Press Release | Berlin, 06/29/2023

Jealousy Drama and Major Manhunt at the UFA Film Nights – Open Air on Berlin’s Museum Island

• From August 23 to 25, 2023, the festival will present outstanding silent films with exclusive musical accompaniment
• Three masterpieces of cinema history: SCHATTEN, WO IST COLETTI? and DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER II
• World premiere of the digitally restored film WO IST COLETTI?
• All three films also available as livestream as well as on demand
• Music by world-famous organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter, the Metropolis Orchester Berlin and electronic music pioneer Moritz von Oswald
• Tickets on sale now

Berlin, June 29, 2023 – A cherished fixture in Berlin’s cultural calendar, the UFA Film Nights enter their 13th edition this year. Berlin’s Museum Island once again serves as the exclusive venue for the event. On the three evenings of August 23 to 25, 2023, Bertelsmann and UFA will present open-air screenings of masterpieces of Weimar cinema, against the spectacular backdrop of the museum buildings, and with live musical accompaniment.

This year’s opening movie is Arthur Robison’s SCHATTEN (WARNING SHADOWS) from 1923. In his expressionistic silent film, the German-born American Robison masterfully uses light and shadow to tell a story of love and consuming jealousy. The film features a top-notch cast including Fritz Kortner, Ruth Weyher, Gustav von Wangenheim, Alexander Granach, and Fritz Rasp and premiered in Berlin exactly 100 years ago. SCHATTEN is accompanied by Cameron Carpenter, a world-renowned organist who has been thrilling the international music world for years with his mastery of the organ.

On the second evening, one of the first detective stories in German film history will celebrate its premiere in a digitally restored version by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation: Max Mack’s crime comedy WO IST COLETTI? (WHERE IS COLETTI?) from 1913, in which a bustling imperial-era Berlin mobilizes to track down an elusive detective who takes on a variety of disguises. The musical accompaniment to the film is provided by Metropolis Orchester Berlin, based on a new composition by Richard Siedhoff.

This year’s UFA Film Nights close with the second part of Fritz Lang’s mammoth work DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER) from 1922, which picks up where the first part, screened at the UFA Film Nights 2022, left off. Subtitled Inferno. Ein Spiel von Menschen unserer Zeit (Inferno. A Game For The People Of Our Age), it continues the police and prosecutors’ merciless hunt for the supervillain Dr. Mabuse. The film is preceded by a short summary of the first part to introduce all viewers to the story. Moritz von Oswald, musician, music producer, DJ and a pioneer of electronic music, will provide the accompaniment to DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER II with a sound created especially for the film, live at the mixing console.

Before each screening, a celebrity presenter will provide some cinematographic and societal background to put the films into context.

Tickets are available for €20 at www.ufa-filmnaechte.de/en/  and at all advance ticket offices in Berlin and Brandenburg.

All screenings start at 9 p.m. and will be simultaneously streamed on www.ufa-filmnaechte.de/en/  and Bertelsmann and UFA’s social media channels. Following the live stream, the films will remain available on demand for another 24 hours.

As a creative content company with a history stretching back nearly 190 years, Bertelsmann is engaged in cultural efforts at various levels. Its “Culture@Bertelsmann” activities are focused on preserving important cultural assets and making them accessible to a broad public, e.g. through digitization or exhibitions and concerts. For many years, Bertelsmann has organized the popular UFA Film Nights, a silent film festival in Berlin, and has repeatedly acted as the main sponsor for the digital restoration of important silent films. The Group also owns the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan, which houses a wealth of unique testimonies to 200 years of Italian opera history. Bertelsmann is indexing the archive holdings according to the latest standards and makes thousands of documents, set and costume designs, libretti, and items of business correspondence publicly accessible online. For over 20 years, Bertelsmann has organized the “Blue Sofa” literature format series, which provides authors with a prominent stage for their latest works.

The Schedule at a Glance

Wednesday, August 23, 2023, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
SCHATTEN / WARNING SHADOWS (1923)
Director: Arthur Robison
Cast: Fritz Kortner, Ruth Weyher, Gustav von Wangenheim, Alexander Granach, Fritz Rasp and others
Production: Pan-Film
Length: 75 min.
Music: Cameron Carpenter on the organ

Thursday, August 24, 2023, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
WO IST COLETTI? / WHERE IS COLETTI? (1913)
Director: Max Mack
Cast: Hans Junkermann, Magde Lessing, Heinrich Peer, Anna Müller-Linke and others
Production: Deutsche Vitascope
Length: 79 min.
Music: Metropolis Orchester Berlin based on a new composition by Richard Siedhoff

Friday, August 25, 2023, film starts at 9:00 p.m.
DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER II / DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER II (1922)
Director: Fritz Lang
Screenplay: Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou
Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede Nissen, Alfred Abel and others
Production: Uco-Film (Ufa)
Length: 118 min.
Music: Moritz von Oswald

UFA Film Nights partners are the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gegenbauer and Maz&Movie. Ströer, radioeins (rbb) and rbbKultur are the event’s media partners.

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato, the Bertelsmann Printing Group, the Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company has 165,000 employees around the world and generated revenues of €20.2 billion in the 2022 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann aspires to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.

About UFA
As one of the oldest and most renowned German entertainment brands, UFA presents itself today as a programme creator that has continually expanded its market leadership as a film and television producer in Germany over the past years. In so doing, the company has developed into a content specialist and produces innovative programming for German and international broadcasters, partners and platforms. Active beneath the UFA umbrella are the production units UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show & Factual and UFA Documentary. UFA is part of the international media and entertainment company Fremantle, responsible for the global production business of the RTL Group, which itself belongs to Bertelsmann. The managing directors of UFA are Nico Hofmann (CEO) und Joachim Kosack.