#ufa fiction

[biggoldbelt]

Get a Sneak Peek: Exclusive Clip for 'Where's Wanda?' Episode 6

Apple TV+’s First German Original Series ‘Where’s Wanda?’ Episode 6 Premieres Wednesday, October 30 Get ready for an electrifying ride in “Where’s Wanda?” as Dedo and Carlotta Klatt, played by the talented Axel Stein and Heike Makatsch, embark on a heart-pounding quest to find their missing 17-year-old daughter, Wanda (Lea Drinda). Months have passed with no trace, and frustration mounts as the…

[celluloidchronicles]

Metropolis

���🇪 | Aug 25, 1927

directed by Fritz Lang

screenplay by Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang

produced by Universum Film (UFA)

starring Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Theodor Loos

2h29 | Drama, Science Fiction

𐄂 not watched

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German Movies | director Fritz Lang | writer Thea von Harbou | writer Fritz Lang | studio Universum Film (UFA) | actor Gustav Fröhlich | actress Brigitte Helm | actor Alfred Abel | actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge | actor Theodor Loos

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Drama | Science Fiction

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[slutforpetyr]

Beta Cinema, Constantin Film, Zeitsprung Pictures and UFA Fiction have unveiled the first look photo of The Physician II, the sequel to the hit historical epic.

The original film, released in 2013, sold to over 60 territories and became an international box-office hit. In Germany alone, the film earned $42 million at the box office, with 3.6 million admissions.

The Physician director Philipp Stölzl once again brings together a stellar ensemble of international stars and rising talents: Tom Payne (Horizon: An American Saga, The Walking Dead, Prodigal Son) reprises his role as the passionate physician Rob Cole and shares the screen with Emily Cox (The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, Maze Runner), Áine Rose Daly (Boiling Point, Hanna), Owen Teale (Robin Hood, Game of Thrones), and Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones, Hunger).

The shoot took place from August to October 2024 in Hungary, Cologne and Berlin. Constantin Film is releasing the film in German cinemas on Dec. 25, 2025, and Beta Cinema is handling international sales, presenting first materials at the upcoming American Film Market.

[pandoramsbox]

Sci-Fi Saturday: Gold

Week 13:

Film(s): Gold (Dir. Karl Hartl, 1934, Germany)

Viewing Format: Blu-Ray: Kino Lorber

Date Watched: 2021-08-20

Rationale for Inclusion:

Most popular histories of German cinema gush over its silent era and Fritz Lang's early talkies, boils the Nazi era down to propaganda films, and then rapidly moves on to West Germany's New Cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. When touring the Berlin Film Museum in 2006, they had an exhibit acknowledging cinema made under the Nazi regime, but it was plain, matter of fact, and not at all celebratory of any figure or works. The standing international agreement to not give Nazis more credit for anything positive created under their supervision between 1933 and 1945 is one that this lifelong Indiana Jones fan, from a country that has historically been less willing to acknowledge its own history of genocide and white supremacy, cannot argue with.

However, when something is made deliberately withheld or rendered taboo, it risks developing a fetishistic or contrarian following. Curated, contextualized access is preferable to dispel mystique and render a work mundane. However, a work's problematic nature cannot be exercised completely, nor can the stain of its lineage be fully forgotten once known. This mental calculus of having interest in or love for a work despite it or its creator's controversial nature is something each person must work out for themselves.

All that to say, if you're grossed out by the inclusion of a film created under the Nazi regime, that's a completely fair perspective. However, surreptitious curiosity is also valid, and a normal human emotion.

And curiosity is definitely what motivated my inclusion of Gold (Dir. Karl Hartl, 1934, Germany). Partly it was wondering what a Nazi supervised science fiction film was like, period, especially relative to the Weimar Era films previously viewed. Partly it was a more basic curiosity: the prospect of hearing the voice of Brigette Helm, of Metropolis (Dir. Fritz Lang, 1927, Germany) fame. And to be perfectly honest, the simplistic wonder of hearing the voice of a performer whose art focuses on pantomime was the bigger draw.

Reactions:

Brigette Helm has a voice that is consistent with her appearance: elegant and German. The anticlimax of learning that fact is on par with realizing Harold Lloyd has a soft spoken, Midwest accent that matches his aesthetic, as opposed to the surprise of Charles Chaplin's English accent or Buster Keaton's deep baritone voice.

