We asked female film and art critics to look at the Goethe-Institut Toronto's exhibition Early UFA Film Posters: Projecting Women with eight visuals from famous as well as rarely seen or lost Berlin UFA films from the 1920s and 30s that portray women as heroines or seductresses, debutantes or harlots. Toronto arts & culture writer Nathalie Atkinson took a closer look at "The Girl from Till 12", a 1927 comedy directed by Erich Schönfelder:There are more than 300 film posters attributed to Josef Fenneker, the prolific German artist. In his near-weekly output of cinema materials for Berlin’s historic Marmorhaus throughout the 1920s, Fenneker is known for the more distorted and exaggerated melodrama (and often, violent emotion) of his signature Expressionist work. Both in subject and style his poster for Erich Schönfelder’s 1928 silent film "The Girl from Till 12" ("Das Fräulein von Kasse 12") is a radical departure; it was not part of the MoMA’s 1985 exhibition of Fenneker posters, for example. Yet this cinema design more than any other encapsulates the look and attitude of the neue Frau, with her sidelong gaze full of insouciance. Perhaps it’s even insolence, for she is a solitary, independent figure.
At a glance, "The Girl from Till 12" conveys nothing specific of the film’s plot or premise. Continue reading "UFA @ 100: The Girl from Till 12 - the New Woman" »
