>>Printable version >>E-mail this page >>Bookmark this page

EXHIBITIONS

Exhibitions 2007

Film Costumes! The Theaterkunst Company

March 29 to September 2, 2007 at Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen

September 27, 2007 to March 24, 2008 at Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg

Film costumes are an artistic means of cinematic narration. Like the screenplay, directing, acting, set design, camera, and editing, they are one of the narrative and symbolic elements that contribute to the film’s overall effect. Film costumes are not made for everyday wear and in selecting their form, colors, material, cut and design, nothing is left to chance.

The exhibition, which has been put together by the Museum für Film und Fernsehen in collaboration with the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg and Theaterkunst GmbH, traces the path of costume design over the past 100 years based on the history of the Berlin Theaterkunst GmbH. Founded in 1907, Theaterkunst specialized from the very start on creating and renting out costumes to theaters, revues and operas. In the 1920s, the company made the costumes for big productions, such as Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (D 1927) or Fred Niblo’s BEN HUR (USA 1925). Advertisements in trade journals promoted the company with its international offices in Copenhagen, London and New York, and the names of its celebrated costume designers Ernst Stern, Ali Hubert and Werner Boehm. Today, in 2007, the company has more than ten million items in stock. In recent years its workshops have designed costumes for Oscar-winning films, including DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN/The Lives of Others (D 2006), as well as for opulent period films, such as LUTHER (D 2003) or exact studies of a specific period or milieu, including ALLES AUF ZUCKER/Go for Zucker! (D 2005).

Theaterkunst’s stock is arranged by historical epochs and genres, and not by when a film originated. The exhibition is structured along the same lines. In a journey that extends into the past, the first large section presents some forty original costumes worn in films by German and international stars, e.g. Mario Adorf, David Bowie, Horst Buchholz, Hannelore Elsner, Joseph Fiennes, Corinna Harfouch, Klaus Kinski, Sebastian Koch, Winona Ryder, Romy Schneider, Hanna Schygulla and Barbara Sukowa.

The workshop section of the exhibition presents tools and equipment, materials and final products from a variety of occupational fields involved in making costumes. Special attention has been given to the work of the professional costume designer as interface between film production and costume house. Based on the screenplay, designers first sketch their ideas; subsequently they design the individual costumes for the characters in each scene. They must take factors like age, gender, milieu, profession and status, as well as historical and social context into account. Initial designs are either sketched in pencil or depicted in elaborate, colored ink drawings. Nowadays, costume designers often also research digitally and work with photo collections. In this section, work documents, art and cultural historical materials, color schemes, photographs, figurines and sketches also illustrate the wide range of approaches taken by costume designers.

In addition to the exhibits from the collections of the Deutsche Kinemathek, the exhibition presents creations by costume designers such as Barbara Baum, Lucie Bates, Monika Jacobs, Gisela Storch-Pestalozza and Ingrid Zoré.

In conjunction with the exhibition, DruckVerlag Kettler has published a catalogue with large color photographs of costumes, articles about the history of Theaterkunst GmbH, interviews with colleagues and costume designers, as well as an index with a selection of the items on display.

In cooperation with