"The world's most valuable movie poster, for Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece Metropolis, is to be auctioned again after making a record $690,000 in 2005. Ephemera related to the film is notoriously scarce, with only four copies of the poster known to survive. Almost as uncommon is this amazing film programme produced for the London premiere at the Marble Arch Pavilion on March 21, 1927, one of only three copies that we have handled. Not only a list of cast and crew, it includes eleven short pieces on the making of the movie, commentary from the director and cast, and numerous production photographs and film stills, many attractively arranged as modernist collages. One of the most interesting sections shows in parallel columns how a passage of film scenes was adapted from the novel of the same name by Lang's wife, Thea von Harbou."
(Laura Massey, 10 July 2012, Peter Harrington)
"This composition comprises the flat, featureless and strongly linear below–ground buildings of Metropolis' workers city, transformed and transposed into a mass of soaring, above–ground skyscrapers, huddled together and rather chaotically intersected by aerial roads and walkways. This interpretation of Fritz Lang's urban vision, as opposed to a mere reproduction of images from the film, makes a stunning poster. The strongly linear elements of Bilinsky's cityscape contrasts with the circular Tower of Babel and other soft–edged constructions which exist in Joh Fredersen's above–ground city for the rich and privileged. This poster has been reproduced in a number of publications dealing with European film posters, posters in general, and art movements of the 1920s. Bilinsky's work presents an artisitc bridge between Russian constructivism with is hard edges and linearity, and the soft, romantic elements so much a part of the French tradition."
Fig.1 Metropolis – L'Alliance Cinématographique Européenne présente une production UFA réalisé par Fritz Lang d'aprés le scénario de Thea von Harbou. UFA ACE', 4 Sheet poster, (240 x 320 cm) 224 x 303.5 cm / 96 x 120 inches, Farblithografie, Bédos et Cie, Paris, 1927. Signed 'Boris Bilinsky', upper right. Collection: Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen / Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. René Clémenti–Bilinsky catalogue no.1030.
(Michael Organ and René Clémenti–Bilinsky)
"Prentenboek met 18 platen met geometrische gevormde figuren van een van de 'constructivistisch gerichte experimentele schilders' met plaatjes die gemaakt lijken 'met behulp van de tangramdoos' (S. de Bodt. Prentenboeken). Bevat onder andere gedichten en prenten over een vlinder, kippen, spreeuwen, een geitenbok, speelgoed, een varken, de sproeiwagen, een watermannetje, de vuilnisman, lammetjes, spelen met een tol, een interieur met zonnestraal, een kwikstaart, koe en schaap in de wei, een lezend meisje, regen, sneeuwpret en Sinterklaas."
(The Memory of the Netherlands)
Simon Franke (1927). "Gouden Vlinders" picture book illustrated Lou Loeber.
"Alexander Calder magically breathed life into inanimate objects, using wire and recycled materials to create this army of circus characters. Beginning in 1927, Calder performed the Circus in Paris, New York, and elsewhere. He would issue invitations to his guests, who would sit on makeshift bleachers munching peanuts, just like the real circus. With the crash of cymbals and music from an old gramophone, the circus would begin. Many of the individual circus animals and performers include mechanized parts – Calder was originally trained as a mechanical engineer.
It wasn't the tricks or gimmicks of the circus that appealed to Calder, but the dynamic movement of bodies in space. He first went to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus in 1925. He was inspired by the mechanics of the circus and made hundreds of drawings of the equipment and the ropes and the guy wires for the tents. Later in his career, Calder turned his attention to more abstract work. ... He went on to invent the mobile and other works of moving sculpture."
(Adam Weinberg, Whitney Museum of American Art)
"Eine Zusammenstellung der besten und berühmtesten langen Kamerafahrten muss natürlich mit Murnau beginnen. Hier das Treffen des Mannes mit seiner Geliebten in Sunrise (1927) [1] Der Banküberfall in Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950), in einer einzigen Einstellung aus dem Auto gefilmt [2] Die Kamera aus der Ich–Perspektive ... Madame de ... (Max Ophuls, 1953) – nach dem Vorspann ab Minute 1:50 [3] Touch of Evil von Orson Welles (1958), mit der wohl so ziemlich berühmtesten Kamerafahrt [4] Godard ('Eine Kamerafahrt ist eine Frage der Moral.') und sein Weekend (1967) [5] Antonionis Beruf: Reporter (1975) [6] In den letzten zehn bis zwanzig Jahren werden extrem lange Kamerafahrten immer häufiger. Zum einen aufgrund der besseren technischen Möglichkeiten (die Steadycam gibt es seit Mitte der 70er Jahre, Antonioni musste für seine bahnbrechenden Aufnahmen in Beruf: Reporter noch komplizierte Konstruktionen zu Hilfe nehmen) – und zum anderen als Gegenentwicklung, als Ruhepol zu der immer höher werdenden Schnittfrequenz, die mit dem Musikclipsender MTV begann und jüngst mit den Batman– und Jason–Bourne–Filmen einen Höhepunkt erreicht hat. In Martin Scorseses Goodfellas (1990) folgt die Kamera Henry, wie er mit seiner Freundin über den Hintereingang einen Club betritt. Dabei wird unnachahmlich illustriert, welch privilegierte Stellung er genießt [7] Aus Murnaus entfesselter Kamera war zu diesem Zeitpunkt schon ein so beliebtes Stilmittel geworden, dass es Zeit für etwas Ironie wurde. Das zeigt die Anfangssequenz in Robert Altmans The Player (1992), in der sich zwei Darsteller über die besten tracking shots der Filmgeschichte unterhalten [8] Einige besonders kreative Höhepunkte sind seit den 90er Jahren im Genre des Hongkong–Thrillers zu finden. So in John Woos Hard Boiled (1992) [9] Die ersten sieben Minuten von Breaking News (2004) von Johnnie To [10] Ziemlich eindrucksvoll ist auch diese Szene aus The Protector von Prachya Pinkaew (2005) [11] Höhepunkt und Abgesang? In Joe Wrights Atonement von 2007 gerät die knapp fünfminütige Sequenz mit den Landungstruppen am Strand zu einem fast schon aufdringlichen Muskelspiel (ab 0:47) [12] Weitere Beispiele?"
