From Caligari to Who?
Abstract
Barry Salt’s article From Caligari to Who? published in 1979 is the first serious attempt in the history of film studies to redefine the concept of expressionism. It is also the first open critique of the two main monographers writing about German cinema of the Weimar Republic period: Siegfried Kracauer (From Caligari to Hitler /1947/) and Lotte H. Eisner (The Haunted Screen /1952/). Salt directly undermines the credibility of Kracauer’s work and indirectly that of Eisner – as a discourse grounded in politics. He points to numerous factual and methodological errors which led to a serious confusion concerning the use of the concept of expressionism. He also calls for the traditional semantic category of expressionism to be replaced by an aesthetic one, one that would be precise and subject to verification. Salt’s article, although not without inconsistencies, and full of emotional, rather than substantive polemics, remains one of the most important critical texts written on expressionist film and the cinema of the Weimar Republic.
- The translation of the article From Caligari to Who?, „Sight & Sound” 1979, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 119-123. Copyright © British Film Institute 1979.
Due to copyright restrictions the article is available in the print version only.
Keywords:
expressionism, cinema of the Weimar Republic, Siegfried Kracauer, Lotte H. EisnerReferences
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Authors
Barry Saltkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
British Film Institute United Kingdom
Historyk filmu, fizyk, w młodości tancerz baletowy. W latach 60. pracował jako operator filmowy. W latach 70. uczył reżyserii, m.in. w Royal College of Art i Slade School of Fine Art w Londynie. Od 1988 r. kierownik studiów w London Film School. Współpracuje z British Film Institute. W centrum jego zainteresowań znajduje się technologia filmowa i jej rozwój na przestrzeni XX w., czemu poświęcił dwie książki: Film Style and Technology: History and Analysis (1983, wyd. polskie 2003) i Moving into Pictures: More on Film History, Style nad Analysis (2006). Publikuje m.in. w „Sight & Sound”.
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