Destination London: German-Speaking Emigrés and British Cinema, 1925-1950

by Tim Bergfelder (Editor), Christian Cargnelli (Editor)

Overview

The legacy of emigrés in the British film industry, from the silent film era until after the Second World War, has been largely neglected in the scholarly literature. Destination London is the first book to redress this imbalance. Focusing on areas such as exile, genre, technological transfer, professional training and education, cross-cultural exchange and representation, it begins by mapping the reasons for this neglect before examining the contributions made to British cinema by emigré directors, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, set designers, and composers. It goes on to assess the cultural and economic contexts of transnational industry collaborations in the 1920s, artistic cosmopolitanism in the 1930s, and anti-Nazi propaganda in the 1940s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857450197
Publisher:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/01/2008
Series:	Film Europa , #6
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	717 KB

About the Author

Tim Bergfelder is Professor in Film at the University of Southampton. He is the author of International Adventures: Popular German Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s (2005). His co-edited or co-authored volumes include The German Cinema Book (2002), The Titanic in Myth and Memory: Representations in Visual and Literary Culture (2004), and Film Architecture and the Transnational Imagination (2007).

Christian Cargnelli is a film historian based in Vienna and teaches film history at the University of Vienna. He holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Southampton and has published widely on film exile and exile film. His co-edited volumes include Aufbruch ins Ungewisse: terreichische Filmschaffende in der Emigration vor 1945 (1993), Schatten. Exil: Europäiche Emigranten im Film Noir (1997), and Carl Mayer, Scenar[t]ist (2003). He is the editor of Gustav Machaty - Ein Filmregisseur zwischen Prag und Hollywood (2005).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction: German-speaking Emigrés and British Cinema, 1925–50: Cultural Exchange, Exile and the Boundaries of National Cinema
Tim Bergfelder

Chapter 2. Life Is a Variety Theatre: E.A. Dupont’s Career in German and British Cinema
Tim Bergfelder

Chapter 3. Geza von Bolvary, Arnold Ridley and ‘Film Europe’
Lawrence Napper

Chapter 4. Inside the Robots’ Castle: Ufa’s English-language Versions in the Early 1930s
Chris Wahl

Chapter 5. Flamboyant Realism: Werner Brandes and British International Pictures in the Late 1920s
Kelly Robinson

Chapter 6. Famously Unknown: Günther Krampf’s Work as Cinematographer in British Films
Michael Omasta

Chapter 7. ‘German, or still more horrible thought, Russian – at any rate, it is un-English!’ A Wide Shot of Exile, Emigré and Itinerant Activity in the British Film Industry in the 1930s
Amy Sargeant

Chapter 8. Extending Frames and Exploring Spaces: Alfred Junge, Set Design and Genre in British Cinema
Sarah Street

Chapter 9. Lost in Siberia: Ernö Metzner in Britain Laurie
N. Ede

Chapter 10. ‘Be kvite kviet, everybody, please!’: Paul L. Stein and British Cinema
Christian Cargnelli

Chapter 11. Allegories of Displacement: Conrad Veidt’s British Films
Gerd Gemünden

Chapter 12. Anton Walbrook: The Continental Consort
Michael Williams

Chapter 13. From ‘Alien Person’ to ‘Darling Lilli’: Lilli Palmer’s Roles in British Cinema
Barbara Ziereis

Chapter 14. ‘You call us “Germans”, you call us “brothers” – but we are not your brothers!’: British Anti-Nazi Films and German speaking Emigrés
Tobias Hochscherf

Chapter 15. Carl Mayer: Years of Exile in London
Brigitte Mayr

Chapter 16. Music for the People: Escapism and Social Comment in the Work of Hans May and Ernst Meyer
Geoff Brown

Chapter 17. I Know Where I’m Going! Hearing Germanic Music in the Scottish Isles
K.J. Donnelly

Chapter 18. ‘An Animated Quest for Freedom’: Mátyás Seiber’s Score for The Magic Canvas
Florian Scheding

Notes on Contributors
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"...addresses one of the historically most neglected topics in exile studies...[The] chapters...are of a very high quality, written in an accessible and engaging style... Hopefully, Destination London will inspire more examinations of German speaking emigre film makers in Britain."  ·  Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

"...the volume not only makes a significant contribution to film history, it also further intervenes in broader contemporary debates on transnationalism in and beyond Germany. The scope of this intervention is drawn out admirably in Bergfelder's introduction."  ·  Monatshefte

"This anthology addresses a subject which has long needed careful documentation and is one which Bergfelder and Cargnelli... are probably uniquely equipped to deal with. This is a book which genuinely fills a gap (is there any other legitimate reason for a book's existence?) and in doing so is eminently readable as well as scholarly...there is more work to be done in this field of enquiry but this anthology ensures that the project is well under way."   ·  Journal of British Cinema and Television

"Rarely have essays in a collection been written so fluently and interesting as is the case here; successful translations from the German add to the overall positive impression. Bergfelder and Cargnelli succeeded in producing a most attractive volume."  ·  rezens.tfm

"All the essays of this volume are interesting to read and thoroughly researched. Altogether, they prompt new reflections on aspects of British cinema in the early years of frequent co-production and later during the flow of film personnel escaping the Nazi regime. Moreover, this study clearly outlines how importantly set designers, cameramen, scriptwriters and composers contribute to film production, but they are often ignored because of primary interest in directors and actors."  ·  Edge

"Destination London is a welcome and successful contribution to German and British film studies as well as, more generally, to European cultural history... [It] demonstrates convincingly that the work growing out of this often compelled cosmopolitanism is to be taken seriously and at length, for it yielded frequently overlooked contributions to the British film industry and culture more generally."  ·  European History Quarterly

EBOOK COMMENTARY

…addresses one of the historically most neglected topics in exile studies…[The] chapters…are of a very high quality, written in an accessible and engaging style… Hopefully, Destination London will inspire more examinations of German speaking émigré film makers in Britain.”  ·  Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

“…the volume not only makes a significant contribution to film history, it also further intervenes in broader contemporary debates on transnationalism in and beyond Germany. The scope of this intervention is drawn out admirably in Bergfelder’s introduction.”  ·  Monatshefte

“This anthology addresses a subject which has long needed careful documentation and is one which Bergfelder and Cargnelli… are probably uniquely equipped to deal with. This is a book which genuinely fills a gap (is there any other legitimate reason for a book’s existence?) and in doing so is eminently readable as well as scholarly…there is more work to be done in this field of enquiry but this anthology ensures that the project is well under way.”   ·  Journal of British Cinema and Television

"Rarely have essays in a collection been written so fluently and interesting as is the case here; successful translations from the German add to the overall positive impression. Bergfelder and Cargnelli succeeded in producing a most attractive volume."  ·  rezens.tfm

“All the essays of this volume are interesting to read and thoroughly researched. Altogether, they prompt new reflections on aspects of British cinema in the early years of frequent co-production and later during the flow of film personnel escaping the Nazi regime. Moreover, this study clearly outlines how importantly set designers, cameramen, scriptwriters and composers contribute to film production, but they are often ignored because of primary interest in directors and actors.”  ·  Edge

“Destination London is a welcome and successful contribution to German and British film studies as well as, more generally, to European cultural history… [It] demonstrates convincingly that the work growing out of this often compelled cosmopolitanism is to be taken seriously and at length, for it yielded frequently overlooked contributions to the British film industry and culture more generally.”  ·  European History Quarterly

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