Der Kinoerzähler (5 Stars)

Germany in the early 1930's.The film takes place in Werder on the Havel, a small town only 35 Km (22 miles) from Berlin. The main character, whose name we are not told, is a "Kinoerzähler", a word I'm not sure how to translate into English. He was the person who spoke to the audience during the showing of silent films to explain what was happening, as well as pointing out the subtleties of the film to embellish it. I'll use the word "narrator", though I'm sure there must be a more precise term, if this career ever existed in England or America. I know that some cinemas used to have a live pianist playing music to accompany films, but I'm not aware of anyone ever talking during a film. It's significant that the character's name is not given; he was unimportant, he was only there to draw attention to the films.

This film marks the end of an era. The first film with sound had been made in 1928, sound cinemas already existed in the big cities, and it was only a matter of time before the small towns caught up. The narrator was about to lose his job, despite his efforts to warn people that adding sound would destroy the beautiful artwork of cinema.

Things aren't happening in a vacuum. The National Socialists are gaining power, which is bad news for the Jewish cinema owner. The narrator buries his head in the sand, remaining unpolitical and only thinking about the beauty of films. At a meeting of the Nazi party he stands up and asks if the Nazis would return to making silent films.

"Der Kinoerzähler" also shows turning points in other areas, both on and off screen. The narrator visits the film studio Babelsberg while it is filming "Der Choral von Leuthen", the first film to be premiered in Germany after Adolf Hitler became leader in 1933. The director, Carl Froelich, was one of Germany's leading directors during the Third Reich, when the head of the German film industry was Josef Goebbels.

The Babelsberg studio opened in 1912 and is the world's oldest film studio. "Der Kinoerzähler" was the first film to be made at the studio after German reunification. This came about almost by accident. Bernhard Sinkel, the writer and director of "Der Kinoerzähler", was walking on the Ku'Damm, Berlin's main street, at 2 am, when he saw Volker Schlöndorff, the new owner of the Babelsberg Film Studio. Since they were old friends Bernhard told Volker about his film script and asked him for 500,000 Marks ($350,000) to finance the film. Volker immediately agreed and offered the use of his studios.

Today's film viewers take it for granted that American films dominate the film industry. The world's biggest and best films are made in Hollywood. But this wasn't always the case. In the first half of the 20th Century German films were the biggest and most successful. The world's highest paid directors and actors were German, and the biggest films were made in Babelsberg. This was easy to accomplish in the days of silent films, when there was no language barrier, but even after the advent of sound German films remained foremost in box office success. This began to change in the 1930's, because Germany's leading directors were Jews and had to emigrate to America. Nevertheless, even during the Third Reich German studios continued to make excellent films. It wasn't until after the Second World War that the German film industry shrank and Hollywood grew to take its place. But even today the German film industry has to be taken seriously. Despite the relatively low budgets available German films in general have a production quality superior to films made anywhere else in Europe. To take just one example, a film like "Baader Meinhof Komplex" would have been unthinkable in any other country. I'm not saying that good films aren't made in many countries, but in my opinion the overall quality of German cinema is outstanding. Which is why I watch so many German films. Wait for more reviews to come.