The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The quintessential work of early German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist who uses a brainwashed somnambulist to commit murders. The film features a dark, twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique, curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic.
Pandora's Box is a 1929 German silent drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer. The film follows Lulu, a seductive young woman whose uninhibited nature brings ruin to herself and those who love her. It is based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora.
German expressionist cinema was a part of several related creative movements in Germany in the early 20th century that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, dance, painting, sculpture and cinema.
Ernst Deutsch, also known as Ernest Dorian, was a Jewish Austrian actor. In 1916, his performance as the protagonist in the world première of Walter Hasenclever's Expressionist play The Son in Dresden was praised. Deutsch also played the antihero Famulus in Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came into the World in 1920. He is known by English-speaking audiences for his role as Baron Kurtz in Carol Reed's 1949 film noir, The Third Man.
Max Deutsch was an Austrian-French composer, conductor, and academic teacher. He studied with Arnold Schoenberg and was his assistant. Teaching at the Sorbonne and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he influenced notable students such as Philippe Capdenat, Donald Harris, György Kurtág and Philippe Manoury.
The Golem: How He Came into the World is a 1920 German silent horror film and a leading example of early German Expressionism. Director Paul Wegener, who co-directed the film with Carl Boese and co-wrote the script with Henrik Galeen based on Gustav Meyrink's 1915 novel, stars as the titular creature, a being in Jewish folklore created from clay. Photographer Karl Freund went on to work on the 1930s classic Universal horror films years later in Hollywood.
Werner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the antisemitic propaganda film Jud Süß and his collaboration with the Nazis made him a controversial figure.
Ilka Grüning was an Austrian-Hungarian actress. Born in Vienna in the old Austrian-Hungarian Empire, she was one of many Jewish actors and actresses that were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in 1933. A respected and famous actress of her time in the German-language area, she was forced to play bit parts in Hollywood.
The Student of Prague is a 1926 German Expressionist silent film by actor and filmmaker Henrik Galeen.
Joyless Street, also titled The Street of Sorrow or The Joyless Street, is a 1925 German silent film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst starring Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen and Werner Krauss. It is based on a novel by Hugo Bettauer and widely considered an expression of New Objectivity in film.
Lil Dagover was a German actress whose film career spanned between 1913 and 1979. She was one of the most popular and recognized film actresses in the Weimar Republic.
Albert Steinrück was a German stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 80 films between 1910 and 1929. He starred in the 1923 film The Treasure, which was directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst. He was also a leading role in the German expressionist 1920 film The Golem, in which he plays a rabbi.
Secrets of a Soul is a 1926 silent German drama film directed by G. W. Pabst.
Erna Morena was a German film actress, film producer, and screenwriter of the silent era. She appeared in 104 films between 1913 and 1951.
The Love of Jeanne Ney, released as Lusts of the Flesh in the United Kingdom, is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst based on a novel by Ilya Ehrenburg.
The Unknown Tomorrow is a 1923 German silent drama film directed by Alexander Korda and starring Werner Krauss, María Corda, and Olga Limburg.
Rapsodia Satanica is a 1915 Italian silent film directed by Nino Oxilia featuring Lyda Borelli in a female version of Faust based on poems by Fausto Maria Martini. Pietro Mascagni wrote his only film music for the film and conducted the first performance in July 1917. Mascagni was keen to take commission for the film music due to the financial burden of supporting two sickening brothers.
The House on the Moon is a 1921 German silent science fiction film directed by Karlheinz Martin and starring Leontine Kühnberg, Erich Pabst and Fritz Kortner. Shot at the Johannisthal Studios in an expressionist style, it is now considered a lost film.
Diary of a Lost Woman is a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Erna Morena, Reinhold Schünzel, and Werner Krauss. The rising star Conrad Veidt also appeared. It is now considered a lost film. It was remade at the end of the silent era as Diary of a Lost Girl by Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
