Thursday, September 25, 2008

Filmmuseum

Hi guys,
after a brief period of no internet (that was a scary 15 hours!) I'm back and blogging to you live.

Today I'm going to tell you about yet another museum. I hope you like these stupid things, cause I sure don't.

Actually, I'm excited because today I'm talking about Filmmuseum. I love movies and apparently Germany has enough to do with them that they have a museum.

First and foremost, the filmmuseum is located in Potsdamer Platz, a very cool area. Kind of like a German Times Square.
Specifically it's in the magnificent and entirely un-germany-like Sony Center.
An enormous and dazzlingly lit (at night) complex that contains not only a huge all-english-language multiplex and an imax theatre, but also LegoLand
Where was I? Oh yeah, the museum.It covered German contributions to motion pictures and had a very cool layout, from the moment you stepped into the first room you could tell you were entering THE WORLD OF FILM.
And then you stepped out of the first room and it was pretty much like any other museum. Interesting stuff though.
It's been kind of a while since I've been there so I will remember what these pictures are of as best I can. This is Max Linder, a German Film Pioneer. Maybe like the first or second?
Did you know that the film camera had it's origin in Germany? It was simultaneously invented in a much more efficient way in some other place though, so they lose a lot of the credit. However, the first public showing of a film was right here, in Berlin.
It wasn't long before movies were being made, like this one, here. Dr. Cagliari's Amazing Moving Castle, or something. They had a lot of these neat little models. I wonder who makes them
Because this is a German film museum, they spent a lot of time on Fritz Lange. What, you don't know Fritz Lange? Metropolis? Die Spinnen? M? Well he's really good ok?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Lang
Watch his movies.
They also had a lot about Marlene Dietrich, a 20's movie starlet, including these incredibly racist little dolls that she always took with her when filming.
Other objects d'interest included this, the very first Academy Award. For Emil Jannings and his work on god-only-knows-what.
By the time I left the Museum Patsdamer Platz was humming with activity- it was a big German movie premier! This is where they do those things.
Wall-E! I loved that movie. And, oh my god, there are some celebs. This is now a celeblog. Just check out this girl, she looks like she's probably famous, right?
Seriously, I don't know who this is, but the crowd was going crazy for her. If anyone knows pls let me know in the comments section.

That's all for now people, here are some of the first movies ever shown, by Max Skladanowsky here in Berlin
Serpentine Dance
Boxing the Kangaroo
2 more days in Berlin!

1 comment:

veloner said...

Jesse! Marlene Dietrich was not a starlet, she was a star! A diva! A goddess! One of Germany's most famous cultural exports ever! Argh.