Stockholm syndrome be damned, they fall in love. The film will conclude when it flashes back to 1928 Hollywood.

Jack Raymond (later a director of films such as 1930’s The Great Game) plays a brief role as Leo’s conceited Assistant Director.

The circumstances and developments surrounding Sergius and Natalie’s romance is far-fetched and contrived beyond belief. Natalie’s reasons for falling for Sergius – paraphrasing her, that she could never believe that someone could love Russia as much as he – are unintentional comedic gold. The film’s best line appears as Sergius realizes that Natalie is not going to act on her revolutionary beliefs to assassinate him: “From now on you are my prisoner of war – and my prisoner of love.” All credit to intertitle writer Herman J. Mankiewicz (1941’s Citizen Kane, 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees) for that screamer of a line. Whatever political differences between the two main characters melts away because of that.

This writing from journeyman screenwriter John F. Goodrich (1933’s Deluge, 1936’s Crack-Up) and the story from Lajos Bíró (1933’s The Private Life of Henry VIII,1940’s The Thief of Bagdad) points to a larger problem regarding the film’s political depictions. Never mind the ideological chasm that exists between a man sworn to uphold the tsarist establishment and a woman to whom that very establishment is the embodiment of all that she and her comrades find loathsome. The Last Command, in keeping with Western attitudes towards the Bolsheviks, is decidedly sympathetic towards Imperial Russia, rather than the inebriated, murder-hungry proletariat mob that wants nothing but bloodshed. There is no political nuance to these depictions. Tsarist Russia is honorable, the unquestionably legitimate state; the Bolsheviks’ demands flattened to simply mindless violence for the sake of it. This is not to deny the facts that there were decent people serving the Tsar nor that the Bolsheviks engaged in excessive violence, but that the film overly simplifies the conditions in 1917 Russia.

Despite his status as one of the most accomplished Hollywood directors working during the transition from silent film to synchronized sound, Josef von Sternberg disdained the Studio System and producer control over filmmaking (if only he was alive to see how things are today!). In The Last Command’s bookending scenes in 1928 Hollywood, von Sternberg takes aim squarely at Hollywood norms. Note the arrogance in which the Assistant Director conducts himself in front of all the extras. How infuriating it must be for the audience when he chastises the elderly Sergius for correcting him about a detail on a Russian general’s uniform: “I’ve made twenty Russian pictures. You can’t tell me anything about Russia!” Filmmaking in this environment, according to The Last Command, is exploitative. There is little to no regard about the wellbeing of all the extras scraping by with a meager day’s wages. As for Leo’s intentions for Sergius, the psychological cruelty in which he directs him is something he may or may not come to regret in the film’s final seconds. In those closing shots, the Assistant Director’s pithy remark encapsulates Hollywood’s wanton disregard for those uncredited many who wove themselves into the magical fabric of Old Hollywood.

The film’s most narratively crucial scenes – excluding the romantic scenes between Sergius and Natalie – make excellent use of extras and the blocking of extras. Whether it is the scene where the Bolsheviks drag Sergius off the train and threaten to hang and mutilate him or the film’s final scene on the studio soundstage, there is a bustling of activity in the background. Von Sternberg and cinematographer Bert Glennon (1939’s Stagecoach and Drums Along the Mohawk) vivify The Last Command with these masses of people. Look at the furious, grasping hands as Sergius as the Bolsheviks tear his outer layers off in the cold – this might not approach the violence of Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925), but that is because the anger here is directed at a solitary figure. The crew behind the camera and the extras reacting organically to Sergius’ acting adds to Jannings’ memorable performance in the climax, empowering a scene very obviously shot on a soundstage.

Somehow, these critical framing scenes from The Last Command escaped the attention of Paramount executives during the film’s production. When learning about them only after seeing the final product, they planned to prevent the film’s release. Also citing von Sternberg’s portrayal of the Russian Revolution (including portraits of Stalin and Trotsky), Paramount’s executives only relented when an unnamed Paramount stockholder compelled them to release The Last Command.

In spite of the questionable central romance and its poor historical representations, The Last Command thrives due to Jannings’ performance. Paramount wanted Jannings for this role due to his reputation as a theatrical, bombastic actor. He does not disappoint here. Taking a page from his performance in The Last Laugh, Jannings’ character similarly takes pride in an article of clothing. Where in The Last Laugh he loses his doorman’s uniform, Jannings regains a general’s uniform in The Last Command. With it, an utterly broken man finds a modicum of self-respect (at the very least), or perhaps it resurfaces the jingoist that once was. The physical transformation and mental turn Jannings embodies is absolutely compelling and deeply tragic. Art then begins to replicate the past too faithfully. Man and character become the same. Jannings won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Actor for The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh (1927)‡, despite German Shepherd Rin Tin Tin (1922’s The Man from Hell’s River, 1925’s The Clash of the Wolves) receiving the most votes in the category. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), wishing to be taken seriously and not wanting to bestow the inaugural Best Actor statue to a dog, gave the award to the runner-up, Jannings.

