Film in Frankfurt
October 30, 2011
Film lovers in Germany have plenty of options when it comes to exploring their favorite medium. The country houses six different museums dedicated to film with four - in Frankfurt, Berlin, Potsdam and Dusseldorf - taking a traditional exhibition approach. The other two, in Munich and Wolfen, have no space for displays but focus on presenting and restoring older works.
The first museum dedicated to movies in the republic - Frankfurt's German Film Museum - reopened in August 2011 after extensive renovations.
Now equipped with generous exhibition space, the basic concept is the same: Guests can take a close look at cameras and production equipment from the early days of film, as well as costumes and screenplay scripts.
What's new is that visitors can take in the classics themselves with a projection on four movie screens that offers clips from important moments in film history and shows how they interrelate.
Cut, combine, create
"Film museums have special significance because there's no other cultural product that can win over and excite so many people," said Bernd Desinger, the head of Dusseldorf's film museum. "Imparting emotional and difficult situations - but also joyful moments, all of these incredibly deep human experiences…you don't have that in any other art form."
Tapping into the broad cultural interest in film is the museum's goal. In a series of rooms, visitors can see just how putting a film together works by having the opportunity to cut scenes, combine music with imagery and create their own short flicks. It's an offering intended to attract a younger public, one of the museum's aims in renovating its collections.
"Today, the film museum has a completely different starting point than 25 years ago," said Maja Keppler of the museum in Frankfurt.
"Back then, the video recorder had just been introduced for private use, but today the moving image is everywhere. Nearly everyone uses media creatively, and a museum has to take that into account in its presentation," Keppler added.
Digital appeal
A glimpse inside the museum makes it clear that film is as relevant to the digital generation as those before it, even if movies are just one among many types of media now readily at hand. Groups of young people and school classes troop regularly through Frankfurt's institution.
"Film can address precisely those individuals who have no real background or education in aesthetics. This kind of museum leads the visitor from popular film through to artistic, provocative works, and that's its job," said Hilmar Hoffmann, a legendary German culture manager and promoter.
And the visitor numbers seem to confirm Hoffmann's views: Germany's film museums are a big attraction. Their special exhibitions in particular tend to draw in the most guests, and they range widely in terms of age and interests.
And who knows - maybe one of the short films those visitors can now put together in Frankfurt's exhibition will itself wind up in the film museums of the future.
Author: Jochen Kürten / gsw
Editor: Kate Bowen