Westfront 1918

Infobox Film
name = Westfront 1918


image_size =
caption = Swedish film poster for Westfront 1918
director = Georg Wilhelm Pabst
producer =
writer = Ernst Johannsen
narrator =
starring =
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1930
runtime =
country = Germany
language = German
budget =
amg_id = 1:53915
imdb_id = 0021542

"Westfront 1918" is a German film, set mostly in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I. It was directed in 1930 by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, from the novel "Vier von der Infanterie" by Ernst Johannsen, and deals with the impact of the war on a group of infantrymen. It featured an ensemble cast led by screen veterans Fritz Kampers and Gustav Diessl; Diessl had been a prisoner of war for a year during the conflict. The film bears resemblance to its close contemporary, the "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930), an American production, although is has a bleaker tone. It was particularly pioneering in its early use of sound - it was Pabst's first "talkie" - in that Pabst managed to record live audio during complex tracking shots through the trenches.

"Westfront 1918" was a critical success when it was released, although it was often shown in truncated form. With the rise of Nazism, the film quickly became considered by the German authorities as unsuitable for the people, notably for its obvious pacificism, and for its clear denunciation of the total and unuseful abomination of war. This was an attitude that Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would soon label as "cowardly defeatism".

Some shots from the film were used for scene-setting purposes in a 1937 BBC Television adaptation of the play "Journey's End".

Bibliography

* BANDMANN, Christa & HEMBUS, Joe: Westfront 1918. In: Dies.: Klassiker des deutschen Tonfilms. München: Goldmann 1980, S. 19 - 21 ISBN 3442102073
* VANDEN BERGHE, Marc, La mémoire impossible. Westfront 1918 de G.W. Pabst. Grande Guerre, soldats, automates. Le film et sa problématique vus par la 'Petite Illustration' (1931), Brussel, 2001 - text online in www.art-chitecture.net/publications.php [http://www.art-chitecture.net/publications.php]

See also

*List of German films 1919-1933

External links

*imdb title|0021542|Westfront 1918
*amg movie|id=1:53915|title=Westfront 1918
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/04/32/westfront_1918.html Senses of Cinema Article on the film]
* [http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=93569&mainArticleId=176230 Jeremy Arnold on the film, for Turner Classic Movies]