Back in Weimar Germany, Jannings and von Sternberg would work together on The Blue Angel (1930) – their finest collaboration with each other. But the two clashed repeatedly while making The Blue Angel, mostly over von Sternberg’s fawning over Marlene Dietrich during production. Von Sternberg returned to America and remained with Paramount until 1935, and his Hollywood standing rose alongside Marlene Dietrich's. Following the end of that contract, he bounced around various Hollywood studios, never again finding the cinematic footing he had while at Paramount. By contrast, Jannings remains in the German film industry following The Blue Angel and starred in several Nazi propaganda films that, after the end of World War II, made him unemployable.

As if foreshadowing Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and even Singin’ in the Rain (1952), this dramatic unpackaging of Hollywood’s dark underbelly has elements of scathing satire that form the backbone of the its best moments. No matter the mutual accusations of imperiousness, Jannings and von Sternberg while on set of The Last Command, pieced together a film that obscures its true messaging beneath its ridiculous romance.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

* The Way of All Flesh (1927), The Patriot (1928), and Street of Sin (1928) are lost; Sins of the Fathers (1928) is only rumored to be intact; and only The Last Command and Betrayal (1929) are extant.

‡ The 1st Academy Awards was the only ceremony in which actors and actresses were nominated for a body of work, rather than their work on an individual film.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[gute-filme]

Metropolis : Universum Film (UFA) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

[ein-bleistift-und-radiergummi]

Betty Amann & Gustav Fröhlich in the German silent film ‘Asphalt’ 1929.

[suchamiracle-does-exist]

Decla-Film-Gesellschaft’s logo in the opening of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (dir. Robert Wiene, 1920).

Decla Film was formed in 1911 as the German subsidiary of the French company Eclair, it was taken into German ownership in 1915 during the First World War. Decla is an abbreviation for Deutsche Eclair.

In 1916 Decla-Film-Gesellschaft Holz & Co was founded by Erich Pommer and the co-founder Berlin film distributor Fritz Holz.

In 1920 Decla merged with Bioscop Film to form Decla-Bioskop A.G. In 1923 the company became a part of the UFA – Universum-Film AG, and acted as a subsidiary. Nowadays, it's known as Studio Babelsberg.

[thefirstthinguc]

Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft, 1929-1930.

[thrombosys]

[justforbooks]

Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang, it stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge,and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre. Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks.

Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart".

Metropolis met a mixed reception upon release. Critics found it visually beautiful and powerful – the film's art direction by Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut, and Karl Vollbrecht draws influence from Bauhaus, Cubist, and Futurist design, along with touches of the Gothic in the scenes in the catacombs, the cathedral and Rotwang's house – and lauded its complex special effects, but accused its story of being naive. H. G. Wells described the film as "silly", and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls the story "trite" and its politics "ludicrously simplistic". The film's alleged Communist message was also criticized.

The film's extensive running time also came in for criticism, and Metropolis was cut substantially after its German premiere, with a large portion of Lang's original footage removed. Many attempts have been made since the 1970s to restore the film. In 1984, Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder released a truncated version with a soundtrack by rock artists including Freddie Mercury, Loverboy, and Adam Ant. In 2001, a new reconstruction of Metropolis was shown at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2008, a damaged print of Lang's original cut of the film was found in a museum in Argentina. After a long restoration process that required additional materials provided by a print from New Zealand, the film was 95% restored and shown on large screens in Berlin and Frankfurt simultaneously on 12 February 2010.

Metropolis is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made, ranking 35th in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll. In 2001 the film was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, the first film thus distinguished.

Metropolis was distributed by Parufamet, a company formed in December 1925 by the American film studios Paramount Pictures and Metro Goldwyn Mayer to loan $4 million (US) to UFA. The film had its world premiere at the UFA-Palast am Zoo in Berlin on 10 January 1927, where the audience, including a critic from the Berliner Morgenpost, reacted to several of the film's most spectacular scenes with "spontaneous applause". However, others have suggested the premiere was met with muted applause interspersed with boos and hisses.

At the time of its German premiere, Metropolis had a length of 4,189 metres, which is approximately 153 minutes at 24 frames per second (fps). UFA's distribution deal with Paramount and MGM "entitled [them] to make any change [to films produced by UFA] they found appropriate to ensure profitability". Considering that Metropolis was too long and unwieldy, Parufamet commissioned American playwright Channing Pollock to write a simpler version of the film that could be assembled using the existing material. Pollock shortened the film dramatically, altered its inter-titles and removed all references to the character of Hel, because the name sounded too similar to the English word Hell, thereby removing Rotwang's original motivation for creating his robot. Pollock said about the original film that it was "symbolism run such riot that people who saw it couldn't tell what the picture was about. ... I have given it my meaning." Lang's response to the re-editing of the film was to say "I love films, so I shall never go to America. Their experts have slashed my best film, Metropolis, so cruelly that I dare not see it while I am in England." The Hel storyline would be partially restored in Giorgio Moroder's 1984 version, and subsequent versions completely restored it.

