Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood
Chronicles the birth of European cinema, from the Lumiere brothers to World War I, and then the first golden age of Swedish cinema, from the formation of Svenska Bio to the departure for Hollywood of Stiller and Sjöström. The French build the first studio, invent the traveling shot, and experiment in sound. Max Linder becomes the first comedic star. The Italians do spectacle and early realism. Germans invent film propaganda and have Lubitsch. The Danish cinema is rich before the war. An affectionate portrait of Swedish cinema appreciates its cinematography, led by Jaenzon, its conversion of novels into film, and the emergence of a production company that owned its own theaters.
- 1995-1995
- 1 season
- Alla Risacca
- Documentary
Chronicles the birth of European cinema, from the Lumiere brothers to World War I, and then the first golden age of Swedish cinema, from the formation of Svenska Bio to the departure for Hollywood of Stiller and Sjöström. The French build the first studio, invent the traveling shot, and experiment in sound. Max Linder becomes the first comedic star. The Italians do spectacle and early realism. Germans invent film propaganda and have Lubitsch. The Danish cinema is rich before the war. An affectionate portrait of Swedish cinema appreciates its cinematography, led by Jaenzon, its conversion of novels into film, and the emergence of a production company that owned its own theaters.
Season 1 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 1995
Episode 1
Where It All Began
58 mins
This first program traces the birth of the industry in Europe from the first moving pictures screened in 1895 through to the First World War. It contains glimpses of the hand-colored fantasies of George Melies, the sly comedy of Max Linder, the epic vision of Abel Gance, war films from Italy, early action films from Denmark and propaganda films from Britain and Germany. Going to the cinema in the last years of the 19th century wasn't much fun. You would probably be treated to such gripping titles as Leaving the Factory at Lyon or The Baby's Meal in a damp overcrowded tent that was likely to burn down (film being highly flammable). Things soon picked up, though, as this meticulous history of European cinema shows: by 1910, audiences were enjoying comedy, epics, romances and fantasies, some of them hand colored, some of them even with sound.
Episode 2
Art's Promised Land
58 mins
A look at the the period of Swedish cinema known as the Golden Age which began in 1910 and lasted until the mid-1920s. Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller were the greatest talents in Swedish film, with pictures such as Ingeborg Holm, a scathing examination of poverty, and Gosta Berling's Saga (which brought Greta Garbo to fame). Today historians acknowledge the debt that the critically acclaimed French cinema industry owed to the Scandinavians.
Episode 3
The Unchained Camera
58 mins
Featuring The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein, Metropolis, Die Nibelungen by Fritz Lang, Joyless Street starring Greta Garbo, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, Emil Jannings, The White Hell of Pitz Palu featuring Leni Riefenstahl and Louise Brooks becomes a star in G. W. Pabst's Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.
Episode 4
The Music of Light
58 mins
"The Music of Light" episode of Cinema Europe focuses on French silent cinema. It covers many films and directors, some of whom may be unfamiliar to American audiences. A few of the films covered in this episode include: Au Bonheur Les Dames, L'Argent, La Roué, Nana, Napoleon, Travail, the lost, early widescreen adaptation of To Build a Fire, and a thirty-two reel adaptation of Les Misérables.
Episode 5
Opportunity Lost
58 mins
British silent film was small and old fashioned ; many actors snubbed working in movies and few establishment society figures respected directing. Documentary, however, was a field where there was a distinctive contribution.
Episode 6
End of an Era
58 mins
Looks at the impact of the arrival of sound on the European film industry. Despite European technical innovation, the industry lacked investors to promote its discoveries. However, it was not sound that doomed the golden age of European film-making. With the rise to power of the Nazi party at the beginning of the 1930s, a new era dawned in film-making history; international co-productions began to fade and nationalistic propaganda films started asserting their authority.