36. International Film History Conference: Day 1

09:30 - 09:40

Welcome

PANEL 1: MUSIC AND MIGRATION

09:40 - 10:30

Ufa grüβt Lubitsch: Frühe Tonfilmoperetten

There is an astonishing parallelism of aesthetics between the German sound film operetta of the years 1930-33 and the sound film operettas of the Paramount by Ernst Lubitsch and Rouben Mamoulian, both of whom equally reject film realism. As Michael Wedel records in his work on German music film, Ufa's experimental transformation into a sound film operetta can be explained by the new technical possibilities of sound film and its economic constraints. But also the further development of the sound film operetta into the so-called singer's fillm and in the mid-1930s to the classic film operetta find parallels in the design of the musical in America. The question is how these similar aesthetics of the music film prepared or prevented the ground for German film exiles in Hollywood who made musicals.

10:40 - 11:30

La La Land. Filmmusikalische Phantasien über transatlantische Migration

The universality of music expands the reverberation chamber of the sound film. By narrating not only visually and acoustically, but also musically, the music film combines a narrative of film aesthetics and a narrative of the sociology of migration: it opens up the boundaries of national cultural identities to transcultural similarities and deviations between the country of origin and the country of residence. He gives musical expression to this process of acculturation and attests to its – universally understandable – affective character. This utopia expands spatially and politically with the perspective of America as the classic country of immigration. Two romantic comedies, both economic crisis films around 1930 and musically dreamed escapes, interpret the experience of transition between origin and future in opposite ways: The Statue of Liberty greets the protagonists of the American film DELICIOUS (US 1931, David Butler) and the German film EIN BLONDER TRAUM (DE 1932, Paul Martin) on their arrival in an equally friendly and inviting manner. But while the dream of luck of the Berlin circus artist Jou-Jou (Lilian Harvey) to become a film star in Hollywood bursts, the dream of luck comes true for the Scottish emigrant Heather (Janet Gaynor). The artist's exclusion from the film business does not lead back to the starting point without an anti-American undertone. One year later, this solution is "dreamed up" for most of the film's collaborators. The integration of the Scottish orphans into the Land of Freedom is already evident on the crossing in the transformation of the different musical identities of the emigrants into the song »The Melting Pot«, in which these differences merge. Music is therefore in the air of La La Land: whether voluntary migration or involuntary exile, the German and European filmmakers bring the proven potential for a successful transmigration with them: a high level of formal qualification, spatial mobility, transnational networks, circular cultural identity and the practice of the transformational music film that has an impact on the aesthetics of the American musical.

PANEL 2: DEFINING MUSIC FILM

11:40 - 12:30

Über Heymanns Tonfilmoperetten und Möglichkeiten, Musikfilme zu beschreiben

In order to describe the structure of musical film comedies, a grid of descriptive categories is presented using Werner Richard Heymann's sound film operettas. Below the genres of comedy and melodrama, a circle of scenic comedy and happy ending is constitutive for the former. He is also able to integrate serious topics and milieus typical of the time. Larger-scale comedic structures fit into the plot structure: confusion or deception, comic characters, parody and satire, wit and comedy of the language, as well as (on a meta-level) a self-irony of the film. – The description of the overarching intentions and goals of the characters as well as their mutual conflicts characterize the film's plot; Causative and resolving (internal to the play as well as time-typical) turning points are also essential. This is illustrated by the film EIN BLONDER TRAUM. – Descriptors for the music are: singing as a genre convention versus scenically motivated music, musically underpinned sequences vs. musicless, singing vs. instrumental variations, adopted music (operetta film, composer's film), connection between musical and image rhythm, cross-cut melody, choirs, musical joke. – In contrast to the one-song film, a “symphonic” design works with several songs that characterize central characters and themes. This special quality of Heymann's sound film operettas is illustrated by EIN BLONDER TRAUM, especially the song "Irgendwo auf der Welt".

12:30 - 13:30

Lunch Break

FEDERAL ARCHIVE DIGITAL

13:30 - 14:30

Eigenständige und umfassende Online-Filmrecherchen – der neue Digitale Lesesaal; Von der Filmrolle zur Datei. Die Postproduktionswerkstatt in Hoppegarten

14:40 - 15:40

Discussion about the opening film