In the World of the Stars (1925)

Original title

Wunder der Schöpfung

Directed by

Hanns Walter Kornblum, Rudolf Biebrach, Johannes Meyer

Genre

documentary film

Country

Weimar Republic

Runtime

1h 28m

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 10 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This 1925 German documentary uses special effects and color tinting to explain what was then known about the solar system, stars, and galaxies. It takes viewers on a fantastical tour through space while covering gravity, planetary orbits, and the nature of the universe.

educationalwonder-filledslow-pacednostalgicvisually imaginativescientificawe-inspiringformal

What happens

Our Heavenly Bodies (German: Wunder der Schöpfung, literally: Wonder of the Creation) is a 1925 German educational film written by Hanns Walter Kornblum and Ernst Krieger which attempts to represent everything known about the cosmos at the time. It covers the origin and mechanics of the Solar System, gravitation, the stars, and the nature of galaxies. The film is a prime example of the early German "Kulturfilm", which are regarded as predecessors of the modern film documentary. It features a large variety of special effects and animations, as well as fantastical depictions of travel around the Solar System and to the stars. Prints were color-tinted and color-toned for effect. The film has been reconstructed in 2008 by Munich Film Archive using material from the National Audiovisual Institute (Finland) in Helsinki and the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. The current rights holder is the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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