Film series
The Lost Years of German Cinema: 1949–1963

11/15-11/23/17
Film at Lincoln Center

The Lost Years of German Cinema: 1949–1963 is a 13-film series of under-appreciated and rediscovered gems from the postwar era, co-presented by the Goethe-Institut and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Our sense of German film history is founded largely upon the prewar masterpieces by Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau, and G. W. Pabst, and then the iconoclasm of the New German Cinema directors of the 1960s and ’70s, such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta, and Volker Schlöndorff. Less well-known are the films produced after the fall of the Third Reich and before the signing of the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962, which jump-started a new kind of national cinema. Closer inspection of this in-between period reveals a wealth of eclectic and innovative filmmaking, featuring established masters (like Fritz Lang and Robert Siodmak) returning to Germany to conclude their careers, foreign directors passing through, and under-recognized talents (such as Helmut Käutner) reinventing the genre film. This series, presented in collaboration with the Locarno Film Festival, spotlights this rich, unsung, and fascinating period and its exceptionally diverse body of films, capturing a generation’s effort to newly define German identity.

Organized by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan. This program was selected from the retrospective curated by Olaf Möller and Roberto Turigliatto at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival, organized in partnership with the Deutsches Filminstitut, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque suisse and German Films.

A talk with film critic Olaf Möller on postwar German film will take place at the Goethe-Institut on November 14, 7:00pm.

Film program

Helmut Käutner
BLACK GRAVEL / Schwarzer Kies
West Germany, 1961, new digital restoration, 117m
November 17, 9:15pm
November 19, 6:00pm
November 23, 6:00pm

Robert Siodmak
THE DEVIL STRIKES AT NIGHT / Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam
West Germany, 1957, 35mm, 104m
November 15, 4:30pm
November 19, 8:30pm

Konrad Petzold
THE DRESS / Das Kleid
East Germany, 1961/91, 35mm, 88m
November 19, 2:00pm
November 21, 7:00pm

Aleksander Ford
THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE WEEK / Ósmy dzień tygodnia
Poland/West Germany, 1958, 35mm, 84m
November 19, 4:00pm
November 21, 9:00pm

Wolfgang Staudte
THE FAIR / Kirmes
West Germany/France, 1960, 35mm, 102m
November 16, 9:00pm
November 17, 2:30pm

Harald Braun
THE GLASS TOWER / Der gläserne Turm
West Germany, 1957, 35mm, 105m
November 15, 9:00pm (Introduction by Olaf Möller)
November 21, 4:30pm

Kurt Hoffmann
THE HAUNTED CASTLE / Das Spukschloß im Spessart
West Germany, 1964, 35mm, 101m
November 18, 8:45pm

Peter Lorre
THE LOST ONE / Der Verlorene
West Germany, 1951, 35mm, 98m
November 22, 9:00pm
November 23, 1:30pm

Helmut Käutner
REDHEAD / Die Rote
West Germany/Italy, 1962, 35mm, 94m
November 17, 5:00pm
November 18, 4:30pm

Hans Heinz König
ROSES BLOOM ON THE MOORLAND / Rosen blühen auf dem Heidegrab
West Germany, 1952, 35mm, 82m
November 15, 2:30pm
November 22, 7:00pm
November 23, 8:30pm

Helmut Käutner
SKY WITHOUT STARS / Himmel ohne Sterne
West Germany, 1955, 35mm, 108m
November 17, 7:00pm
November 22, 4:30pm
November 23, 3:30pm

Fritz Lang
THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR / Der Tiger von Eschnapur
West Germany/France/Italy, 1959, 35mm, 101m
November 18, 6:30pm

Gottfried Kolditz
WHITE BLOOD / Weißes Blut
East Germany, 1959, 35mm, 88m
Wednesday, November 15, 7:00pm (Introduction by Olaf Möller)
Tuesday, November 21, 2:00pm