The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is honoring the 100 years history of Studio Babelsberg. The anniversary will be celebrated with a reception at MoMA on April 23 and the screenings of the Babelsberg films Unknown (2011) starring Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger and the silent movie The Student of Prague (1913).
Laurence Kardish, MoMA's Senior Curator for Film and Media: “To mark the centennial of world's oldest, and one of the most influential, functioning film studios in the world, the Department of Film is pleased to show two films - each on the theme of identity, and each that used the most sophisticated special effects of the time - made almost one hundred years apart, The Student of Prague (1913) and Unknown (2011).
The story of Babelsberg is remarkable. Founded in Wilhelmine Germany, surviving the First World War to become one of the top - in terms of artistry and techniques - filmmaking factories in the world during the Weimar Republic, becoming the chief production house of the Nazis during the Third Reich, surviving the bombings of World War 2, then becoming the main production center in East Germany, and today, over twenty years after reunification, becoming Berlin's center of international film production where such films as Polanski's The Pianist, Roland Emmerich's Anonymous, and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds were made.”
To be honored by the most prestigious museum of modern art in the world is fantastic and we would like to thank the MoMA for this recognition. It’s great to get this international attention with this unique event.
Charlie Woebcken
CEO Studio Babelsberg
Charlie Woebcken, CEO Studio Babelsberg AG: “To be honored by the most prestigious museum of modern art in the world is fantastic and we would like to thank the MoMA for this recognition. No other film studio in the world can look back on such a moving history. It’s great to get this international attention with this unique event.”
MoMA – Babelsberg Studios 100th Anniversary Program
Unknown
2011. Germany/France/USA. Directed by James Collet Serra. Adapted from the novel Out of My Head by Didier Cauwelelaert. With Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, January Jones, Aidan Quinn, Bruno Ganz, Frank Langella. Produced in part at Studio Babelsberg, Unknown makes great use not only of soundstages within the studio but also of local Berlin locations.
Monday, April 23, 2012, 4:00 p.m., Theater 1, T1
The Student of Prague
1913. Germany. Directed by Stellan Rye. With Paul Wegener, Fritz Weidemann, John Gottowt, Lida Salmonova. In Babelsberg's first year this initial version of The Student of Prague, a Faustian fantasy of dread and split identity, became a worldwide sensation. Star Wegener would go on to make several notable films after Germany moved from a monarchy to a republic, including another famous "supernatural" work that perfectly exploited the studio's facilities (which had been enlarged by 1920): The Golem, How He Came into the World. 60 min.
Monday, April 23, 2012, 7:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1 (silent with piano accompaniment by Ben Model)
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
