Oddball Films presents German Expressions, a program of gems of German cinema, as well as rarities from German performers, artists and visionaries from the 1920s-1970s. Through an excerpt of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), witness the innovation and creativity that set Germany apart from the realism of early cinema and influenced nearly 100 years of film. It may be a little late for the Olympic tie in, but Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia Diving Sequence (1936) endures as one of the most breathtaking documents of the beauty of the human form throughout cinema history. Silhouette animator Lotte Reiniger offers two of the most exquisite and intricate of her shorter films, The Magic Horse (1953) and Galathea: Das Lebende Marmorbild (1935). Sultry ex-patriate Marlene Dietrich entertained our troops during the war and in a musical sequence from Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), she entertains the crowd by singing a cheeky song about the Black Market in a post-war world. Between the wars, Germany birthed the Dada movement; its irreverent and anarchical style is captured perfectly in the eye-popping Germany-DADA: An Alphabet of German DADAism (1968). New-Wave opera star Klaus Nomi delivers one of his signature arias in a dream sequence from the bizarre cult-classic M*ster M*ke's Mondo V*deo (1979). Plus dazzling excerpts from two groundbreaking artists Richter on Film (1972) and Mary Wigman: When the Fire Dances between Two Poles (1993) as well as clips of contemporary West German artists in Deutschland Spiegel: The German Scene (1970). Pretzels will be provided, but BYOB (Bring your own Bratwurst).
Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia documents the Olympic games of 1936, using disorienting angles and slow motion in order to display athletic bodies in motion, detached from all purpose. In 1936, at Hitler's behest, she filmed the Berlin Olympics. She used more than 40 cameramen, shot 250 miles of film and spent 18 months in the cutting room. The Olympia Diving Sequence is a supreme example of editing where physics are transcended and somehow weightlessness is achieved. This film, despite its overtly Aryan leanings is also a celebration of the human form. Film critic Pauline Kael called Triumph and Olympia the two greatest films ever directed by a woman. Often it’s unclear where the bodies are in the context of their environment, which allows the film to focus on their pure, Adonis-like form. Riefenstahl’s film captured the body-centric culture cultivated by the rise of fascism, and made it into an aesthetic principle.
Conceived by SNL writer Michael O'Donohue as a spoof on 1960's shock documentaries and intended to air on television, it was deemed too over-the-top and offensive by network executives. Eventually released as a short feature film where it became a midnight-movie staple, the origin of this print is a mystery and contains slugs for commercials. Could this be the original program intended for late night TV in 1979?
Richter on Film (Color, 1972)
The brilliant German painter, Dadaist and abstract/avant garde filmmaker Hans Richter talks about his experimental films of the 1920's. Excerpts from Rhythm 2 (1921), Race Symphony (1928), and Ghosts Before Breakfast(1927) are included. German-born Richter moved from Switzerland to the United States in 1940 and taught in the Institute of Film Techniques at the City College of New York. While living in New York, Richter directed two feature films, Dreams That Money Can Buy(1947) and 8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1957) in collaboration with Max Ernst, Jean Cocteau, Paul Bowles, Fernand Léger, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and others. In 1957, he finished a film entitled Dadascope with original poems and prose spoken by their creators: Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Raoul Hausmann, Richard Huelsenbeck, and Kurt Schwitters. Richter was also the author of a first-hand account of the Dada movement titled Dada: Art and Anti-Art which also included his reflections on the emerging Neo-Dada artworks.