That question out of the way, what about the film itself? Nothing especially anti-semitic or fascist in visuals or content makes its production origin glaringly obvious. Given that like F.P.1 [AKA F.P. 1 Doesn't Answer] (F.P.1 antwortet nicht, Dir. Karl Hartl, 1932, Germany) an additional French language version was produced with export in mind, and the Nazis had just come to power and purchased UFA in 1933, and would not begin explicit international aggressions until 1938, it follows that they would not want to compromise cinematic commerce in 1934. 

Instead, Gold is about the relationship between scientific progress and capitalist greed. A German scientist (Friedrich Kayßler) is about to succeed in the dreams of the alchemists and create a machine that can transform lead into gold, when sabotage destroys the machine and its creator with it. His engineer Werner Holk (Hans Alber) swears vengeance for his friend, and takes a job with industrialist John Wills (Michael Bohnen), who arranged the sabotage in order to corner the market on the technology. Holk proceeds to take down the usurper from the inside and the film ends with lots of satisfying explosions.  

Amid the straightforward wrong scientist seeks revenge narrative are some incredible set pieces. Giant electrodes and machines with tunnel trains connecting the underground laboratory to the mainland. The sets and props were so impressive that footage of them was later reused in The Magnetic Monster (Dir. Curt Siodmak, 1953, USA). However, UFA did not make additional science fiction films during the Nazi era, so the sets and props were not reused in other movies by the studio.

Gold is interesting and ultimately competent but unremarkable, compared to the genre films that came before it. 

And if you are interested in learning more about German cinema during the Nazi era, I recommend the documentaries Hitler's Hollywood (Dir. Rüdiger Suchsland, 2017, Germany) (which features Gold briefly) and Forbidden Films (Verbotene Filme, Dir. Felix Moeller, 2014, Germany).

[greencruz]

🎀 📎 🎵 🌹 ❄️ (Kang)

OC EMOJI ASKS : ACCEPTING !

RIBBON - how would they fit into other worlds / aus? what aus would you like to try out? what fictional world would they fit / not fit into?

kang seria um ótimo bardo em qualquer universo de d&d, tal como ele também daria um ótimo vilão dentro de qualquer cenário envolvendo fantasias, daqueles que ainda tem redenção, usando como exemplo clássico e meu favorito de todos: a regina, de once upon a time. esse tipo de vilão, sabe? inclusive ele daria um ótimo filho para a branca de neve, se fôssemos entrar nesse mérito, ironicamente. além de, claro, também se encaixar muito como o flautista de hamelin. e, por fim, ele seria um ótimo nobre/príncipe ou então bastardo, mas dentro da mesma vibe fantástica. por outro lado, ele definitivamente não se encaixaria em apocalipse zumbi ou qualquer au que fosse ativamente violento, ele vai pra uma vertente mais fantástica mesmo.

PAPERCLIP - a random fact.

quando ele era criança, ele acreditava de verdade, assim, de verdade MESMO que ele conseguia falar com os animais. ele passou muito tempo em lares adotivos temporários, então ele costumava ficar igual a cinderela falando com os ratos no porão, ou então batendo um papo com os cachorros e ele inventava INÚMERAS narrativas na cabeça dele que ele jurava que eram dos animais conversando.

MUSIC NOTE - what is their playlist like? their favourite artists? do you associate a particular song with them.

música clássica, e com música clássica não só a música clássica em si, mas ele também gosta muito de músicas pop/rock que utilizem sample de músicas clássicas, tipo a lady gaga em alejandro utilizando a melodia de czardas. ele gosta também de folk, deixa ele alegrinho. uma clássica que eu gosto muito e associo com ele é no time to die - billie eillish. "was i stupid to love you? was i reckless to help? was it obvious to everybody else?" enfim, tudo nela grita han kang pra mim.

ROSE - do they like valentines day? have they been confessed to before? have they confessed to anyone before?

uma data bem tanto faz há anos. quando ele era novinho, ele adorava por razões de iludido com a ahra, mas depois que tudo entre eles terminou, da primeira vez, ele criou uma casca meio apática a respeito de dia dos namorados apesar de no fundo ainda ser um romântico disfarçado. e, para o restante das perguntas, a resposta é sim. ele já se confessou três vezes, na última, foi a própria ahra, e ele sempre acabou chamando uma certa atenção também, primeiro por ser muito bonito, segundo por ser muito gentil, e terceiro por ser músico, apesar disso, recusou gentilmente a todos.

