Walter Ruttmann and the Cinema of Multiplicity: Avant-Garde Film - Advertising - Modernity (Film Culture in Transition)

A key figure in early avant-garde cinema, Walter Ruttmann was a pioneer of experimental animation and the creative force behind one of the silent era's most celebrated montage films, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. Yet even as he was making experimental films, Ruttmann had a day job. He worked regularly in advertising -and he would go on to make industrial films, medical films, and even Nazi propaganda films. Michael Cowan offers here the first study of Ruttmann in English, not only shedding light on his commercial, industrial, and propaganda work, but also rethinking his significance in light of recent transformations in film studies. Cowan brilliantly teases out the linkages between the avant-garde and industrial society in the early twentieth century, showing how Ruttmann's films incorporated and enacted strategies for managing the multiplicities of mass society. This book has won the Willy Haas Award 2014 for its outstanding contribution to the study of German cinema. An Early Practitioner Of Experimental Film, Walter Ruttmann Made His Well-known 'berlin: Symphony Of A Great City' In 1927 And Later Worked As An Assistant To Director Leni Riefenstahl During The Production Of 'triumph Of The Will.' Tracing Ruttmann's Career From The 1920s Through The 1940s Against The Backdrop Of A Changing Germany, This Book Details The Ideological And Aesthetic Shifts Between The Filmmaker's Animation, Montage Works, And Later Propaganda Films. In The Process, It Draws Our Attention To Previously Neglected Bodies Of Film Material And Calls For A New Focus On The Institutional And Financial Contexts In Which Films Are Commissioned And Distributed. Introduction : Avant-garde, Advertising And The Managing Of Multiplicity -- Absolute Advertising : Abstraction And Figuration In Ruttmann's Animated Product Advertisements (1922-1927) -- The Cross-section : Images Of The World And Contingency Management In Ruttmann's Montage Films Of The Late 1920s (1927-1929) -- Statistics And Biopolitics : Conceiving The National Body In Ruttmann's Hygiene Films (1930-1933) -- Überall Stahl : Forming The New Nation In Ruttmann's Steel And Armament Films (1934-1940) -- Afterword : Of Good And Bad Objects. Michael Cowan. Includes Bibliographical References, Filmography, And Indexes. The Name Walter Ruttmann Recalls Enthralling And Often Controversial Contexts. A Leading Figure Of The Interwar Avant-garde, Ruttmann Enriched The Language Of The Cinema Through Numerous Innovations In Film Form. His Pioneering Work In Abstract Animation Paved The Way For Artists Such As Oskar Fischinger And Len Lye, And His Celebrated Montage Film Berlin. 'die Sinfonie Der Großstadt (berlin: Symphony Of A Great City', 1927) Is Still Seen As The Quintessential Documentary Of Urban Life In The 1920s. But Ruttmann Also Made Numerous Propaganda Films After 1933, Even Working Alongside Leni Riefenstahl For 'triumph Des Willens' (1935). The First Monograph On Ruttmann In English, Cowan's Study Presents An Entire Aspect Of Ruttmann's Work, While Also Rethinking His Significance In Light Of Current Transformations In Film Studies. Drawing On The Growing Interest In Useful Cinema And Sponsored Film, The Book Shows How Ruttmann's Films Incorporated And Enacted Contemporary Strategies For Managing The Multiplicities Of Mass Society From Democracy To National Socialism. -Winner of the Willy Haas Award for best book on German cinema -Finalist for the Kraszna-Krausz Award in the category of Moving Image -Honourable mention in the BAFFTS Books Prize. In this award-winning study, Michael Cowan reframes our understanding of early avant-garde film by probing the career of one of its towering figures. Walter Ruttmann was a pioneer of both experimental and documentary film, but also active in advertising and--after 1933--Nazi propaganda. Examining Ruttmann's work as a whole, Cowan's book reevaluates experimental film culture by probing the links between abstraction, montage and modes of governmentality that were crucial to mass modernity in both its democratic and fascist variants. A leading figure of the interwar avant-garde, director Walter Ruttmann enriched the language of the cinema through numerous innovations in film form.