Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2005 Sommario / Contents

cooperation with George Eastman House, the original tinted nitrate print
with Russian intertitles (the basis of the Russian dupe negative) was
located in the vaults of the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv, and was completed
with scenes from another tinted nitrate fragment with Italian intertitles
from the Roberto Pallme Collection at George Eastman House.Additional
material used in the restoration included the last sequence of the film,
with German intertitles, which was found with the nitrate material of the
Joe May production Das indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb)
preserved by Filmmuseum München; some outtakes which were found in
a 16mm reel with film clips; and shots from the Russian preservation print
which were damaged in the original nitrate material.
Since the badly damaged nitrate material could not be satisfactorily
duplicated by traditional methods, all the materials were scanned in 2Kresolution
by the company Alpha-Omega, which specializes in dealing with
damaged nitrate films. Frame by frame the pictures were stabilized,
cleaned, and repaired. With the help of the screenplay, contemporary
programs, newspaper reviews, and a fragment of the censorship card, the
film was reconstructed shot by shot, with missing parts replaced by stills
and explanatory title cards.The work was extremely difficult, since in all
the nitrate fragments the order of the shots had been rearranged –
evidently to create new storylines. The Russian material was compiled
from at least two different prints, resulting in varying tinting tones, while
sometimes the same shots were used in different parts of the film. In the
Italian print from George Eastman House the Weib des Pharao material
was combined with a scene from an unidentified film showing a battle
around a medieval castle. The digital data, well documented in a digital
editing-list with all the information on each shot, has been transferred
back to film in the original full-aperture silent-film format. The film’s
original orchestral premiere music by Eduard Künneke has been arranged
for the reconstructed version by Berndt Heller and recorded with the
orchestra of Saarländischer Rundfunk. For the screening at the Giornate
del Cinema Muto the music will be played from a DVD and synchronized
with the 35mm film projection. – STEFAN DROESSLER
By the time Lubitsch started making Das Weib des Pharao in 1921, he
stood at the top of the German film industry. He had made 17 features and
short features since 1918, including comedies, historical epics, and literary
adaptations, and almost all had been box-office successes. Madame
Dubarry (1919) was an internationally acclaimed hit. It premiered under
the title Passion in the United States in December 1920, and was crucial
in breaking down the lingering post-war prejudice against German film.
The German government’s ban on the importation of foreign films, put in
place in 1916, had been continued after the war’s end. Only at the
beginning of 1921 were American films seen again on German screens.
During those 5 years, Hollywood style had changed considerably.The threepoint
lighting system had been devised, principles of continuity editing had
gelled, settings were simpler and less eye-catching, and acting depended
more on facial expression. People in the German industry noticed the
differences, particularly in the lighting.They were impressed by backlighting,
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seen in the glamorous images of Mary Pickford (shot by Charles Rosher,
who would later film Pickford in Rosita for Lubitsch). Lubitsch was quick to
understand the new traits of American films and to master them. Das Weib
des Pharao was the first film he directed after seeing modern Hollywood,
and the change from his earlier work is striking. It and Die Flamme (1922)
occupy a brief transitional period between Lubitsch’s German and American
careers. Lubitsch had long worked for the Union company, which had united
with other firms to found UFA in late 1917. In December 1920 Union’s
owner, Paul Davidson, decided not to renew his contract with UFA.The rising
inflation which would eventually spiral into hyperinflation was limiting
Davidson’s financial freedom, and some of his lead actors were receiving
feelers from American production companies. Davidson wanted to form a
company for Lubitsch.
His chance to do so was provided by a new,American-owned company that
was being formed in Berlin. The Europäische Film-Allianz was officially
founded in April 1921 as an American-German company. Ultimately EFA
stemmed from a short-lived attempt by Famous Players-Lasky and its
distribution wing Paramount to make films abroad.The immediate founder
of EFA was the Hamilton Theatrical Corp., which was half-owned by FP-L;
UFA also had holdings in EFA. EFA either invested in smaller production
companies or contracted the distribution rights for their films.These initially
included Joe May-Film GmbH, Ernst Lubitsch-Film GmbH (founded in
December 1920), and companies headed by Henny Porten and Ossi
Oswalda. In forming his own company under EFA, Lubitsch brought with him
some long-time collaborators, including scriptwriter Hanns Kräly,
cinematographer Theodor Sparkuhl, and designer Kurt Richter.
EFA set out to create the most modern studio in Europe, outfitted with
state-of-the-art American equipment, including lamps and Bell & Howell
cameras. In 1920, a large exhibition hall in the Zoo area of Berlin had been
converted to a studio, the country’s largest. Unlike earlier film studios, its
walls were not of glass; it was Germany’s first “dark” studio, a type that had
become increasingly common in America since 1915. Such buildings were
designed to be lit entirely artificially, allowing the filmmakers more control
over the look of the shots. EFA took over what became the EFA-Atelier am
Zoo studio in April 1921. It was nearly three times the size of Union’s main
studio building (30 x 75 meters), and it was equipped with all the major
types of American lighting equipment, far more varied than what German
filmmakers were accustomed to.
An American observer visiting the studio in 1922 to observe Lubitsch at
work on Die Flamme (also made for EFA) remarked on the facility:“When
I entered the Lubitsch studio I felt as though I had been plunged suddenly
from Berlin into the depths of Hollywood.There were the same treacherous
cables to ensnare your brogues, the same, or almost the same, arc lights,
spots and banks” (Photoplay, December 1922, p. 96). Not surprisingly, the
two films Lubitsch made for EFA display a strong American influence.The
lighting style of Das Weib des Pharao is the most obvious indicator of the
impact of Hollywood films on Lubitsch. Up until 1921, German filmmakers
typically poured diffused light into a set from the front. The principles of
directing dimmer fill-light onto the sets or using back-light to model the
actors’ figures were almost unknown. In Das Weib, suddenly we see a heavy