The Weimar Touch, the second annual collaboration between MoMA’s Department of Film and the Deutsche Kinemathek (Museum fur Film und Fernsehen), Berlin, features some 30 films, made between the end of the Weimar Republic and 1959, that were directly influenced—through style, subject matter, and personnel—by the golden age of German cinema (roughly 1920 to February 1933). The exhibition examines how films from many countries drew from the themes, aesthetic ideas, and talented filmmakers and crews that distinguished Weimar cinema, ranging from social cynicism and a recognition of the cruelty of the world, to laughter about mistaken identities and the sophisticated manipulation of light and shadow (both literal and metaphorical). The exhibition includes a mix of well-known classics and recently restored treasures, some of which have not been seen in decades. A version of this exhibition opened at the Berlin International Film Festival in February of this year.
Organized by Rainer Rother, Artistic Director, Deutsche Kinemathek; Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film, MoMA; Laurence Kardish, former Senior Curator, Department of Film, MoMA; Connie Betz, Program Coordinator, Deutsche Kinemathek; Hans-Michael Bock, Cinegraph, Hamburg; and Charles Silver, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA. Special thanks to UCLA Film & Television Archive, George Eastman House, The Library of Congress Motion Picture Section, and Martin Scorsese.