SNOWFLAKE - do people consider them cold? if so, what made them this way?

nos dias atuais, sim. mas uma parte dele acha que ele tenta se convencer de que é muito mais frio do que é de verdade. eu, pessoalmente, não usaria essa palavra. ele só acabou ficando muito... resignado? conformado, sem perspectiva. o que deixou ele assim foram várias pequenas coisas: toda a questão de ter se separado da irmã mais nova, a maneira como a família nova dele praticamente o engoliu, a maneira como ele se deixou ser engolido por ela, ficou tão fascinado por tudo e acabou se esquecendo da própria irmã, a maneira como ele amou muito a ahra e ela partiu o coração dele... ele se tornou uma pessoa muito amarga, tanto por ter se frustrado com o próprio otimismo cego que ele sustentava quanto era novo, quanto por ter entendido o quanto isso fez mal pras pessoas ao redor dele e pra ele mesmo, por nunca ter enfrentado as coisas enquanto elas estavam acontecendo, apenas pra acabar juntando uma pilha de arrependimentos com coisas irreversíveis. ufa! coitado.

[azharniaz]

UFA Hires 'September 5' EP From Constantin Film — Global Briefs

UFA Hires ‘September 5’ Exec Producer Christoph Müller Fremantle’s German production house UFA has hired Constantin Film‘s Christoph Müller for its cinema division. The producer, who is an exec producer on the Golden Globe-nominated September 5, joins from Constantin Film and will begin at UFA Fiction on February 1, 2025. He also is known for productions including the Oscar-nomnated Sophie…

[brooklynbutterflyarts]

Metropolis Poster Framed Metropolis Movie Poster(Various sizes available) Molding:Professional 1" Flat Top Black (solid-wood) Matte: 100% acid free board, Black & Blue/Grey Print: Full Color dry mounted glossy print Glass is included, Comes Fully Assembled Ready For Your Wall Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist science-fiction drama film directed by Fritz Lang, and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang[6][7] from von Harbou's 1925 novel of the same name. Intentionally written as a treatment, it stars Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, and Brigitte Helm. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G. (UFA). The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie, being among the first feature-length movies of that genre.[8] Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of more than five million Reichsmarks,[9] or the equivalent of about €21 million. Made in Germany during the Weimar period, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master. The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart". The poster print is bonded to foam core on a hot vacuum press. This bonding gives the print a perfect flat and smooth texture. This process also insures the print will never fold or fade with age or moisture. This wonderful display makes a thoughtful and original gift containing a classic vintage touch yet modern design, allowing it to fit alongside both modern and classic decor. BUY WITH CONFIDENCE. ALL OF MY DELICATE ITEMS ARE SHIPPED WITH A SPECIAL 3 LAYER PROTECTION SYSTEM.

[panelki]

Teen Comedians Apologize On-Camera for Joke About Bashkortostan Head A group of teenagers from Russia’s republic of Bashkortostan have been forced to record an on-camera apology after they joked about the regional head during a popular comedy competition. The three high schoolers from Bashkortostan’s capital of Ufa were performing as a team in the national KVN comedy tournament on Sunday when they joked about a fictional chocolate brand called “Atay” (“Father” in Bashkir) featuring a photo of Radiy Khabirov with his son on the wrapping. Read more | Subscribe to our channel

[amfenster]

Ok. My German is more than good enough for me to understand what "nicht verfübar" means. How long do I need to wait, that is the question.

[amenalter]

HEUTE ABEND 3. FOLGE. 😈😈😈

[slutforpetyr]

It looks like he has several upcoming projects!

Pictures of Aidan Gillen I’ve never seen before

(I really love the pic on the bridge and the last one! 😍)

[feminismisstillahatemovement]

Oscar and double Palme d’Or winner Michael Haneke has become the latest prominent European artist to lament what he calls a “witch hunt” in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Speaking with Kurier, the Austrian filmmaker said there is no question that “any form of rape or coercion is punishable… But this hysterical pre-judgment which is spreading now, I find absolutely disgusting. And I don’t want to know how many of these accusations related to incidents 20 or 30 years ago are primarily statements that have little to do with sexual assault.”

