07/10/2003 - The use of chiaroscuro and its ability to create a tense atmosphere: the German Film Institute in Frankfurt is targeting youngsters with a series of great black and white classics

The DIF (German Film Institute) in Frankfurt is targeting schoolchildren with its programme for “Cinedays”, after the success of its initiative in 2002 involving more than 2,000 students. This year’s events are put on in collaboration with the regional body for private radio stations in Assia (the Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk Hessen).
The reason that the DIF is putting special emphasis on screening black and white films is because they are largely unknown to the new generation and youngsters are often unused to seeing this type of aesthetics in the cinema. This year’s programme is paying particular attention to the use of chiaroscuro and its ability to create an atmosphere of tension. So the films being shown in the retrospective held at the DIF cinema and the CineStar Metropolis, include great silent classics like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) by Robert Wiene, Vampire (1931) by Dreyer and The Lodger (1926) by Hitchcock, followed by The Third Man (1949) by Carol Reed and Breathless (1959) by Godard. In order to give a quick overview of the major works that have paved the history of cinema there’s also Amarcord (1973) by Fellini.

The programme also includes a tribute to lesser known works from German cinema, like Die Geschichte vom kleinen Mück (“The Story of Little Mook”) filmed in the DDR in 1953 by Wolfgang Staudte (famous for Die Mörder sind unter uns- The Murderers Are Among Us in 1946), and an animated cartoon from 1969 Die Konferenz der Tiere (“The Animals Conference”) by Curt Linda. Other titles on the programme include more recent works like Quadrophenia (1978) made by Franc Roddam together with “The Who” and the French film from 1984 Le the au harem d’Archimede (“Tea in the Harem”) by Mehdi Charef, dedicated to young Arab emigrants in France.

(Translated from Italian)