AHC: Make German cinema Hollywood's great rival
- Thread starter Southpaw
- Start date
British Republic
Banned
The rise of Hollywood dates from WW1, so realstically I wouls suggest a German Victory after WW1 and one which does not damage its film industry too much.
That and playing hardball on America denying acess to European films (another reason why Hollywood rose ahead)
That and playing hardball on America denying acess to European films (another reason why Hollywood rose ahead)
Simple Answer = No nazis
German cinema was arguably the best in the world in the 20's.
Somehow that was ruined when it became the nazi's mouthpiece. Odd that.
German cinema was arguably the best in the world in the 20's.
Somehow that was ruined when it became the nazi's mouthpiece. Odd that.
No WWI would be a big help too. Anti German laws during the war seriously cut down on foreign language fluency and teaching in the US as well as really stifling much of the German cultural influence in America.
No WWI leaves a lot more German speakers in the US as well as people being much more open to German media.
No WWI leaves a lot more German speakers in the US as well as people being much more open to German media.
NothingNow
Banned
The Weimar era doesn't end on the terms it did, and Berlin keeps it's inteligencia and arts scene.
That would be enough to save UFA.
Actually, that was pretty much all UFA, which only came into existence during WW1 as a propaganda studio (but the war ended before they really put anything out,) and managed to get enough filmmakers and skilled crew together to get the critical mass needed for a studio to be that successful.
Harry Lime gets a film series after The Third Man? I know he got a radio serial, but maybe the gentleman asshole crook could have staying power on the silver screen? It might stop Orson Welles's career slide too.
...although that's more Austria.
...although that's more Austria.
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I think it would require a very large German diaspora that had maintained its linguistic and cultural identity rather than assimilating into host societies such as the Americas and Australia - rather as the Bollywood industry has cultivated audiences outside Asia.
I was just thinking the same thing before reading your post.
The language thing is why IMO butterflying away the Nazis and WW2 wont be enough. Also even during the Nazis they still made some good apolitical entertainment flicks that never went global. The Man who was Sherlock Holmes, the Münchhausen movie and The Punch Bowl come to mind.
That's why I think you need a CP-victory scenario instead. Following that, German has a good shot at becoming the 2nd language that everybody learns in Central and Eastern Europe, like everybody learns English in OTL. Also Mitteleuropa would become a global competitor to the US, meaning more business people would learn it in South America as a 2nd language and not just the uber-rich, but also their middle-class clerks, etc.
Without a way to reach a large potential audience like Hollywood no non-English speaking movie industry will grow much beyond it's domestic market.
Deleted member 1487
So no WW1. Without that German remains the #1 foreign language internationally, specifically in the US. Without the loss of multiple generations of Germans in both WWs then culturally Germany would be much richer in the 20th century while the number of children born in Germany would remain high; basically the collapse of the birthrate during and after WW1 never fully recovered and has led to modern Germany being below the replacement rate. That's critical, because Germany would continue to 'export' 200k people a year without that collapse of birth rates, which would continue to culturally impact most of the Western world as they retain their heritage and don't become ashamed of it like IOTL. A Germany with a high birth rate and large emigrant population would be much more significant internationally, as would the scientific community, which itself would have a major impact on language learning rates for non ethnic Germans in the US and elsewhere. That itself would have all sorts of knock on effects, as the German university system, the best in the world pre-WW1, wouldn't be gutted and result in a lot of international interest in studying abroad there, which means a lot more people getting exposed to German cinema. Guys like Einstein would be major cultural ambassadors as he was IOTL, but WW1 and Nazism, plus his exile from Germany seriously impact that effect IOTL after 1933. Though German cinema would not grow as quickly without WW1 and UFA the other effects from no WW1 would mean that lack is offset by the increased spread of the German language and culture due to greater birthrates, an undisturbed university/scientific community, and of course the lack of shame associated with all things German for the diaspora.
Avoiding Hitler would help, for about a decade, from Caligari to M, German cinema was probably the most creative in the world. Look at any list of films for the period and giants like Nosferatu, Faust, Metropolis, of course M all end up in the top ten or twenty films if not of all time then certainly that first half century.
All the way up to Lang's second Mabuse (1933), German cinema was on top of its game. Then came Hitler, and almost every director, actor and artist of any caliber headed for the exit, worse with Hollywood coming under the Hays code, it became much harder to produce subversive original films in their long exiles.
Without the Nazi's Dr Goebbels would not have called in Fritz Lang in that day in March '33 and told him Mabuse was to be banned but would he like a job. By late 1933 most of the best minds in the industry were in exile, and Germany produced one more influential film in the next twelve years and for all the technical brilliance of Triumph of the will its still a monstrous piece of Nazi propaganda.
Once the war was over no one was interested in German cinema, and unlike say the cinema of Japan its post war works never really gained a foothold in foreign markets. Without Hitler Germany might have remained the film capital of Europe and without the war Hollywood might not have taken such a totally commanding position.
German cinema defined many aspects of film, we owe much of the horror genre to Caligari and Nosferatu, Metropolis has influenced science fiction ever since, while M wrote much of the book on crime drama and film Noir. Its hard to say if a Nazi free German cinema could come to rival Hollywood but I could see it being at least as influential as British cinema was after the war, where studio's like Hammer defined (for instance) the horror genre right up until the fall of the Hays code.
All the way up to Lang's second Mabuse (1933), German cinema was on top of its game. Then came Hitler, and almost every director, actor and artist of any caliber headed for the exit, worse with Hollywood coming under the Hays code, it became much harder to produce subversive original films in their long exiles.
Without the Nazi's Dr Goebbels would not have called in Fritz Lang in that day in March '33 and told him Mabuse was to be banned but would he like a job. By late 1933 most of the best minds in the industry were in exile, and Germany produced one more influential film in the next twelve years and for all the technical brilliance of Triumph of the will its still a monstrous piece of Nazi propaganda.
Once the war was over no one was interested in German cinema, and unlike say the cinema of Japan its post war works never really gained a foothold in foreign markets. Without Hitler Germany might have remained the film capital of Europe and without the war Hollywood might not have taken such a totally commanding position.
German cinema defined many aspects of film, we owe much of the horror genre to Caligari and Nosferatu, Metropolis has influenced science fiction ever since, while M wrote much of the book on crime drama and film Noir. Its hard to say if a Nazi free German cinema could come to rival Hollywood but I could see it being at least as influential as British cinema was after the war, where studio's like Hammer defined (for instance) the horror genre right up until the fall of the Hays code.
I don't think the language thing is very important - American films are enjoyed around the world by people who don't speak English. Dubbing and subtitles are a thing, you know. American cinema was popular in 1920s and 1930s Bulgaria, in fact - hardly a place where English knowledge was common.
The problem is, there is the French cinema as an heavy competitor too, and maybe UK's potentially, or such...