Westfront 1918
G. W. Pabst brought the war movie into a new era with his first sound film, a mercilessly realistic depiction of the nightmare that scarred a generation, in Germany and beyond. Digging into the trenches with four infantrymen stationed in France in the final months of World War I, Pabst illustrates the harrowing ordeals of battle with unprecedented naturalism, as the men are worn away in body and spirit by firefights, shelling, and the disillusion that greets them on the home front.
Special Features
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Hour-long French television broadcast of World War I veterans reacting to the film in 1969
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak
- New restoration demonstration featuring Martin Koerber and Julia Wallmüller of the Deutsche Kinemathek
- Brief audio interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Lucy Sante
New cover by Anthony Gerace
Special Features
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Hour-long French television broadcast of World War I veterans reacting to the film in 1969
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak
- New restoration demonstration featuring Martin Koerber and Julia Wallmüller of the Deutsche Kinemathek
- Brief audio interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Lucy Sante
New cover by Anthony Gerace
Cast
- Fritz Kampers
- The Bavarian
- Gustav Diessl
- Karl
- H. J. Moebis
- The student
- Claus Clausen
- The lieutenant
- Jackie Monnier
- Yvette, the Frenchwoman
- Hanna Hoessrich
- Karl’s wife
- Else Heller
- Karl’s mother
Credits
- Director
- G. W. Pabst
- Screenplay by
- Ladislaus Vajda
- From the novel Four Infantrymen on the Western Front by
- Ernst Johannsen
- Photographed by
- Fritz Arno Wagner
- Photographed by
- Charles Métain
- Music by
- Alexander Laszlo
- Edited by
- Jean Oser
- Art direction by
- Ernö Metzner
- Sound recordist
- Karl Brodmerkel
- Sound editing
- W. L. Bagier Jr.
- Produced by
- Seymour Nebenzal
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A scene from Westfront 1918
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