Synopsis

THE OTHER EYE explores life and work of the film director G.W.Pabst (1885-1967).

This filmessay by Hannah Heer and Werner Schmiedel operates on a range of levels. Invaluable interviews with film theorists and Pabst's colleagues throughout various periods of his life are interwoven with documents, photographs and excerpts of Pabst's films. Within the context of the engaged contributions of the participants, Pabst's life unfolds like a dramatic story.

Austrian film director G.W.Pabst, who is best known for his work with the American actress Louise Brooks ("Pandora's Box"), was one of the major European film pioneers in Berlin during the Weimar Republic (i.e. "The Threepenny Opera", "Comradeship").

With political turmoil at its peak in Germany, the pacifist Pabst exiled himself from Berlin and moved to Hollywood via Paris in 1933. His return to Austria in 1939 (already part of the Third Reich) sent shock waves through the international cultural community and caused one of the biggest controversies in film history.

At the center of the film, the filmmakers raise the question: "What is each artist's and each human being's responsibility?"

Rudolph S.Joseph, Anne Friedberg, Harold Nebenzal, Francis Lederer, Ronny Loewy, Heide Schlüpmann, Freddy Buache, Jean Oser, Jan-Christopher Horak, Henri Alekan, Micheline Presle, Michael Pabst, Hilde Krahl, Carl Szokoll, Aglaja Schmid, Herbert G.Luft

Written, directed by Hannah Heer & Werner Schmiedel

Austria/USA 1991/2009 DVD-Version
111 min., Color, in German, English, French with Subtitles

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"This breakthrough filmessay explores the strange case of G.W.Pabst, the Austrian Film Director who was considered a giant of early cinema before his reputation went behind a cloud. The film takes us through his work with Garbo and Louise Brooks, and his making of such classics as "Pandora's Box", "The Joyless Street", and "The Threepenny Opera". But this is no ordinary film tribute. For "The Other Eye", Hannah Heer and Werner Schmiedel, have evolved a rich visual language new to the documentary field, using a elaborate color structure that reflects not only various moods but different periods of time. The film's jazzy style and sophisticated narration probes unflinchingly the controversy surrounding Pabst: What possessed this liberal, cosmopolitan filmmaker to return to Austria in 1939 and direct movies for the Third Reich?"
-- THE NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL, Film Society of Lincoln Center, 1991