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The History of Cinema: 1921

Germany - USSR

Dr. Wilhelm von Kaufmann, actress Henny Porten’s new husband, gives up his medical practice in order to produce his wife’s films. [ADD]

Fritz Lang’s Der Mude Tod premieres in Berlin.   The film is co-written with his future wife Thea von Harbou. [ADD]

Paul Leni and Leopold Jessner’s Hintertreppe is released.   The expressionist work stars Henny Porten, William Dieterle and Fritz Korner. [ADD]

– Ufa production company takes over Decla-Bioskop. [ADD]

– Partially financed by secret state investment, the Ufa production company opens new studios at Neubabelsberg, near Potsdam. [ADD]

– German film production reaches a peak of 646 films. [ADD]

Great Britain 

The Ministry of Health publishes Causes and Prevention of Blindness: Interim Report regarding eye problems associated with the lights used during filming.   The Kinematograph Manufacturers Association immediately undertakes to change its practices. [ADD]

During a visit to his homeland, comedy star Charlie Chaplin receives an enthusiastic welcome from huge crowds.   He enjoys social events with literary figures Sir J. M. Barrie, H. G. Wells, and Rebecca West, and revisits scenes of his impoverished childhood in East London. [ADD]

– Producer George Clark begins construction of Beaconsfield Studios. [ADD]

– The Nederlandsche Bioscoop Bond (NBB – Dutch Union for Cinematography) is founded. [ADD]

– The Astra production company goes bankrupt. [ADD]

– Bilet Pherat, the first Indian film with a contemporary setting, is released.   It also marks the directorial debut of Dhirendranath Ganguly. [ADD]

– Kanjibhai Rathod’s Bhakta Vidur becomes the country’s first victim of censorship when it is banned in Madras. [ADD]

Italy 

The Italian Minister of Fine Arts gives French director Luiz Moratz permission to shoot scenes for his film La Terre du diable amongst the ruins of Vesuvius. [ADD]

Japan 

– The Institute for Cinema Studies is founded. [ADD]

Lithuania

– Feognijus Dunajevas shoots the first local newsreel. [ADD]

– Pioneer filmmaker Rudall Hayward makes The Bloke from Freeman's Bay.   His Uncle Henry considers it to be so bad that he offers his nephew £50 to burn it.  [ADD]

Victor Sjostrom’s version of Selma Lagerlof’s Korkarlen, in which he co-stars with Hilda Borgstrom, is released. [ADD]

– Ray Milton Hartmann founds the educational Schul- und Volks-Kino in Berne. [ADD]

Sergei Eisenstein is admitted to the GVIRM (State Filmmakers Institute of Higher Education). [ADD]

Lenin publishes his Thesis on Propaganda and Production in which he states that the cinema must be used to further ideological development. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1921

Die Bergkatze (Ernst Lubitsch) [ADD]

Der Gang in die Nacht (F. W. Murnau) [ADD]

Das Indische Grabmal (Joe May) [ADD]

Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter) [ADD]

Schloss Vogelod (F. W. Murnau) [ADD]

The Battle of Jutland (H. Bruce Woolfe) [ADD]

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Maurice Elvey) [ADD]

Squibs (George Pearson) [ADD]

Nala Damayanti (Eugenio de Liguoro) [ADD]

'Surekha Haran (Painter) [ADD]

La nave (Gabriellino D’Annunzio & Mario Roncoroni) [ADD]

Rojo no Reikon (Minuro Murata) [ADD]

Bican Efendi Vekilharci (Ahmet Fehim) [ADD]

Golod… golod… golod (Vladimir Gardin & V. I. Pudovkin) [ADD]