Another foundational film text, one way, way the fuck ahead of its time. Siegfried Krachuer’s FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER blew my teenage mind.
FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER posits that film not only speaks to modern culture, of the trials and tribulations of the present, but also speaks about the future.
Notably, it details how you could see the rise of Nazi-ism through years of German cinema, especially tracking German insecurities via the 1920 expressionistic film THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI.
I do not understand how others have yet to latch onto this idea, because, for fuck’s sake, if nothing has told us about the insecurities and hopes for powerful influences to protect us, it’s the inscrutable fucking Marvel superhero franchise.
(It’s also telling that we’ve grown disillusioned by it!)
I will also note! German cinema fell the fuck apart during Nazi-ism! German cinema was at one point the goddamn hallmark of quality media, then fell off the face of the Earth until the New German Cinema movement occurred in the 70s, thanks to especially to Fassbinder, Herzog, and Wenders.
So, yeah. 30 years of cinematic garbage.
(FYI, the same occurred with the Soviet Union. That’s a tale for another time.)
What FROM CALIGARI TO HILTER instills is a political and cultural way of perceiving the hows and whys works exist, what folks are fraught of, of the subject matter they want to tackle and usually? That’s what is right in front of not only their faces, but everyone else.
So, yes, think about that the next time you head out to a Hollywood blockbuster. Think about the subtext. Think about the undercurrent, because it’s fucking there, regardless of whether it’s something the collective creators of a film are aware of.
These are works that represent a singular point in time, and they speak volumes. Watch and listen to them.
Similarly, this is also available via Princeton University Press!