Gefesselte Blicke. Filmplakate aus den 1920er-Jahren

Simon Frisch, Katrin Richter and Patrick Rössler (eds.)
Gefesselte Blicke. Filmplakate aus den 1920er-Jahren
catalogue design: Ricarda Löser
Lucia publishing house Weimar, 2023
ISBN 978-3-945301-68-5
104 pages with around 40 large-format poster illustrations in colour
15 EUR

A dog flies through the air, leaping from the wings of one aircraft to the next - a spectacular sight, today as it was in the 1920s when the motif was used to advertise an adventure film. It adorns the cover of the catalogue for the exhibition "Captivated Views" on historical film posters, which can be seen in the Erfurt University Library from 24 November 2023 to 4 February 2024.

The exhibition with around 40 large-format advertising motifs, which was already on display at the Weimar University Library in summer 2023, is reproduced in full in the catalogue. The full-page poster illustrations are supplemented by explanatory texts in which students from Erfurt and Weimar explain the background and develop current perspectives. This research, which was carried out as part of a joint seminar at both universities, reveals a great deal about the content and contexts of the films in question, as well as the creation of each poster and its graphic concept. "Posters condense the plot of a film into a key scene," explains Patrick Rössler, Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Erfurt and, together with Dr Simon Frisch and Dr Katrin Richter from the Bauhaus University Weimar, curator of the exhibition and editor of the volume. "At the same time, we learn a lot about the perception of society and social roles at the time from the artistic realisation." Throughout the entire volume, there is a particular focus on the prevailing gender relations of the time: Not only are the fun-loving flappers of the girl culture and the vamp of the "Golden Twenties" documented, but also the modern, working woman and the hardships of the unintentionally pregnant woman. The posters, originally disposable products of the advertising industry, now become objects of cultural history, many of which are depicted in the catalogue for the first time ever.