Film Forum: The City Without Jews (1924)
May 6, 2019 · 7:30 pm—10:00 pm · Princeton Garden Theatre
University Center for Human Values
“The City Without Jews” (1924) is directed by Hans Karl Breslauer, and based on the novel “Die Stadt ohne Juden” (1922) by Hugo Bettauer.
Published in 1922, the satirical novel depicts the rise of antisemitism, culminating in the banishment of the Jewish population from a fictional, dystopian European capital. The 1924 film version unmasks the dystopian city as Vienna making the book’s argument even more provocative. So much so that the prescient satire’s cinematic incarnation lead to the politically motivated murder of its author, Hugo Bettauer, by a Nazi party member.
Only fragments of the film seemed to survive, until 2015, when a complete copy was miraculously discovered in a Paris flee market. The Film Forum screening is the masterfully restored complete version, made possible by the copy found in Paris.
The last screening of the film took place in 1933 at the Carré theater in Amsterdam as a protest against Hitler and Nazism.
The silent film will be accompanied by live music with Andrew Lovett on the piano. A discussion will follow the screening.
Free and open to the public.
