Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang) The most seductive robot winkin cinema history, out of control,leading troglodyte saps in ridiculous sabotsto near destruction, inciting dinner-suitsto fisticuffs, murder, suicide,laughing as the flames of the witch-pyrelick her to base metal. -Love Letter to Brigitte Helm, Peter Howard

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)

The most seductive robot wink
in cinema history, out of control,
leading troglodyte saps in ridiculous sabots
to near destruction, inciting dinner-suits
to fisticuffs, murder, suicide,
laughing as the flames of the witch-pyre
lick her to base metal.

-Love Letter to Brigitte Helm, Peter Howard

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang) On the creation of Robot Maria: “The concentric rings of light that surround her and move from top to bottom were in fact a little ball of silver rapidly swung in a circle and filmed on a background of black velvet. We superimposed those shots, in the lab, over the shot of the robot in a sitting position that we had filmed previously.” -Fritz Lang

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)

On the creation of Robot Maria:

“The concentric rings of light that surround her and move from top to bottom were in fact a little ball of silver rapidly swung in a circle and filmed on a background of black velvet. We superimposed those shots, in the lab, over the shot of the robot in a sitting position that we had filmed previously.”

-Fritz Lang

Brigitte Helm in L’Argent/Money (1928, dir. Marcel L’Herbier)

Brigitte Helm in L’Argent/Money (1928, dir. Marcel L’Herbier)

Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) kidnaps Maria (Brigitte Helm) in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) kidnaps Maria (Brigitte Helm) in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang)

(via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang) (via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang) (via)

Brigitte Helm & Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (photo by Horst von Harbou)

Brigitte Helm & Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (photo by Horst von Harbou)

Brigitte Helm & André Roanne in Gloria (1931, dir. Hans Behrendt) (via)

Brigitte Helm & André Roanne in Gloria (1931, dir. Hans Behrendt) (via)

Brigitte Helm, Fritz Lang, Heinrich George and assorted cast & crew on the set of Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang) Photographer: Horst von Harbou (via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Rudolf Klein-Rogge & Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Rudolf Klein-Rogge & Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Brigitte Helm in Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang) (via)

Interviewer: Her performance of the blind girl in Jeanne Ney is one of her most striking. I don’t feel Brigitte Helm is acting. I feel she is in a trance. That she has the power to throw herself into a trance and to move and speak and live a life quite outside her own experience. G.W. Pabst: Ah, you see. You have it. Do you know the scene when she walks with Jeanne Ney in the streets of Paris, she was almost killed. The actor driving the taxi was not a driver really, but had had to learn. He was not very sure of his steering. Brigitte Helm walked right in front of him. I had to run before the camera to save her. Do you know why? She was blind. She simply did not see it. -excerpted from Close Up magazine interview (March 1929) 

Interviewer: Her performance of the blind girl in Jeanne Ney is one of her most striking. I don’t feel Brigitte Helm is acting. I feel she is in a trance. That she has the power to throw herself into a trance and to move and speak and live a life quite outside her own experience.

G.W. Pabst: Ah, you see. You have it. Do you know the scene when she walks with Jeanne Ney in the streets of Paris, she was almost killed. The actor driving the taxi was not a driver really, but had had to learn. He was not very sure of his steering.

Brigitte Helm walked right in front of him. I had to run before the camera to save her. Do you know why? She was blind. She simply did not see it.

-excerpted from Close Up magazine interview (March 1929)