The renown director of Amour, The White Ribbon, The Piano Teacher and last year’s Happy End allowed he would probably be referred to as “Haneke, the male chauvinist pig” after making the comments in the interview. He qualified his statements saying the current debate is disturbing because of “the blind rage that’s not based on facts and the prejudices that destroy the lives of people whose crime has not been proved in numerous cases. People are simply assassinated in the media, ruining lives and careers.”

Asked if this escalation can help transform society for the better, Haneke responded, “Any shi*storm that even comes out on the forums of serious online news outlets after such ‘revelations’ poisons the social climate. And this makes every argument on this very important subject even more difficult. The malignancy that hits you on the internet often stifles you. This new puritanism imbued with a hatred of men that comes in the wake of the #MeToo movement worries me.”

He noted that Nagisa Ôshima’s film In The Realm Of The Senses, which he calls “one of the deepest and most profound on the subject of sexuality,” could not be made today “because the funding institutions would not allow this, anticipating obedience to this terror. Suspected actors are cut out of movies and TV series in order not to lose (audiences). Where are we living? In the new Middle Ages?”

Haneke stressed that “this has nothing to do with the fact that every sexual assault and all violence — whether against women or men — should be condemned and punished. But the witch hunt should be left in the Middle Ages.”

The filmmaker, who recently teamed with UFA Fiction to create his first TV series, dystopian drama Kelvin’s Book, is the latest to speak out on the perceived negative consequences of #MeToo. In January, French actress Catherine Deneuve was among 100 women who signed an open letter, slamming what they termed “expeditious justice” spurred by the movement. Brigitte Bardot has also criticized the movement and prominent French film distributor Stéphane Célérier recently compared the current situation to that of the Salem witches.

[dweemeister]

Woman in the Moon (1929, Germany)

By the end of the 1920s, humanity could envision a world where spaceflight might be possible. Several decades before that, the science fiction books of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and others thrilled viewers with promise of adventure and the unknown. Also capturing that interest in space would be Georges Méliès’ film, A Trip to the Moon (1902, France) – even if you have never heard of this film, you may be familiar with its most iconic frame. A Trip to the Moon is one of the first science fiction films ever made and, for the 1900s decade, among the most innovative of its time. Though other filmmakers around the world dabbled in science fiction, the genre never truly took off until mid-century.

One of the few filmmakers bringing a sense of spectacle to sci-fi silent films was German director Fritz Lang, best known today for Metropolis (1927) and M (1931). Because of its release in between Metropolis and M, Woman in the Moon tends to be underseen and undermentioned. But, like Metropolis and A Trip to the Moon, it is a silent film exemplar of science fiction. It is a remarkable piece of entertainment in its second half, even as it wastes too much of its runtime on a tiresome subplots that involve gangsters and romance. When Lang brings his showmanship during the crew’s trip to the Moon, the results are unlike any other filmmaker working in cinema at that time.

Businessman Helius (Willy Fritsch) meets with his friend, Professor Mannfeldt (Klaus Pohl), to discuss developments over Helius’ plans to journey to the Moon. The mission was inspired by the Professor’s hypothesis that the Moon, “is rich in gold” – something that has attracted the mockery of his fellow academics. In the shadows, an unidentified gang sends a man calling himself “Walter Turner” (Fritz Rasp) to spy on Mannfeldt and Helius. More trouble comes to Helius when he learns his assistants Windegger (Gustav von Wangenheim) and Friede (Gerda Maurus) announce their engagement. Helius, who has never confessed his love for Friede, finds himself in an awkward romantic bind in the events leading up to launch. On launch day, Helius, his assistants, and Professor Manfeldt board the Friede. But their crew complement includes two others: Walter Turner (who threatens his way onboard) and a stowaway child, Gustav (Gustl Gstettenbaur).

Thea von Harbou, Lang’s wife from 1922-1933, wrote the screenplay, adapting her book The Rocket to the Moon. Just a quick glance through her filmography recalls a number of great Lang-von Harbou collaborations: Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), the Die Nibelungen saga (1924), and Metropolis. She truly is one of the great screenwriters of early cinema, but Woman in the Moon is an underwhelming display of her talents. Von Harbou mires with its Earth-bound scenes, and Woman in the Moon reaps no benefits from its spy subplot. There is a straight science-fiction story buried somewhere in this overlong 169-minute film, but von Harbou overstuffs her screenplay with the potential sabotage of the rocket to the Moon. Never does the viewer feel that Lang’s astronauts are in danger of being blasted to smithereens in outer space or that “Walter Turner” will ever succeed in whatever murderous plots he has hatched. Isolated from whatever themes Woman in the Moon wishes to present, the love triangle that slowly overtakes the rest of the film always feels vestigial to this overcooked story. Compare this overwrought, yet underwritten romantic drama to Metropolis, where the relationship between Gustav Fröhlich’s Freder and Brigitte Helm’s Maria outlines perfectly the tension of their society’s industrial hierarchies and the geography that separates the classes.

