Film Dossiers
FEATURED CLASSICS
The Featured Classics project offers deep dives into the history of several Weimar films that have become part of world cinema. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, and Metropolis circulate as prototypes of global genre cinema, divorced from their original contexts. The goal of this project is to recover the historical moment in which these classics were made and first discussed. Such a reconstruction restores the rich signifying power these films once possessed. Equally important is their afterlife and continued presence in contemporary culture.
Extending Walter Benjamin's archival impulse in his Arcades project to the Internet, the dossiers draw on a variety of sources: published essays and reviews, posters, photographs, film clips, videos, websites, blogs, and other online material. The dossiers allow the archival documents to speak for themselves and enter into dialogue with each other. This method suggests a non-linear and conceptual film history based on juxtaposition and montage. Constellations between past and present spark new insights and invite the user to engage with the evolving historicity of a film. In this way, a dossier represents a film's virtual archive that is dynamic and open to the future.
Each Featured Classics dossier consists of the following six sections:
PRODUCTION & RESTORATION
includes the film's full credits, its production and restoration history, and recommended DVD editions for home viewing;
HISTORICAL ESSAYS & REVIEWS
presents archival documents to reconstruct the historical context of the "timeless" classics and recover buried references lost through time and canonization;
CONCEPTS & CONSTELLATIONS
illuminates some of the key social and philosophical discourses embedded in the films and brings them into dialogue with the present;
RELATED FILMS
provides links to films of the period to illustrate stylistic and thematic traditions;
AFTERLIVES
provides links to remakes, adaptations, and cross-media appropriations;
RECOMMENDED READINGS
provides a brief and up-to-date bibliography in chronological order.