A film series at the Filmmuseum Potsdam accompanies the exhibition Modigliani: Modern Gazes. It focuses on the "femmes modernes", who significantly shaped the 1920s in the spirit of New Objectivity. Stars such as Ossi Oswalda, Asta Nielsen and Louise Brooks embodied emancipated women in "trouser roles" from as early as the 1910s. In talkies, Marlene Dietrich continued the iconic tradition of a woman in a tailcoat. The "garçonne" type of woman receives special attention in the series, as do lesbian relationships, which mostly appear in the subtext.

Discounted admission to the Filmmuseum Potsdam is available to holders of an admission ticket to the Museum Barberini; holders of a ticket to the film screenings receive discounted admission to the exhibition Modigliani: Modern Gazes at the Museum Barberini.

Thu, May 9, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Silent movies with live music:
The ABC of Love
Directed by Magnus Stifter, starring Asta Nielsen, Ludwig Trautmann; Germany 1916, OV/English, 51 min.
I don't want to be a man
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Ossi Oswalda, Curt Goetz, Germany 1918, 45 min. Live music on the Welte cinema organ: Susanne Schaak.

Two stars of the early silent film era in spirited trouser roles: Asta Nielsen, dressed in men's clothing, shows her fiancé how a man should behave in matters of love. She drinks and seduces women. The rebellious Ossi (Ossi Oswalda), on the other hand, parties wildly with her tutor, unrecognized in tails and top hat. The protagonists of both films question gender conventions in order to stand up for their desires and their freedom. The light-footed play with gender roles serves emancipation and the fulfillment of one's own desires.

Thu, June 27, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Montparnasse 19 (Les amants de Montparnasse)
Directed by Jacques Becker, starring Gérard Philipe, Lilli Palmer, Anouk Aimée, Lino Ventura; F 1958, 100 min.

This biographical feature film describes the last year of Modigliani's life in the Montparnasse district of Paris. Modigliani is at the height of his creative powers and has internalized the life of a Parisian bohemian: love affairs, intoxication and excess, art and financial hardship. He falls in love with art student Jeanne Hébuterne, whose parents do everything they can to keep her away from Modigliani. Unsuccessfully, of course. The French-Italian co-production sheds light on Modigliani's last creative phase, but also takes a critical look at the exploitation of art as a capital investment. The film will be shown from a 35 mm print from the Basel Cinematheque.

Fri, July 12, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Pandora's Box
Directed by G.W. Pabst, Germany 1929, starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, 135 min. Live-Music: Peer Kleinschmidt.

Pandora's Box was one of the first films to feature an openly lesbian character. Hollywood star Louise Brooks embodies the epitome of a garçonne who indulges in adventures with women and men alike. Brooks' amoral Lulu outraged and thrilled contemporary Weimar audiences in equal measure: She becomes the fetish of all the protagonists, whose desire ends fatally for most of them. The film was banned by the Nazi regime in 1934. Today, it has become iconic for its depictions of female lust and the then revolutionary bobbed hairstyle and is often mentioned in pop culture.

Sun, July 28, 2024, 7 p.m.
Morocco
Directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Adolphe Menjou, USA 1930, engl. OF, 35 mm, 89 min.

Marlene Dietrich shines as nightclub singer Amy Jolly in a love triangle between the wealthy La Bessière and foreign legionnaire Tom Brown. Between the intoxicatingly dense atmosphere in the nightclub and the deadly desert outside, a suggestive drama emerges in which the main character adopts a top hat and tails and nonchalantly kisses women in passing. The film will be shown from a 35 mm print in the English original from the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Sun, Aug. 4, 2024, 7 p.m.
Love is mine (La Garçonne)
Directed by Jacqueline Audry, starring Andrée Debar, Colette Mars, Fernand Gravey, F 1956, 97 min.

Monique, the daughter of a good family, takes the path of a modern woman of the 1920s after being bitterly disappointed by her fiancé: As a garçonne, she has affairs with women and men alike and enjoys great professional success on the side. The film is based on Victor Margueritte's 1922 novel La Garçonne, one of the most widely read books in the world at the time. A woman who freely disposed of her body and her desires, who was bisexual and professionally successful, captured the spirit of the times. And called the censors into action: the first film version from 1923 was immediately banned. This is the third film version of the novel. While no screenable material of the two previous works can be found, we are showing this German dubbed version from a 35 mm print from the Bielefeld Media Archive.

Venue
Filmmuseum Potsdam, Breite Str. 1a, 14467 Potsdam
Tickets: 0331-27181-12 or at ticket@filmmuseum-potsdam.de