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The History of Cinema: 1941

Canada - USSR

Canada

Jun -

The Motion Picture Bureau is merged with the Film Board and is made responsible to the Ministry of National War Services. [ADD]

China

28/12 -

Tie shan gong zhu (The Iron Fan), China’s first animated feature, is released by the Wan Brothers.   The film’s anti-Japanese tone proves popular with audiences. [ADD]

Colombia

– Colombia’s first full-length talking picture, Flores del valle, directed by Maximo Calvo Olmedo, is released.   A musical filmed in and around Cali, the film stars Oscar Alvarez. [ADD]

Croatia

– The new Ustasha regime, installed by the Axis powers, begin making propaganda films after advice from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. [ADD]

Cyprus

– British cameramen record the visit of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the island to meet Cypriot volunteers in the village of Polemidia. [ADD]

Denmark

– The screening of American films in Danish cinemas is slowly cut back through the year. [ADD]

Germany

24/6 -

The Ministry of Propaganda and Information orders the press to ‘immediately cease all debate on American films,’ insisting that ‘the German public is only interested in German films.’ [ADD]

25/6 -

Deutsche Zeichenfilm is founded by Karl Neumann.   Based in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, the company is encouraged by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to make Disney-style cartoon films without dialogue for screening in occupied territories.   At its height, the studio employs over 100 animators.  [ADD]

5/9 -

At the request of Joseph Goebbels, G. W. Pabst returns to Germany after six years in exile to make Komodianten (The Comedians) starring Henny Porten and Hilde Krahl. [ADD]

31/10 -

Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten, a musical directed by Georg Jacoby, is the first Agfa colour film to be released in Germany. [ADD]

– Agfa develop a negative-positive process for colour motion picture film printing [ADD]

Holland

– Nederland Film is established by members of the NSB (Dutch National Socialists) with the help of the occupying Germans to make animated films with a Nazi point of view.  [ADD]

Hungary

– The Hunnia film production company buys and refurbishes the old Star Studios (Star went bankrupt in 1929), installing new sound stages. [ADD]

– 40 films are produced in Hungary in 1941. [ADD]

– The first Hungarian Film Encyclopaedia is published. [ADD]

India

– Modhu Bose’s Court Dancer: Raj Narkati is released.   Produced by J B H Wadia, it is the first Indian film to be made entirely in English (as well as Hindi). [MORE] 

– Moti B. Gidwani’s Khazanchi, starring S. D. Narang and Ramala Devi, is released. [ADD]

Japan

8/12 -

Kenji Mizoguchi’s Genroku chushingura (The Loyal 47 Ronin – Part 1) is released for the Shochiku company.   It marks a return for Mizoguchi to the jidai-geki (historical) genre. [ADD]

Kyrgyzstan

17/11 -

The Peoples’ Commissar’s Council establishes the country’s first newsreel studios in Frunze (now known as Bishkek). [ADD]

Macedonia

– The B'lgarsko Delo (Bulgarian deed) foundation films the first of 152 newsreels as the Germans occupy Macedonia. [ADD]

New Zealand

– The National Film Unit is established to make wartime propaganda and information films [ADD]

Niger

– Pioneer African documentary film-maker Jean Rouch begins filming African rituals on his amateur camera as he travels Senegal, Niger, Mali and Ghana. [ADD]

Philippines

– The Japanese invasion brings Philippine film production to a halt as the invading forces commandeer film-making equipment to produce their own propaganda films. [ADD]

Serbia and Montenegro

– Maks Kalmic’s documentary film, Prica jednog dana (The Story of a Day) is released. [ADD]

USSR

15/3 -

 Sergei Eisenstein is awarded the Stalin prize for his historical epic Alexander Nevsky. [ADD]

14/10 -

As the invading Germany army advance, Sergei Eisenstein decamps to Alma-Alta in Kazakhstan. [ADD]

– A cinema in Moscow installs the country’s first stereo speaker system. [ADD]

– The Soyuzfilm-Lenfilm studios are destroyed by fire during the Leningrad Siege. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1941

Canada

War Clouds in the Pacific [ADD]

Hungary

Egy szív megáll  (A Heart Stops Beating) (László Kalmár) [ADD]

Dr. Kovács István (Doctor István Kovács) (Viktor Bánky) [ADD]

Switzerland

Gilberte de Courgenay (Franz Schnyder) [ADD]

USSR

The History of Cinema: 1941