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Ways to Strength and Beauty

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Overview

Ways to Strength and Beauty is a 1925 German cultural film directed by Wilhelm Prager. The 125 minute full-length silent film was produced by Ufa-Kulturabteilung of Weimar Germany. The film was first screened on 16 March 1925 and in a revised version on 11 June 1926 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. The documentary was an idealized, somewhat naive depiction of health and beauty in conformity with nature. The film offered a contrast to the rather hopeless lifestyles available in Berlin and other large cities of Germany during the 1920s and became an immediate success. It was the most popular and important German kulturfilm (cultural film) of this period. Plot The full-length silent film conceived in the UFA's cultural department shows sport, gymnastics and dance performances, but also the Roman bathing culture, in order to demonstrate not only intellectual education but also physical fitness based on the example of ancient gymnasiums and personal grooming. Physical exercise in the great outdoors was intended for preventive healthcare and prevent postural damage in adults caused by imbalanced seated occupations and the health promotion of children, but it was also a life-reforming (Lebensreform) alternative to the decadence of city life with anxieties, lack of exercise and tobacco consumption as well as national movement based on the model of gymnastics father Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. The film's scientific advisor was the German physician Nicholas Kaufmann, who also wrote the script. In contrast to traditional military sports, the film expressly addresses women, for example with gymnastics according to Bess Mensendieck, and shows sports training in a civilian function, for example for self-defense or rescue swimming. Aesthetically, the film stages the human body in the style of classical antiquity by recreating numerous ancient scenarios and shows it extremely freely for the time. Studies in slow motion illustrate the muscular effect of individual exercises and movement sequences. The film features the first on-camera appearance of Leni Riefenstahl.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Overview

Ways to Strength and Beauty is a 1925 German cultural film directed by Wilhelm Prager. The 125 minute full-length silent film was produced by Ufa-Kulturabteilung of Weimar Germany. The film was first screened on 16 March 1925 and in a revised version on 11 June 1926 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. The documentary was an idealized, somewhat naive depiction of health and beauty in conformity with nature. The film offered a contrast to the rather hopeless lifestyles available in Berlin and other large cities of Germany during the 1920s and became an immediate success. It was the most popular and important German kulturfilm (cultural film) of this period. Plot The full-length silent film conceived in the UFA's cultural department shows sport, gymnastics and dance performances, but also the Roman bathing culture, in order to demonstrate not only intellectual education but also physical fitness based on the example of ancient gymnasiums and personal grooming. Physical exercise in the great outdoors was intended for preventive healthcare and prevent postural damage in adults caused by imbalanced seated occupations and the health promotion of children, but it was also a life-reforming (Lebensreform) alternative to the decadence of city life with anxieties, lack of exercise and tobacco consumption as well as national movement based on the model of gymnastics father Friedrich Ludwig Jahn. The film's scientific advisor was the German physician Nicholas Kaufmann, who also wrote the script. In contrast to traditional military sports, the film expressly addresses women, for example with gymnastics according to Bess Mensendieck, and shows sports training in a civilian function, for example for self-defense or rescue swimming. Aesthetically, the film stages the human body in the style of classical antiquity by recreating numerous ancient scenarios and shows it extremely freely for the time. Studies in slow motion illustrate the muscular effect of individual exercises and movement sequences. The film features the first on-camera appearance of Leni Riefenstahl.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).