15th Silent Movie Festival Karlsruhe as guest at ZKM

»Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and cinema of the 1920s« – For the second time in its history, the Silent Film Festival will be dealing with this subject with one of the most influential and creative film directors, who characterised cinematic history of the 1920s like no other. Films such as »Nosferatu«, one of the forefathers of the vampire film, and »Sunrise«, the first Oscar winner, are films of unique beauty that still appeal to the public, reaching them on an emotional level, in the same way as they did back then.

At this year’s Silent Film Festival, influences and connecting lines to other directors, screenwriters and genres will be demonstrated with some other films – e.g. with »The Golem: How He Came into the World« and a schedule with the films, »A Romany Spy« and »The Merry Jail«. While in the first film, Asta Nielsen portrays a similar figure as »Marizza, called the Smuggler Madonna« by Murnau, Harry Liedtke plays his favourite role in the film by Ernst Lubitisch: that of a ruined aristocrat, quite similar to »The Grand Duke's Finances« by Murnau.

On Saturday evening, »Nosferatu« will be shown as part of the film concert. An ensemble under the control of pianist Frieder Egri will provide the musical accompaniment. To conclude, the festival will present Murnau’s »Faust« together with the Faust film by George Meliés, the latter will be accompanied by the Orchestre Barbenfouillis.

A special occasion awaits the public on Sunday afternoon as part of an exceptional performance: Japanese film narrator Ichiro Kataoka will be visiting Karlsruhe again for the second time. This time with the film »Taki no shiraito« (瀧の白糸 / The Water Magician) by Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口健二) based on a tragic love story by Izumi Kyōka (泉鏡花).

The children’s programme will include a selection of short films entitled »Fairy-Tales and Spells« – colourful films from early cinema, full of rich imagination and all kinds of »fire magic«. As well as films such as »A Trip to Jupiter«, two early fairy-tale films by Albert Capellani, »Cinderella« and »Sleeping Beauty« will enchant the young and young-at-heart audience alike.

The venues of the events of March 11 and 12 2017 are the Kinemathek, the U-Max at the Prinz-Max-Palais and Stephanssaal, as well as the ZKM_Media Theater.

Program at ZKM (March 11 and 12 2017)

Please note the additional program at www.stummfilmfestival-karlsruhe.de