Babelsberg - today 100 years!!!

Today I skip my daily Berlinale post. As you might have noticed I try to do not more than one post a day.. and today I have to write about something else..

Babelsberg studios!

One hundred years ago - on February 12, 1912 - for the first time a film was made in Babelsberg studios in Babelsberg, Germany.

It was DER TOTENTANZ (THE DANCE TO DEATH) - and Asta Nielsen was the star in it.

~ Asta Nielsen in DER TOTENTANZ (1912) ~

I could write a lot about it and Babelsberg films – but I guess better keep it short.

So just have some pictures.. 

 Today there are still films made in Babelsberg studios.

Quentin Tarantino received his “own” street in Babelsberg studios while filming INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)

After WWII in Babelsberg studios were some GDR films made - including one of my favourites: 

~ NACKT UNTER WÖLFEN (= naked among the wolves) (1963) - it's a story about  concentration camp prisoners who hide a little child ~

In 3rd Reich there was another political tenor in the films made in Babelsberg..

~ WUNSCHKONZERT (= request concert) (1940) still is x-rated in Germany - because it shows some German Nazi soldiers dying a heroic death for their Führer. ~

 But of course there were lots of films simply made for entertainment - almost a paradise for escapists..

~ Marika Röck and Willy Fritsch in FRAUEN SIND DOCH BESSERE DIPLOMATEN (WOMEN ARE BETTER DIPLOMATS) (1941) - it was the first German film in full colour. ~

DER GOLEM, WIE ER IN DIE WELT KAM (THE GOLEM : HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD) was made here in 1920 with the great Paul Wegener.

I guess better known will be a certain film featuring Marlene Dietrich:

DER BLAUE ENGEL (THE BLUE ANGEL) (1930)

~ Director Josef von Sternberg & Marlene Dietrich ~

Like von Sternberg there were some other directors whose works I love filming in Babelsberg:

~ Ernst Lubitsch & Pola Negri working on DAS VERBOTENE PARADIS (FORBIDDEN PARADISE) (1924)

and of course:

Fritz Lang filmed here

METROPOLIS (1927)!!

~ Fritz Lang working on METROPOLIS - with one of my favourite German actors: Gustav Fröhlich ~

Thank you very much for listening!

Yours

Irene