Woman in the Moon truly defies gravity only after its launch and touchdown on the lunar surface. The cinematography team led by Curt Courant (1934’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1938’s La Bête Humaine) capture the terror of early spaceflight better than some of the more expensive American sci-fi productions would in the 1950s and ‘60s. The speculative lunar sets – which look more like Méliès’ vision for A Trip to the Moon than anything recognizable from the Moon – tower over the movie’s intrepid astronauts as they explore this lifeless (unlike Méliès’ vision) celestial body.

The screenplay, camerawork, production design, and special effects seen in The Woman in the Moon come from the most widely accepted scientific theories of the late 1920s concerning astrophysics and the nature of the Moon. Where some aspects might feel dated (that includes the appearance and breathable atmosphere of the lunar surface and the submersion of the rocket into water before launch), others are prescient. The explanation of how the rocket’s flightpath is so prophetic that it seems as if Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang sat in on an Apollo mission briefing by NASA. Woman in the Moon also contains the first countdown to launch seen in a sci-fi film (yes, the launch countdown is an invention of Woman in the Moon), as well as a multistage rocket that jettisons parts of the rocket as it exits Earth’s atmosphere. Prior to launch, the rocket’s assembly in a separate structure before transportation out to the launchpad – where it will blast off to space. For a film released in an era that did not make much use of seat belts and Velcro, the utter violence and human disorientation of a rocket launch requires the astronauts to strap themselves into their bunks and hold onto surface restraints.

The frantic editing and startling cinematography of these scenes, coupled with the film’s undercurrent of distrust and ulterior motives, are a Lang staple during the most technically accomplished scenes of his filmography. It is there in the worker montages of Metropolis, the elaborate assassination scene of Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, and the horrific battle sequence of Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild’s Revenge. Those Lang hallmarks find their way late in Woman in the Moon, well past the point where they might have been effective in alleviating the film of its structural issues. Though Woman in the Moon might not be as influential as any of those aforementioned movies, Lang’s propulsive sense of action is apparent in the film’s second half. Like a silent era John Frankenheimer, Lang is in full control of the film’s tension – knowing when and when not to apply these techniques to heighten the viewer’s adrenaline.

Not nearly as a widely-discussed for Woman in the Moon is its final moments. The film’s concluding dilemma is startling. It precipitates into a situational solution that does not grant a narrative resolution. Are Lang and von Harbou attempting to comment on the lengths of selfishness, of the tension intrinsic between science and human avarice that can endanger others? Or is it more cynical of scientific discovery and technological progression than it might appear? Woman in the Moon wastes too much time on its romantic triangle before even approaching questions as nuanced as these.

However one interprets this, Woman in the Moon – more popular with general audiences than film critics and those noting that Universum Film AG (UFA) executive Alfred Hugenberg was beginning to align himself with the Nazi Party – arrived in German theaters at a time of political upheaval. Among the politically inclined, Woman in the Moon proved divisive: leftists derided its alleged Nazi subtext and the Nazis approved of this depiction of a technologically advanced, forward-thinking Germany. Shortly following Hitler’s ascendancy to German Chancellor in 1933, the Nazis banned A Woman in the Moon and seized the film’s rocket models due to how accurate its depiction of rocketry was. At this time, the Nazis, with a team led by Wernher von Braun, were deep into researching the V-2 rocket – the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile.

Detractors of Woman in the Moon dismissed Lang and the film as curios of Germany’s cinematic past. With synchronized sound films all the rage since 1927, Woman in the Moon proved to be Lang’s final silent film. Today, the movie is Lang’s final epic, before he transitioned into a career leaning heavily on film noir. The scenes of greatest interest to silent film and sci-fi fans arrives deep in the film, after too many stultifying conversations and lovelorn looks from the main characters. In its greatest spurts, Woman in the Moon’s scientific speculation heralds a future beset by self-interest, yet heaven-bound.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.