October 26: Kuhle Wampe

The PG Kino Fall 2010 series, Berlin Films I: Streets and City Spaces, continues with Kuhle Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt? (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?)

Tuesday, October 26, 8PM
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall

Free and open to the public.
Preceded by a short introduction and followed by an open discussion.

Kuhle Wampe oder wem gehört die Welt? (Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?)

Dir. Slatan Dudow (Germany, 1932) 69 min. German with English Subtitles.

"This Weimar Germany film classic uses an avant-garde, fragmented narrative to tell the story of a working-class family in Berlin in 1931. Survival is difficult, with massive unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression. After Anni’s brother commits suicide in despair, her family finds itself forced to move to Kuhle Wampe, a lakeside camp on the outskirts of Berlin, now home to increasing numbers of unemployed. When Anni’s relationship with Franz ends, she moves back to Berlin and gets involved in the workers’ youth movement. Already censored in March 1932, the film was then banned by the Nazis in 1933 for having “communist tendencies.”
Director Slatan Dudow brought together an exceptionally renowned set of artists, including co-author Bertolt Brecht, cameraman Günther Krampf (Nosferatu), composer Hanns Eisler, noted workers’ movement balladeer Ernst Busch and the actress Hertha Thiele (Girls in Uniform)." -Synopsis from the DEFA Film Library Catalog, www.defafilmlibrary.com

"One of the best films of the century." – Village Voice

"Nowhere in the cinema has Brecht’s aesthetic and political theory been so well dramatized and illuminated." – Harvard Film Archive