Westfront 1918

original title:
Westfront 1918
other titles:
(Vier von der Infanterie), Comrades of 1918
country / year of production:
Germany / 1930
original length:
90 min. , black/white
premiere:
23 May 1930, Berlin, Capitol
genre:
melodrama
based on:
Ernst Johannsen. Vier von der Infanterie. Hamburg: Fackelreiter, 1929.
director:
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
film script:
Ernst Johannsen , Peter Martin Lampel , Ladislaus Vajda
producer:
cinematographer:
Fritz Arno Wagner
editor:
composer:
cast (role):
Fritz Kampers (The Bavarian) , Gustav Diessl (Karl) , Hans-Joachim Moebis (The Student ) , Claus Clausen (The Lieutenant) , Gustav Püttjer () , Fritz Kampers , Gustav Diessl , Hans-Joachim Moebis , Claus Clausen , Gustav Püttjer
more:
plot synopsis:
A group of German infantrymen of the First World War live out their lives in the trenches of France. They find brief entertainment and relief in a village behind the lines, but primarily terror fills their lives as the attacks on and from the French army ebb and flow. One of the men, Karl, goes home on leave only to discover the degradation forced on his family by wartime poverty. He returns to the lines in time to face an enormous attack by French tanks.
keywords:
trench warfare , infantry , tanks , behind enemy lines , comradeship , women during wartime
war:
First World War (1914-1918)
literature:
M. Geisler. "The battleground of modernity. Westfront 1918 (1930)". In: Eric Rentschler. The films of G.W. Pabst. An extraterrestial cinema. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1990, 91-102.

B.C.M. Kester. "Het (on)´gewapende oog. Realisme en modernisme in `Der Weltkrieg´ en `Westfront 1918`". In: Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis 0 (1998), 5-25.
remarks:
In April 1933 the film was banned on the grounds that it "endangered vital interests of the state" because it presented the war only as a tragedy, and failed to point out that the war was waged and had to be waged to defend the country (oroginal document on: http://www.deutsches-filminstitut.de/zengut/df2tb733z.pdf). The ban was lifted in 1957 for version that was 10 minutes shorter than the original.

"Westfront" also attracted large audiences in France where it shown in a French sound version, remarkable, considering the novelty of the sound technique.
availability:
VHS