People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) by Jon Hughes

Directed by Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer, and with a script by Billy Wilder, People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (1930) is now widely recognised as a landmark of Weimar cinema, which influenced Italian Neorealism and the New Wave cinemas of the 1960s, and set the template for 'indie' filmmaking as we now know it. This is the first study in English of this multi-faceted film, which not only launched the careers of renowned filmmakers, but which continues to influence contemporary culture, with references to it in popular television (Babylon Berlin), a playful remake, and a new score by experimental pop group Mum. Jon Hughes' study places the film in its historical context - Berlin in the Weimar Republic - and untangles the fascinating story of the making of People on Sunday, drawing on new archival research to challenge some of the misconceptions that surround it. Hughes provides fresh interpretations of the film's depiction of space and its play with contemporary gender and sexual politics, and situates it within both Weimar cinema and the later output of the filmmakers.

A study of the landmark of Weimar cinema, People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) (1930) in the BFI Film Classics series.

About the Author
Jon Hughes a Reader in German and Cultural Studies in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and the author of Max Schmeling and the Making of a National Hero in Twentieth-Century Germany, (2017) and Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing of the 1920s (2006).


Book Information
ISBN 9781839027550
Author Jon Hughes
Format Paperback
Page Count 104
Imprint BFI Publishing
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Series BFI Film Classics