{"title":"Introduction: Special Effects and the Techno-Romantic Paradigm","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.5117/9789463725231_INTRO","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463725231_INTRO","url":null,"abstract":"German silent cinema is famous for its unconventional aesthetics and\u0000 film-technological innovations. These characteristics were the result\u0000 of efforts to reconcile the new medium’s automatic reproductions of\u0000 physical reality with idealist conceptions of art. Special effects played a\u0000 crucial role in this endeavour. They afforded creative experiments with\u0000 the cinematic apparatus and inspired filmmakers to convey ideas and\u0000 emotions. Special effects embodied the “techno-romantic” project of\u0000 construing technology as a means for transcending material reality. This\u0000 common response to industrial modernity profoundly shaped German\u0000 silent film culture. The techno-romantic paradigm formed the basis of\u0000 one of the most creative periods in film history and proved instrumental\u0000 in the evolution of cinematic expressivity and film art.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129143714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imagining Technological Art: Early German Film Theory","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.5117/9789463725231_CH01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463725231_CH01","url":null,"abstract":"As a form of popular mass entertainment and an apparatus for the\u0000 automatic reproduction of material reality, cinema’s artistic aspirations\u0000 seemed futile. Some early commentators nonetheless asserted that the new\u0000 medium could be a legitimate object of aesthetic scrutiny. In an attempt to\u0000 fathom cinema’s immaterial values, early film theorists including Herbert\u0000 Tannenbaum and Georg Lukács explored cinema’s kinship with folk art,\u0000 mental processes and the fantastic. They argued that film technology,\u0000 specifically special effects, could articulate ideas in a sensual form and\u0000 thus provide a pathway to a spiritual dimension. As this chapter shows,\u0000 their techno-romantic lines of argument conceptualized the medium\u0000 within established aesthetics and set the stage for the recognition of\u0000 cinema as the first technological art.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132684910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visualizing the Occult: Nosferatu (1922)","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.5117/9789463725231_CH04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463725231_CH04","url":null,"abstract":"Public enthusiasm for occult themes was rife in the decades around 1900\u0000 and many German filmmakers and intellectuals were occupied with\u0000 esoteric concepts. Constitutive of occultist thought is a belief in secret\u0000 realities beyond our perceptual abilities. The vampire tale Nosferatu\u0000 does not advocate for specific doctrines, but many of the film’s idiosyncratic\u0000 aspects, particularly the appearance, behaviour, and powers of\u0000 the vampire, become intelligible in novel ways when examined from an\u0000 occultist perspective. The film externalizes the vampire’s nature through\u0000 cinematic devices and most notably special effects. The materialization\u0000 of the intangible by means of technology constitutes an essentially\u0000 techno-romantic project. In Nosferatu, it served to consolidate objectives\u0000 of occultists and cinephiles for the purpose of film art.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"523 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127622450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion: Techno-Romantic Cinema from the Silent to the Digital Era","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.1017/9789048551712.008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551712.008","url":null,"abstract":"Techno-romantic thought, which construes machine technology as a\u0000 means to reach beyond material reality, is still with us today. It is reflected\u0000 in the vogue of speculative fiction in contemporary moving image media,\u0000 which has been made possible by radical advances in digital visual effects.\u0000 Computer-generated imagery has brought into reach the fully malleable\u0000 photograph, a dream that epitomizes a major triumph of the human mind\u0000 over outside reality and thus an essentially techno-romantic fantasy. The\u0000 same ambition already animated German silent filmmakers, who saw\u0000 special effects as a way to shape mechanically produced images. Their\u0000 use of trick technology for conveying thoughts and emotions gives rise to\u0000 a new research area: special/visual effects as artistic tools.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125373579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“German Technique” and Hollywood","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.1017/9789048551712.007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551712.007","url":null,"abstract":"In the mid-1920s, the innovative imagery and emotional force of German\u0000 films startled American critics and filmmakers. Well-known directors\u0000 like F. W. Murnau and Paul Leni were invited to Hollywood, and their\u0000 American films showcased a range of unconventional camera effects,\u0000 in particular moving camera feats and extreme camera angles. What\u0000 galvanized American commentators about these methods was the\u0000 realization that cinematic devices could be used to visualize affective\u0000 content. German filmmakers proffered a novel model of cinematic immersion,\u0000 which augmented the audience’s absorption in the story world\u0000 with figurative levels of meaning. Prompted by objectives originating in\u0000 techno-romantic thought, Hollywood began to pay increased attention\u0000 to the expressive potential of technical tools, with lasting effects on\u0000 American filmmaking.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124129319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Uncanny Mirror: Der Student von Prag (1913)","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.1017/9789048551712.004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551712.004","url":null,"abstract":"The first German film to excite art critics was simultaneously a milestone\u0000 in the history of special effects. Der Student von Prag was co-created by\u0000 some of Germany’s most ardent early cinephiles with the goal to demonstrate\u0000 the feasibility of film art. Proceeding from techno-romantic assumptions,\u0000 they construed artistic filmmaking as the articulation of ideas and\u0000 feelings through the imaginative application of the medium’s technological\u0000 assets, specifically location shots and trick effects. Consequently, Der\u0000 Student von Prag depicts the intrusion of an uncanny doppelganger into\u0000 a real-life setting, the mystical city of Prague. As a vehicle for abstract\u0000 notions, the horrific double thus bore witness to cinema’s ability to convey\u0000 figurative meaning and participate in the life of the mind.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127466448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Technological Sublime: Metropolis (1927)","authors":"K. Loew","doi":"10.1017/9789048551712.006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048551712.006","url":null,"abstract":"Metropolis displays a deeply conflicting attitude toward industrial\u0000 modernity. Conceived and marketed as a marvel of film technology, the\u0000 film pursued the techno-romantic project of transcending material reality\u0000 through technological means. What is more, the goal was to capture the\u0000 unfathomability of technology itself. Metropolis simultaneously portrays\u0000 technology as an agent of tyranny and dehumanization and flaunts it\u0000 as spectacle. Special effects facilitate encounters with overpowering\u0000 technological environments and omnipotent machines, which give rise to\u0000 sentiments that are best described in terms of a “technological sublime.”\u0000 The sublime characterizes experiences that go beyond the earthly and\u0000 finite, to attain a spiritual dimension. In attributing transcendent qualities\u0000 to mechanical objects, the technological sublime embodies the technoromantic\u0000 paradigm.","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"158 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123748325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Uncanny Mirror:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"204 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133308535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Technological Sublime:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129891419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Visualizing the Occult:","authors":"","doi":"10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1jf2c8c.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":340375,"journal":{"name":"Special Effects and German Silent Film","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121386524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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