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EFA Studios
The EFA Studios or Halensee Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Halensee. They were a prominent centre of film production in the Silent film, silent and early sound era. Constructed in 1919 after the First World War, they were part of a wave of modern studios that used artificial lighting rather than the earlier Greenhouse, glasshouse studios that relied on natural light. Early productions included ''Der Januskopf, The Head of Janus'' by F.W. Murnau. They were located close to Berlin Zoo and were sometimes also known as the Zoo Studios. In 1921 the Europäische Film-Allianz (EFA) took over the studios. Led by Paul Davidson (producer), Paul Davidson, former head of PAGU, the company had ambitious plans to challenge the largest film companies in Europe and America. The company produced several epic films, epics directed by Ernst Lubitsch and featuring two of Germany's biggest stars of the era Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. After the EFA outfit folded Lubitsch, Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
EFA Studios
The EFA Studios or Halensee Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Halensee. They were a prominent centre of film production in the Silent film, silent and early sound era. Constructed in 1919 after the First World War, they were part of a wave of modern studios that used artificial lighting rather than the earlier Greenhouse, glasshouse studios that relied on natural light. Early productions included ''Der Januskopf, The Head of Janus'' by F.W. Murnau. They were located close to Berlin Zoo and were sometimes also known as the Zoo Studios. In 1921 the Europäische Film-Allianz (EFA) took over the studios. Led by Paul Davidson (producer), Paul Davidson, former head of PAGU, the company had ambitious plans to challenge the largest film companies in Europe and America. The company produced several epic films, epics directed by Ernst Lubitsch and featuring two of Germany's biggest stars of the era Pola Negri and Emil Jannings. After the EFA outfit folded Lubitsch, Ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Davidson (producer)
Paul Davidson (30 March 1867 – 18 July 1927) was a German film producer. Biography Paul Davidson was born in Lötzen, East Prussia (modern Giżycko, Poland) the son of Moritz Davidson. He initially worked as a commercial traveller in the textile industry and became the manager of a security firm in Frankfurt am Main in 1902. On vacation to Paris he saw his first movie, a Georges Méliès film, in a cinema. Back in Frankfurt he founded the "Allgemeine Kinematographen-Theater Gesellschaft, Union-Theater für lebende und Tonbilder GmbH" (A.K.T.G.) on 21 March 1906 and opened Mannheim’s first permanent cinema, the Union-Theater (U.T.). Further cinemas followed in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Strasbourg, Amsterdam and Brussels. On 4 September 1909 Davidson opened the Union-Theater at Berlin, Alexanderplatz. Another Union-Theater was opened at Berlin's Unter den Linden on 21 August 1910, by 1910 Davidson had built up a "sizeable chain of 600–1000 seater luxury cinemas".El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Era
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of government, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound Film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid-to-late 1920s. At first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as "talking pictures", or "talkies", were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects. The first feature film originally presented as a talkie (although it had only limited so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in some cases, distributed by major companies). Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with considerably lower budgets than major studio films. It is not unusual for well-known actors who are cast in independent features to take substantial pay cuts for a variety of reasons: if they truly believe in the message of the film; they feel indebted to filmmaker for a career break; their career is otherwise stalled or they feel unable to manage a larger commitment to a studio film; the film offers an opportunity to showcase a talent that hasn't gained traction in the studio system; or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henny Porten
Frieda Ulricke "Henny" Porten (7 January 1890 – 15 October 1960) was a German actress and film producer of the silent era, and Germany's first major film star. She appeared in more than 170 films between 1906 and 1955. Biography Frieda Ulricke Porten was born in Magdeburg, in what was then the German Empire. She was one of the few German actresses of the era to enter film without having stage experience. Many of her earlier films were directed by her husband Curt A. Stark, who died during World War I in Transylvania on the Eastern Front in 1916. . Retrieved 16 October 2013. Her father, , was also an actor and film director, as was her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings (born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, 23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a Swiss born German actor, popular in the 1920s in Hollywood. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his roles in '' The Last Command'' and ''The Way of All Flesh''. As of , Jannings is the only German ever to have won the category. Jannings is best known for his collaborations with F. W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, including the 1930 film ''The Blue Angel'' (''Der blaue Engel'', with Marlene Dietrich. ''The Blue Angel'' was meant as a vehicle for Jannings to score a place for himself in the new medium of sound film, but Dietrich stole the show. Jannings later starred in a number of Nazi propaganda films, which made him unemployable as an actor after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Childhood and youth Jannings was born in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe (''née'' Schwabe), origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pola Negri
Pola Negri (; born Apolonia Chalupec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles and was acknowledged as a sex symbol. Raised in the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Negri's childhood was marked by several personal hardships: After her father was sent to Siberia, she was raised by her single mother in poverty, and suffered tuberculosis as a teenager. Negri recovered, and went on to study ballet and acting in Warsaw, becoming a well-known stage actress there. In 1917, she relocated to Germany, where she began appearing in silent films for the Berlin-based UFA studio. Her film performances for UFA came to the attention of Hollywood executives at Paramount Pictures, who offered her a film contract. Negri signed with Paramount in 1922, making her the first European actress in history to be contracted in Hollywood. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch (; January 29, 1892November 30, 1947) was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch". Among his best known works are '' Trouble in Paradise'', ''Design for Living'', ''Ninotchka'', ''The Shop Around the Corner'', ''To Be or Not to Be'' and '' Heaven Can Wait''. In 1946, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his distinguished contributions to the art of the motion picture. Early life Lubitsch was born in 1892 in Berlin, the son of Simon Lubitsch, a tailor, and Anna (née) Lindenstaedt. His family was Ashkenazi Jewish; his father was born in Grodno in the Russian Empire (now Belarus), and his mother was from Wriezen outside Berlin. He turned his back on his father's tailoring business to enter the theater, and by 1911 was a member of Max Reinhar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epic Films
Epic films are a style of filmmaking with large-scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre and at other times simply synonymous with big-budget filmmaking. Like epics in the classical literary sense it is often focused on a heroic character. An epic's ambitious nature helps to set it apart from other types of film such as the period piece or adventure film. Epic historical films would usually take a historical or a mythical event and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by an expansive musical score with an ensemble cast, which would make them among the most expensive of films to produce. The most common subjects of epic films are royalty, and important figures from various periods in world history. Characteristics The term "epic" originally came from the poetic genre exemplified by such works as the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the works of the Trojan War Cycle. In classical literatu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PAGU
The Projektions-AG Union (generally shortened to PAGU) was a German film production company which operated between 1911 and 1924 during the silent era. From 1917 onwards, the company functioned as an independent unit of Universum Film AG, and was eventually merged into it entirely. The company was founded by Paul Davidson, a leading cinema-owner who branched out into production. Initially it was based in Frankfurt, but quickly moved its headquarters to Berlin as it was clear that this had become the centre of the German film industry. At the time, the majority of films being shown in Germany were foreign-produced, a situation which Davidson attempted to change. One of his first major coups was signing up the Danish film star Asta Nielsen for a lengthy contract. A rising star of the company was also the actor-director Ernst Lubitsch who made a series of comedies for PAGU. PAGU was also notable for its success in breaking a boycott of German playwrights, who were refusing to allow t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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