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BERLIN -- Films shot on 3D in pre-war Nazi German have been unearthed in Berlin's Federal Archives.
Two 30 minute black and white propaganda films in 1936 were found by Australian director Philippe Mora, who is prepping a feature length documentary on how the Nazis used images to manipulate reality.

Mora broke new ground with his first film "Swastika" when it was released in 1973 featuring previously unseen color footage from Hitler's "home" movies shot on a 16mm camera by his mistress Eva Braun at the Berghof mountain retreat at Obersalzberg in the Bavarian alps.

Now he has discovered that the Nazis were decades ahead of Hollywood in developing a medium first popularized in the 1950s and now enjoying an international renaissance.

"The films are shot on 35mm -- apparently with a prism in front of two lenses," Mora who is at the Berlinale for his planned $13 million 3D biopic on Salvador Dali, starring Alan Cumming and Judy Davis that he plans to shoot in Germany, Australia and Spain.

"They were made by an independent studio for Goebbels' propaganda ministry and referred to as 'raum film' -- or space film -- which may be why no one ever realised since that they were 3D."

One film, a musical set during a carnival entitled "So Real You Can Touch It" features close up shots of sizzling bratwurst on a barbeque; the other "Six Girls Roll into Weekend" has what may be UFA studio starlets living it up.

"The quality of the films is fantastic. The Nazis were obsessed with recording everything and every single image was controlled -- it was all part of how they gained control of the country and its people," Mora said.

He plans to incorporate the material in a 3D section of his documentary -- working title "How the Third Reich Was Recorded" -- and is convinced there is more vintage 3D footage out there to be found.

Contact the variety newsroom at news@variety.com

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 02-16-2011, 09:17 AM:
 
> Now he has discovered that the Nazis were decades ahead of Hollywood in developing a medium first popularized in the 1950s and now enjoying an international renaissance.

Wrong. Hollywood occasionally released 3D films going back to the late 1920's. I've personally seen documentary 3D footage of a drive across the George Washington Bridge (between NY and NJ) shot in 1931.

While it is true that the first wave of successful 3D movies did not hit until 1953, I see nothing in that article (or anywhere else) to indicate that Germany was any more successful in the format than Hollywood prior to 1953.
 

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Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 02-16-2011, 11:15 AM:
 
Again, more 3D mythology. I also question the use of the term "unknown" in reference to these films. Zum Greifen Nah (So Near You Can Touch It) has been referenced in several sources, and already has an IMDb entry! And a clip from the other title, 6 Madels Rollen Ins Wockened (sic) is presented on the Sabucat DVD, "Festival of 3-D Movie Trailers" from The World 3D Film Expo.

So when they say "unknown"...

Perhaps the complete films were found, but the article isn't the most illuminating.
 

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Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 02-16-2011, 02:20 PM:
 
The article was not very well written either.
 

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Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 751) on 02-16-2011, 02:29 PM:
 
From another online forum and as Hillary points out above, it seem that clips from those German 3D films were also shown at one of the World 3D Expos held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood some years ago.
 

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Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 02-17-2011, 09:21 AM:
 
Both ZUM GREIFEN NAH and SECHS MÄDELS are colour films, not black and white, filmed in the early three-layer Agfacolor process. If I recall it correctly, the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv (federal film archive of Germany) has camera negatives and safety protection material for both films (I believe it was mentioned in a lecture on the history of 3D by Stephan Droessler at the Munich film museum).

The article suggests that two 30 minutes films have been "discovered". ZUM GREIFEN NAH runs only about 11 minutes.

On page 16 of this FIAF document

FIAF 3D document (see p. 16/17)

there are pics of film clips, the stereo projection lens and an Ernemann projector fitted with the "Sterikon" attachment.
The system was called "Raumfilm Zeiss-Ikon" and used for a few feature films after the war. Cameras and more film clips can be seen in from Ray Zone's excellent 3-D book Stereoscopic cinema & the origins of 3-D film, 1838-1952 - if you search "Zeiss Ikon Raumfilm" in Google books, you can see pages 155/156 with the images.

Stereoscopic films have been made since the beginning of cinema, and Zeiss-Ikon Raumfilm certainly was no secret Nazi Technology more advanced than anything else. In fact, they had problems in getting enough light on the screen with 1940s projection equipment, and image quality was hardly better than 16mm.

So - what's new?
 

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