Customer comments on this selection.
 Hmmm...
As a resource for all things German-Expressionistic, this is a fairly good bet: a shame that it's just so dull to read.
I wonder if this is a language issue, if the original French text contained traces of Eisner's personality, which since have been lost to an unimaginative translation?
Whatever the case, this isn't a book I recommend you read for the pleasure of discovery: Kracauer's "Caligari to Hitler" is more enjoyable and just as informative as this one, but Eisner's "The Haunted Screen" is an excellent fact-checking tome. Po-faced and all as it is, "The Haunted Screen" is an expansive, exhaustive, brilliantly-illustrated journey through a most important period in the history of Cinema - Eisner not only discusses the films and their relatives, but also the historical and technical details of the genesis of German Expressionism, with a clarity and a lucidity that still shine fifty-six years after its original publication.
It's like eating museli for breakfast: if you can put up with the arid, dull chewing you'll definitely feel the benefits: just know that you'll be wishing for bacon and pancakes before too long.
Great Pictures/Irritating Text
I know this is one of the classic books of film history and one of the most famous books on the films of the Weimar era.However, I found it incredibly hard going. The photos are great and really give the reader a desire to see these gripping, strange films. The text, however, made me want to put the book down and read something else. Perhaps the problem is that the book was written in French and translated into English, but the text did not flow. I was aware of having to work at reading this prose. The chapters did not especially seem to build on each other but seemed to leap from topic A to C to E then back to B. Kracauer's "From Caligari to Hitler" is a far better overview of this era. "The Haunted Screen" will make you aware of some very interesting films, but it is best to treat it as a picture book and not a text to be read from cover to cover.
 The white and the dark: spirit of german cinema
In this work, Lotte Eisner makes an inteligent analysis about the influences of the expressionism and german theater - specially Max Reinhardt theater - in the german cinema. It's important to know that expressionism have been confused, not rarely, with other kind of ideological and esthetical sources of influence. And about this confusion, this book brings a good help. The authorress identifies and points what comes from the expressionism and what is not, where are the traces of the expressionism, of the german theater or whatever. And besides, Lotte Eisner speaks about the work of great german directors, like F. W. Murnau, F. Lang and G. W. Pabst, making an interesting and complete review of the german masterpieces - for example Caligari, Nosferatu and Metropolis, . She also speaks a little about other films related to Germany, yet made in other countries. Since the authoress was one of the most important movie critics of Germany, and also a wickness of the new birth of german cinema after the First World War, her statements or reviews are solid and plenty of good reveals.
 White and dark: the spirit of german cinema
In this work, Lotte Eisner makes an inteligent analysis about the influences of the expressionism and german theather in the german cinema. It's important to know that expressionism have been confused, not rarely, with other kind of ideological and esthetical sources of influence. And about this confusion, this book brings a good help. The authorress identifies and points what is expressionism and what is not, where are the traces of the expressionism, of the german theather or of whatever. And besides, Lotte Eisner makes an interesting and complete review of the most important german films, for example Caligari, Nosferatu and Metropolis, also speaking a little about other films related to Germany, yet made in other countries. Since the authoress was one of the most important movie critics of Germany, and also a wickness of the birth of german cinema after the First World War, her statements or reviews are solid and plenty of good reveals.
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