The Golden Age of German cinema began at the end of the First World War and ended shortly after the coming of sound. From The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari onwards the principal films of this period were characterized by two influences: literary Expressionism, and the innovations of the theatre directors of this period, in particular Max Reinhardt. This book demonstrates the connection between German Romanticism and the cinema through Expressionist writings. It discusses the influence of the theatre: the handling of crowds; the use of different levels, and of selective lighting on a predominately dark stage; the reliance on formalized gesture; the innovation of the intimate theatre. Against this background the principal films of the period are examined in detail. The author explains the key critical concepts of the time, and surveys not only the work of the great directors, such as Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, but also the contribution of their writers, cameramen, and designers. As The Times Literary Supplement wrote, 'Mme. Eisner is first and foremost a film critic, and one of the best in the world. She has all the necessary gifts.' And it described the original French edition of this book as 'one of the very few classics of writing on the film and arguably the best book on the cinema yet written.'

Book on expressionism in German motion pictures.

While ghosts often inhabit films and literature devoted to the horror genre, a group of literature-based films from the 1930s and 1940s presents more human and romantic apparitions. These films provide the underpinnings for many of the gentle supernatural films of the 1990s. Tracing the links between specters as diverse as Rex Harrison's Captain Gregg and Patrick Swazye's Sam Wheat, the text presents the evolution of the cinematic-literary ghost from classic Gothic to the psychological, sociological, and political ideologies of today. Included are analyses of the literary and film versions of classic ghost stories--Wuthering Heights, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Portrait of Jennie, Letter from an Unknown Woman, The Uninvited, Liliom, and Our Town--as well as interpretations of modern films not based on literary works that show the influence of these predecessors--Ghost and Truly, Madly, Deeply. The text includes stills, a bibliography, and an index.

Informed by the eerie paranoia of horror film, J. M. Tyree's uncanny novella follows a couple transplanted to Germany. While in the throes of writing a book on Hitchcock’s Vertigo, a film scholar believes he’s being followed by a strange presence. Is this a supernatural force emanating from the prehistoric caves in the region, one captured in lost footage from horror movies filmed in the area in the 1920s? Or is he being stalked by his ex, a mentor, former lover, and brilliant but problematic critic who claims to have discovered the secret history of a supernatural camera used in films by Murnau and Hitchcock? When our scholar's wife disappears and the local police start investigating him, he attempts to unravel a mystery that takes him to Berlin, to Prague, and into the haunted heart of movies whose scenes appear to be recurring in the present. Moving between the double- life of professional networking and obsessive unease, The Haunted Screen blends the madness and obsession of academia with a dark, thrilling current of psychological mystery.

Introduction: Uncanny histories / Patrice Petro -- Pt. 1. The disciplinary uncanny -- Film and media in the double take of history / Priya Jaikumar -- Haunted by the body: cleanliness in colonial Manila's film culture / Jasmine Trice -- Reimagining the history of media studies through games, play and the uncanny valley / Alenda Chang -- Pt. 2. Uncanny films -- Flickering lights and mischievous stars: the uncanny feminism of my twentieth century / Hanna Goodwin -- The sublime body under the sign of developmentalism: the Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Malaysian politics and global markets / Peter J. Bloom -- Uncanny histories of transnational cinematic receptions: Eisenstein in Cuba / Masha Salazkina -- Pt. 3. Uncanny figures -- Julia García Espinosa and the fight for a critical culture in Cuba / Cristina Venegas -- The case for (re)collecting Lotte Eisner's work / Naomi DeCelles -- A widow's work: archives and the construction of Russian film history / Maria N. Corrigan -- Fiendish devices: the uncanny history of Almena Davis / Ellen C. Scott.

Conrad Veidt, a native of Berlin, began acting in small parts as an extra until called into service during World War I. After his discharge he began a theater career that subsequently led to films and more than one turn as a director. This work thoroughly details Veidt's film career. It lists all movies that he was involved in and provides a synopsis, cast and crew, and reviews of each film. There are many photographs, a list of films that he is thought possibly to have been involved in, and an extensive bibliography.

The links between cinema and war machines have long been established. This book explores the range, form, and valences of trauma narratives that permeate the most notable narrative films about the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Screen Hustles, Grifts and Stings identifies recurrent themes and techniques of the con film, suggests precedents in literature and discusses the perennial appeal of the con man for readers and viewers alike. Core studies span from film (Catch Me If You Can, Paper Moon, House of Games) to television (Hustle), from Noir (The Grifters) to Romantic Comedy (Gambit). Frequently, the execution of the con is only finely distinguishable from the conduct of a legitimate profession and, challengingly, a mark is often shown to be culpable in his or her undoing. The best con films, it is suggested, invite re-watching and reward the viewer accordingly: who is complicit and when? How and where is the con achieved? When is the viewer party to the con? And what, if any, moral is to be drawn?

Now thoroughly revised and updated, the book discusses recent breakthroughs in media technology, including such exciting advances as video discs and cassettes, two-way television, satellites, cable and much more.