In Pollock's cut, the film ran for 3,170 metres, or approximately 116 minutes—although a contemporary review in Variety of a showing in Los Angeles gave the running time as 107 minutes, and another source lists it at 105 minutes. This version of Metropolis premiered in the United States in March 1927, and was released, in a slightly different and longer version (128 minutes) in the United Kingdom around the same time with different title cards.

Alfred Hugenberg, a German nationalist businessman, cancelled UFA's debt to Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after taking charge of the company in April 1927, and chose to halt distribution in German cinemas of Metropolis in its original form. Hugenberg had the film cut down to a length of 3,241 metres (about 118 minutes), broadly along the lines of Pollock's edit, removing the film's perceived "inappropriate" communist subtext and religious imagery. Hugenberg's cut of the film was released in German cinemas in August 1927. Later, after demands for more cuts by Nazi censors, UFA distributed a still shorter version of the film (2,530 metres, 91 minutes) in 1936, and an English version of this cut was archived in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) film library in the 1930s. It was this version which was the basis of all versions of Metropolis until the recent restorations. In 1986 it was recopied and returned to Germany to be the basis of the 1987 Munich Archive restoration.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[lsa-tanzhaus-berlin-referenzen]

Schaubühne Berlin, Erich Mendelssohn, Jürgen Sawade

Schaubühne Berlin

Erich Mendelssohn 1928

Für den so genannten WOGA-Komplex gegenüber dem Lehniner Platz am Kurfürstendamm entwarf Erich Mendelssohn neben einigen Apartmenthäusern und Ladenzeilen auch den 1928 fertiggestellten markanten Kopfbau, der unter dem Namen "Universum" das Premierenkino der UFA beherbergte. Das Ensemble gleicht in seinem programmatischen urbanen Durchmischung nahezu dem heutiger Bauprojekte. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient auch der hufeisenförmige Kinosaal für bis zu 1800 Zuschauer*innen, der zum paradigmatischen Vorbild für explizit auf das Kino zugeschnittene, spezialisierte Filmtheaterräume seiner Zeit wurde. Dennoch ist auffällig, dass die prägnante gerundete Fassade unter dem kielartigen Dachaufbau keine unmittelbare Entsprechung in der Form des Auditoriums findet.

Nach einem Bombentreffer kurz vor Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges wurde das Gebäude in weiten Teilen zerstört. Vom originalen Innenausbau Mendelssohns ist nichts erhalten.

Jürgen Sawade 1981

Der Schwerpunkt beim Umbau des ehemaligen Kinos in den Achtzigern lag darauf, bei gleichzeitigem Erhalt bzw. Wiederherstellung der ursprünglichen äußeren Gestaltung des Gebäudes, einen hochtechnisierten und anpassungsfähigen Theaterraumes zu kreieren. Das Herzstück der heutigen Schaubühne ist dessen Raumfußboden aus 76 hydraulischen Hubelementen mit einer Grundfläche von je 7.00 x 3.00 m. Zusammen mit der Unterteilung durch zwei feuerbeständige Doppelrolltore sind bis zu drei zeitgleiche Aufführungen in den verschiedensten Bühnenkonstellationen möglich. Der ansonsten vollständige schmucklose Innenraum entspricht heute der architektonischen Form außen, weil das apsis-förmige Foyer aus der Mendelssohn-Zeit dem Bühnenraum zugeschlagen wurde. Der Eingang wurde im Zuge dessen auf ein längliches Foyer an der Seite und bildet heute eine der beiden Platzfassaden gegenüber der Ladenzeile. verlegt. Der repräsentative Eingang vorne bildet die Kasse und wurde zuletzt von Barkow Leibinger umgestaltet.

Quellen:

https://www.schaubuehne.de/de/seiten/architektur.html

https://www.db-bauzeitung.de/bauen-im-bestand/universum-mendelsohn-berlin/

http://ema.smb.museum/de/home

https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=wbw-004:2004:91::1278

https://www.urbipedia.org/hoja/Cine_Universum

[gbmarian]

While putting together some music videos for my full-length album, Summer's End (which I will release this October 1, 2020), I thought maybe I'd make some videos for my EP, Dua Sutekh, as well. And did you know that Set can manifest as a goddamn BRONTOSAURUS if He wants to? Makes you think! Stream/download this track and the rest of Dua Sutekh for FREE at this URL: https://gbmarian.bandcamp.com/album/dua-sutekh Footage included in this video is from: Hoyt, H.O. (Director), & Hudson, E. (Producer). (1925). The lost world. United States: First National Pictures. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/TheLostWorld19251080p Kornblum, H.W. (Director/writer). (1925). Our heavenly bodies [film]. Germany: Kultur department of the Universum-Film AG (Ufa) and Colonna-film G.m.b.H. Retrieved from: https://archive.org/details/Heavenly1920 Standard Oil Company of California. (ca. 1958). Desert venture [film]. Saudi Arabia: Robert Yarnall Richie Productions, Inc. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/0229_Desert_Venture_23_28_47_00-0034 United States Armed Forces. (1959). Atom bomb effects [film]. Camp Desert Rock, Nevada: RKO-Pathe Productions. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/0707AtomBombEffects

DesertOfSet.com