"From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses" (2014): Director Rüdiger Suchsland's Adaptation of Siegfried Cracauer's Seminal 1947 Book of German Cinema between the World Wars

[DonRocks]

Although I've never read the groundbreaking 1947 book on which it is based, this is a fine documentary which covers German cinematic development and progression between the two World Wars, and does it using beautiful, important film clips from historic movies. Its major flaw is that, were it not for the clips, it would be akin to enduring an arduous lecture about something you don't know enough in which to have an interest.

This is an extremely fertile period in German Cinema, and it is explored here very thoroughly - although the clips save it from being completely austere, you really must *want to learn* about this subject to get the most out of this fascinating documentary - look closely enough, and you can see WWII on its way, which chilled me to the bone.

Has anyone else out there besides me seen this important documentary? If so, which parts struck you as being the most poignant? I believe this is a documentary to see by those who have seen some of the films, and not a primer which tells the viewer which they should watch (although it certainly could be used as such) - a certain amount of prerequisite knowledge is required in order to fully appreciate its otherwise-meaningless words. One legitimate way of watching the documentary would be to stop anytime a film is referenced, watch that film, and then return to where you left off in the documentary - by the end, you'll have a working knowledge of this period in German cinema superior to that of even most film students.

"From Caligari to Hitler: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses" (<--- this is an outstanding review on variety.com) is available for free with an Amazon Prime membership (an oxymoron, I realize).

[DonRocks]

I take no responsibility for this.