Berlinale 2018: Highlights from the Weimar-era film retrospective

The retrospective focuses on films that have rarely been screened or honored. Danish director Urban Gad’s two-part film "Christian Wahnschaffe," which tells the story of the spoiled son of an industrialist, was thought to be lost. The audience can now see the two parts — "World Afire" from 1920 and "The Escape From The Golden Prison" from 1921 — almost a century after their original premiere.

The First World War was a major topic for writers and directors of the Weimar era. Heinz Paul's little-known anti-war film "The Other Side" is a German version of the 1930 US movie "All Quiet on the Western Front," which was based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel of the same name. Paul's production from 1931 looks at World War One from the point of view of British soldiers.

The section of this year's Berlinale does not offer just black-and-white or colorized movies but shows works of various directors who experimented with color film techniques, too. Various German short movies that used UFA's "Sirius" color process were pretty impressive for the time.

Weimar-era film became increasingly colorful, experimental and daring. The film pioneer Oskar Fischinger animated abstract forms to the music of Richard Wagner and Edvard Grieg in his 1933 work "Tolirag Circles." Even though abstract art was considered "degenerate" by the new Nazi regime, the piece avoided censorship since it was labeled as a commercial licensed to Tolirag Advertising Company.

Both famous and lesser-known films screened during the retrospective feature early celebrities — and a good dose of melodrama. Erich Waschneck's "Docks of Hamburg" from 1928 stars German screen idols Jenny Jugo and Willy Fritsch and tells the story of a sailor whose love affair with a woman leads him to a life of crime.

"The Devious Path" is another relatively unknown film that was long believed to be lost until a copy surfaced in the 1990s. The 1928 melodrama about a couple working through a marital crisis was directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst ("Pandora's Box") and features Brigitte Helm as the wife of egotistical Robert, who is portrayed by Gustav Diessl.

The name of Leni Riefenstahl will forever be tied to the Nazi propaganda movies she directed in the 1930s. Her star rose to prominence in the 1920s, however, when she starred in various dramatic flicks. Berlinale showcases "The Blue Light" from 1932 that attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, marking the start of her new career course.

The program of the retrospective is divided into three main thematic categories that cover history, exotic subjects and everyday life. Richard Oswald's 1929 film "Spring Awakening" — based upon the play by Frank Wedekind of the same name — concerns sexuality and puberty among some young German students and is believed to be one of the first teenage movies ever made.

The Berlinale is a long-established film festival with its own traditions. To select one of the films from the Retrospective section and screen it with live music is one of them, and E. A. Dupont's "The Ancient Law" from 1932 will receive the honors this year. The movie that depicts the hardships of Jewish life will premiere in a newly restored version.

To this very day, Weimar cinema is regarded as the most fruitful and influential period of German film. Inspired by the expressionist movement in art, directors often experimented with symbolism and artistic imagery while narrating real-life stories. The still above comes from a 1928 study reel by avant-garde artist and film experimenter, Hans Richter.