Post by igelkotten on May 6, 2005 16:15:57 GMT
This is a movie that few people have heard of, let alone seen, but I still think it is wirthy of a mention here.
"Das Stahltier" -The Steel Animal or perhaps Steel Beast, is a movie made on commission from the Deutsche Reichsbahn for the 1935 celebration of the hundred-year jubilee of the first german railway.
The director, Willy Zielke, was one of the foremost young (just over thirty years old!) talents in german filmmaking at the time, and he made a film that was an absolute masterpiece. With breathtaking photography, lovely use of lightning and shadows, and very innovative use of camera work and angles, the film is one of the high points of the german expressionist school of arts. And the DR directorate originally decided that this film was to be an artistic monument over their accomplishemnts, so no resources were spared to make the movie -including remaking full-scale working copies of ancient steam locos.
However, by 1935, the political climate in germany had turned very sour. The DR was already purging jews and other undesirables from it's ranks, and artistic expression was being shepherded into some very narrow definitions of what was permissable and wholesome. Shaky handcameras, quick and sharp cutscenes, humans as the focus of the story and lots of attention to the early british development of the railways were too much for the german government of that day to stomach. The minister of propaganda himself decided that the movie was "harmful to the good reputation of the german people", as well as "presenting an unnecessarily exciting and possibly harmful view of the state railways".
The film was supressed and never shown publically, and parts of it even destroyed.
The director, Willy Zielke, turned into a sort of undesirable after this debacle. While influence from friends with better political connections helped him to work for some time, including some amazing camera work for Leni Riefenstahl in her movie about the Berlin olympics 1936, he soon went into a sort of internal exile and his career never recovered.
Zielke died in 1989, having long forsaken filmmaking.
So, why do I post about this obscure and odd film? Simply put; It is, even in the damaged and partly-incomplete condition that is available today, a masterpiece of filmmaking, and a very good film about the history of the railways. And the story of the film also tells us something about the wider context of the railways, our work and hobby.
The film is sometimes shown at film festivals, and it is sometimes available as a download on certain peer-to-peer networks (BitTorrent, as far as I know). If you do stumble upon it, do watch it. It deserves a far better destiny than obscurity.
"Das Stahltier" -The Steel Animal or perhaps Steel Beast, is a movie made on commission from the Deutsche Reichsbahn for the 1935 celebration of the hundred-year jubilee of the first german railway.
The director, Willy Zielke, was one of the foremost young (just over thirty years old!) talents in german filmmaking at the time, and he made a film that was an absolute masterpiece. With breathtaking photography, lovely use of lightning and shadows, and very innovative use of camera work and angles, the film is one of the high points of the german expressionist school of arts. And the DR directorate originally decided that this film was to be an artistic monument over their accomplishemnts, so no resources were spared to make the movie -including remaking full-scale working copies of ancient steam locos.
However, by 1935, the political climate in germany had turned very sour. The DR was already purging jews and other undesirables from it's ranks, and artistic expression was being shepherded into some very narrow definitions of what was permissable and wholesome. Shaky handcameras, quick and sharp cutscenes, humans as the focus of the story and lots of attention to the early british development of the railways were too much for the german government of that day to stomach. The minister of propaganda himself decided that the movie was "harmful to the good reputation of the german people", as well as "presenting an unnecessarily exciting and possibly harmful view of the state railways".
The film was supressed and never shown publically, and parts of it even destroyed.
The director, Willy Zielke, turned into a sort of undesirable after this debacle. While influence from friends with better political connections helped him to work for some time, including some amazing camera work for Leni Riefenstahl in her movie about the Berlin olympics 1936, he soon went into a sort of internal exile and his career never recovered.
Zielke died in 1989, having long forsaken filmmaking.
So, why do I post about this obscure and odd film? Simply put; It is, even in the damaged and partly-incomplete condition that is available today, a masterpiece of filmmaking, and a very good film about the history of the railways. And the story of the film also tells us something about the wider context of the railways, our work and hobby.
The film is sometimes shown at film festivals, and it is sometimes available as a download on certain peer-to-peer networks (BitTorrent, as far as I know). If you do stumble upon it, do watch it. It deserves a far better destiny than obscurity.
