Primitive Diversity

Some of the films from the period between 1895 and 1929 that I love as a filmmaker belong to the tradition of ‘primitive diversity’. ‘Primitive’ is not used here as a buzzword, but means ‘original’, “early”, ‘unpolished’. It is about simple diversity. Today, in 2026, it is as important as bread. We live in a time of unrest and disruption. An age of eeriness and armed conflict. All of this needs consolation. Part of cinema – in its era of primitive diversity – consisted of providing consolation: because it takes us away from the still quiet reality of the time for a moment and because it allows extreme forms of expression, the grotesque. This is part of the ‘freedom of the spirit’. However, the bitter reality must not be denied or glossed over. The comfort that is part of the concept of cinema is based on something that film can achieve by its very nature: it is a play with light. ‘Light comforts in the night.’ When the triumph of cinema came to an end, but television was still in its infancy, there were so-called television lights in the USA. They stood next to the televisions in the room, and the warmth of the light bulb set the air in motion and the images on the lampshade in motion. In 1955, this was the return of the magic lantern from 1855 to about ten years later.