Lotte Eisner

Made around the time of Fitzcarraldo's release, this documentary follows Werner Herzog on a journey across France and Germany and sees the director talk at length about his life and films.

Historian, author, and movie critic Lotte H. Eisner is the subject of this documentary. She recalls her early childhood in Germany and her association with such legendary directors as F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. Leaving Germany for Paris in 1933, her anticipation of WW II saw her relocating to the South of France. Eisner gives her considerable and insightful opinions on classic German Expressionist Films, as several of her admirers drop by during the interview conducted by director Sohrab Shadid-Saless.

Au départ Fata Morgana devait être un film de science-fiction africain tourné dans le Sahara algérien. À l’arrivée il y a toujours l’Afrique et l'algérie, mais il ne s’agit plus de fiction ni de documentaire. Fata Morgana est une sorte de poème épique expérimental en trois parties : La Création, Le Paradis, et L’Âge d’or. Un film quasi-animiste qui vise la transe et l’extase par un collage chamanique d’images, de textes et de musiques. Werner Herzog le définissait comme le premier réveil et le premier étonnement. Une expérience hors du commun, poétique et puissante mais aussi profondément personnelle.

An autobiographical short film by Werner Herzog made in 1986. Herzog tells stories about his life and career. The film contains excerpts and commentary on several Herzog films, including Signs of Life, Heart of Glass, Fata Morgana, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner, Fitzcarraldo, and the Les Blank documentary Burden of Dreams. Notable is footage of a conversation between Herzog and his mentor Lotte Eisner, a photographer. In another section, he talks with mountaineer Reinhold Messner, in which they discuss a potential film project in the Himalayas to star Klaus Kinski.

The film tells the cultural story of Berlin during the Weimar Republic through interviews with a number of persons who were involved in literature, film, art, and music during the period. It includes interviews with Christopher Isherwood, Louise Brooks, Lotte Eisner, Elisabeth Bergner, Francis Lederer, Carl Zuckmayer, Gregor Piatigorsky, Claudio Arrau, Rudolf Kolisch, Mischa Spoliansky, Herbert Bayer, Mrs. Walter Gropius, and Arthur Koestler.

Vue par un jeune réalisateur, la Cinémathèque française en 1962 : sa salle de projection de la rue d'Ulm, ses bureaux de la rue de Courcelles, son personnel (Lotte Eisner, Mary Meerson, Marie Epstein, ...) et le gardien des lieux, Henri Langlois.

Sur les traces de Lotte Eisner (1896-1983), historienne du cinéma et critique de films, qui fonda avec Henri Langlois la Cinémathèque française, en 1936.

Based on extensive interviews, shot on 16mm in a series of static long takes, Filmemigration aus Nazideutschland, is one of the most fascinating examples of "Film history on film" ever produced. Straschek devoted years to researching the topic and accumulating both film and non-film materials. Apart from some radio features and articles, however, this 290-minute TV programme remains the only published trace of Straschek's lifelong work on the emigration of film personnel. He had intended to publish a three-volume book, encompassing all available data about 3,000 emigrants originating from the centre and peripheries of film production, but the book never materialised.