(Thorsten Funke, 20. Juni 2009)
Films famous for their use of single continuous shots:
Sunrise (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1927); Gun Crazy (Joseph H. Lewis, 1950); Madame de ... (Max Ophuls, 1953); Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958); Weekend (Jean Luc Godard, 1967); Beruf: Reporter (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1975); Goodfellas (Martin Scorseses, 1990); The Player (Robert Altman, 1992); Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992); Breaking News (Johnnie To Kei–Fung, 2004); The Protector (Prachya Pinkaew, 2005); Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007).
"Last Tuesday Paula Félix–Didier travelled on a secret mission to Berlin in order to meet with three film experts and editors from ZEITmagazin. The museum director from Buenos Aires had something special in her luggage: a copy of a long version of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, including scenes believed lost for almost 80 years. After examining the film the three experts are certain: The find from Buenos Aires is a real treasure, a worldwide sensation. Metropolis, the most important silent film in German history, can from this day on be considered to have been rediscovered."
(ZEITmagazin, 2.7.2008)
"Dabei versucht Ruttmann, die seiner Generation eigene Großstadterfahrung mit spezifisch filmischen Mitteln adäquat auszudrücken. Zu diesem Zweck hat er die Filmaufnahmen als Ausgangspunkt für eine Montage genommen, deren Rhythmus hypnotisiert, dem Zuschauer ein Geschwindigkeitserlebnis vermittelt und die einen neuen Sinn erzeugt, der über die Gegenständlichkeit der Filmaufnahmen hinausgeht.
'Während der langen Jahre meiner Bewegungsgestaltung aus abstrakten Mitteln ließ mich die Sehnsucht nicht los, aus lebendigem Material zu bauen, aus den milionenfachen, tatsächlich vorhandenen Bewegungsenergien des Großstadtorganismus eine Film–Sinfonie zu schaffen', schreibt Ruttmann."
(Katrin Lemke)
"A primary characteristic of the 'language' of montage is its tendency towards multiple and layered meanings. One example of this multiplicity is the combination of incongruous visual and verbal elements within the space of a single picture. ...these individual elements are combined in compositions, which are more like energy fields than traditional perspectival space (with its attendant sense of rational time). The syntax of montage is non–linear; any single element tends towards a multiplicity of possible connections with other elements. Meanings are contextual and relative, and the literalness of photography gives way to metaphor, metonymy and allegory. These effects are created not only by the cutting and fragmentation of elements but also by the space between the elements which, like gaps that must be jumped, activate and energise the image. It would not be incorrect to see these 'fields' as a kind of shattered mirror reflection of the energy, confusion and contradictions of life as the Dadaists saw it. Many of their works, however, emphasise the desire, perhaps the necessity, to see below this surface reflection to the underlying structure of society or the psyche. Iconographically, the most consistent reminder of that desire is the repeated use of anatomical photographs and diagrams in the work of Hausmann and Ernst. In addition to their visual impact as figures, these elements tend to constantly remind the viewer to be conscious of what is below the surface, even if that underlying layer is not visible. Thus, during this period the foundations were laid for the Surrealists' examination of the unconscious and for John Heartfield's satirical analysis of the ideology of Nazi Germany in the early 30's. Apart from and following Dada's end as an organised movement, important photomontages were also produced by Constructivist artists such as Lazio Moholy–Nagy and Alexander Rodchenko."
(John Pickel, 1988)
Fig.1
Title on Object: Eifersucht
Published Title: Jealousy
1927
collage with photographic/photo–mechanical and drawn elements
63.8 x 56.1 cm.
Museum Purchase; ex–collection Sybil Moholy–Nagy
GEH NEG: 4339
81:2163:0011
Old GEH Number: 4685–11