Brecht and Dudow Essay -- Film Analysis

Kuhle Wampe (Brecht and Dudow, 1931) is often noted as the first communist film produced in Weimar Germany and was produced by a collective of men, intemperately involved in the formation and success of Weimar cinema. The collaborative team consisted of Hanns Eisler, who composed the musical score for Berlin Symphony of a Great City (Walter Ruttmann, 1927), Ernst Ottwald, a distinguished novelist and screen writer, primary director Slatan Dudow who participated heavily in the production of Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) and finally Bertolt Brecht. The aforementioned trio heavily influenced the industrialised surrounding that encompass the location and narrative of Kuhle Wampe, however, fellow script writer and co-director Bertolt Brecht had very little experience in film production excursus from aiding the preparation for Karl Valentins The Mysteries of a Hairdressers Shop (1923). Brechts influence upon Kuhle Wampe came much more in the form of philosophical grounding, with himself, at the condemnation developing his materialist aesthetics in trying to conceptualise the answer to the question what is political art? Bringing together politics and art formulae, in this outcome montage, we can assess the messages that were conveyed through the use of montage and how it was used as a tool of political suggestion. From the opening sequence, Kuhle Wampes stylisation appropriates itself with that of Soviet montage, of which is Sergei Eisensteins theories are based on the idea that montage originates in the collision between different shots in an illustration of the idea of thesis and antithesis. This basis allowed him to designate that montage is inherently dialectical, thus it should be considered a demonstration of Marxism and Hegelian philos... ...h the montage sequences in Kuhle Wampe.Works CitedBrooker, Peter (2004) Key words in Brechts theory and practice of theatre in Brecht. Eds. Peter Thomson and Glendyr Sacks. Cambridge University Press, Pp. 185-200.Ei senstein, Sergei Jay Leyda (translator) (1947). The Film Sense. Hardcourt Brace and CompanyEisenstein, Sergei Jay Leyda (translator) (1977) The Film Form essays in film theory. Hardcourt Brace and CompanyKracauer, Siegfried (2004) Montage from From Caligari to Hitler A Psychological History of the German Film (1947) in German Essays on Film. Eds. Richard W. McCormack and Alison Guenther-Pal. New York & London Continuum, Pp. 181-189.Silbermann, Marc (1995) The Rhetoric of Image Slatan Dudow and Bertolt Brechts Kuhle Wampe or Who Owns the universe in German Cinema Texts in Context. Detroit Wayne State University Pp. 34-48.