From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film

[Ellipse]

I put here this one for the record because it can interest someone who is interesting to study if a parallel can be done with today movies. 432 pages, first published 1947, revised and expanded edition, 2004.

An undisputed classic of modern film historiography, Kracauer's From Caligari to Hitler had a major impact on the way we relate movies to history and society. Although Kracauer is not afraid of using such contested concepts as collective psychology and German 'soul,' his productive readings of Weimar films as harbingers of emerging fascism still resonate today. Leonardo Quaresima's engaging and erudite introduction is critical in situating Kracauer's project both in its historical moment and in our time.

 

[aluminumfalcon]

Thanks for the tip Ellipse. I recognized the Caligari reference from a film class I took once, so I searched for Kracauer's book. Here're a few results which I found that intrigued me:

Kracauer's Mass Ornament

[video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZeyndTBFc

Theory of film : the redemption of physical reality

[book]

https://archive.org/download/theoryoffilmrede00krac/theoryoffilmrede00krac.pdf

These are the last four paragraphs of the Preface:

All this means that films cling to the surface of things. They seem to be the more cinematic, the less they focus directly on inward life, ideology, and spiritual concerns. This explains why many people with strong cultural leanings scorn the cinema. They are afraid lest its undeniable penchant for externals might tempt us to neglect our highest aspirations in the kaleidoscopic sights of ephemeral outward appearances. The cinema, says Valery, diverts the spectator from the core of his being.
Plausible as this verdict sounds, it strikes me as unhistorical and superficial because it fails to do justice to the human condition in our time. Perhaps our condition is such that we cannot gain access to the elusive essentials of life unless we assimilate the seemingly non-essential? Perhaps the way today leads from, and through, the corporeal to the spiritual? And perhaps the cinema helps us to move from "below" to "above?" It is indeed my contention that film, our contemporary, has a definite bearing on the era into which it is born; that it meets our inmost needs precisely by exposing—for the first time, as it were—outer reality and thus deepening, in Gabriel Marcel's words, our relation to "this Earth which is our habitat."
These few hints will have to do, for there is no short cut to the observations and thoughts on which my contention is based. I have tried to unfold them in the last chapter, which both completes and transcends the preceding aesthetic considerations. In fact, it reaches far beyond film proper. Just as, throughout the book, numbers of movies are analyzed with a view to exemplifying various points of my theory, so, in this chapter, the cinema itself is set in the perspective of something more general— an approach to the world, a mode of human existence.
Let me conclude with a personal reminiscence. I was still a young boy when I saw my first film. The impression it made upon me must have been intoxicating, for I there and then determined to commit my experience to writing. To the best of my recollection, this was my earliest literary project. Whether it ever materialized, I have forgotten. But I have not forgotten its long-winded title, which, back home from the moviehouse, I immediately put on a shred of paper. Film as the Discoverer of the Marvels of Everyday Life, the title read. And I remember, as if it were today, the marvels themselves. What thrilled me so deeply was an ordinary suburban street, filled with lights and shadows which transfigured it. Several trees stood about, and there was in the foreground a puddle reflecting invisible house facades and a piece of the sky. Then a breeze moved the shadows, and the facades with the sky below began to waver. The trembling upper world in the dirty puddle—this image has never left me.
SIEGFRIED KRACAUER
June 1960
New York City

 

[Hesper]

Thank you so much for posting this Ellipse. This looks fascinating!

Concerning the relationship between media and society, especially in terms of ponerization and violence, here are a few interesting links to add to the record:

Violence and Terror in the Mass Media: An Annotated Bibliography

“This report is based on replies to over 4600 requests addressed to the international academic community for research reports, papers, publications, and other information on the subject of violence and terror in the mass media, supplemented by a search of libraries and data archives. In section 1, the material on policy costs and benefits is reviewed. The first chapter looks at codes, laws, and guidelines. The next looks at news coverage of violence and terror in the media, from both national and comparative perspectives. Section 2 looks at the analyses that have been done of violent media content. It covers violence in general, violence in the form of crime and civil disorders, and violence as it appears in television entertainment, rock music/music videos, coverage of terrorism, hostage crises, and national/cross-national studies. Section 3 looks at the evidence on the consequences of media violence, and the policy responses proposed to deal with them. It groups the material in the following categories: exposure and preference, perception, aggression, links to direct action, public projects and cultural indicators; terrorism; and concluding comments.”–Communication Abstracts

Can be found on Google books here:

_http://books.google.com/books?id=x6JYWqmws1sC&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=psychological+effects+observing+violence&source=bl&ots=zG1WKUMw8z&sig=QK7HBiqN8RiWZyeAX3LZ8dzvglU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZkdIVM7oM8TFggSxuILwDg&ved=0CGAQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=psychological%20effects%20observing%20violence&f=false

The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research

Since the early 1960s research evidence has been accumulating that suggests that exposure to violence in television, movies, video games, cell phones, and on the internet increases the risk of violent behavior on the viewer’s part just as growing up in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of them behaving violently. In the current review this research evidence is critically assessed, and the psychological theory that explains why exposure to violence has detrimental effects for both the short run and long run is elaborated. Finally, the size of the “media violence effect” is compared with some other well known threats to society to estimate how important a threat it should be considered.

Can be found here:

_http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2704015/

 

[SeekinTruth]

German expressionism cinema, of which "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" was one of the early examples in silent cinema, ended up influencing other film genres later, such as a lot of film noire and "monster"/horror films into the sound period. Even many theater productions/plays were influence by German expressionism in the staging/lighting approach in the following decades, and some stage productions used the stylized acting, as well. I actually like this asthetic style for conveying certain things in film and stage production.

Fritz Lang's films are also a good example of the use of these elements....