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A Trick of the Light
(Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky)

Screening on Film
Directed by Wim Wenders.
With Udo Kier, Nadine Büttner, Hans Moser.
Germany, 1995, 35mm, 80 min.
German with English subtitles.
Print source: Wim Wenders Stiftung

Six weeks before the Lumiere brother’s legendary first public motion picture screening in Paris, three German brothers in Berlin screened eight film loops. In between the acrobatics and juggling that also occupied their life, Max, Eugen, and Emil Skladanowsky invented the bioskop. A century later, Wenders brings these little-known pioneers to the fore with this whimsical and touching film. With the help of students from the Munich Film Academy, Wenders spins their story with a mix of documentary and recreated footage—much of it shot silent at 18 frames per second with a vintage hand-cranked camera. 

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