A look at the special exhibition “Glückauf – Lights, camera, action! Cinema and film history of the Ruhr area”
© Ruhr Museum / Christoph Sebastian
05. August 2024
Cinema and film history of the Ruhr area in the Ruhr Museum – Ruhrkunst 08/24
Roll the film, open your eyes: There is a lot to discover and even more to learn about the Ruhr region, a cinematic stronghold with around 1,000 cinemas between 1900 and now. People, technology, legendary shoots and documentaries, cinema history and stories are gathered in the Ruhr Museum and arranged in 20 chapters in a multifaceted and appealing way. A challenge for the curators, who were faced with the task of squeezing “moving images” and everything that goes with them into a rigid exhibition format. The huge windowless hall on the 12m level with its dark niches and cabinets is a stroke of luck as a presentation location because it is so close to a real cinema atmosphere. Of course, there are no films to be seen here. They are shown in the lavish accompanying program, including in the Essen film studio Glückauf, whose 100th anniversary was the reason for the exhibition. Instead, around 950 exhibits are presented with understated chic in the classic cinema colors of white, red and gold.
A team of seven curators led by museum director Heinrich Theodor Grütter examined the technical background and selected the exhibits. There is no fixed tour, but the introduction is a history-based one. At the entrance, the view is drawn to a projection of views of former Ruhr area cinemas and a long row of original cameras, film reels and projection devices from the days when images first learned to move. They belonged to innovative pioneers such as the Witten coal merchant Wilhelm Wiedau, who toured the region as a traveling cinema operator from 1898, or Theodor Beulmann from Bottrop, who ran one of the first stationary cinemas in his pub from 1911. Much of it is unimaginable today, such as the role of premiere cinemas such as the Lichtburg, which offered the only opportunity to get close to film stars before the era of television and glossy magazines.
In short: whoever or whatever makes up Ruhr area film and cinema is present here: real box office booths, festival posters, star photos, unforgettable film scenes, set models, costumes and devotional items, such as a Schimanski knitted doll with handcuffs, or an explosion-proof special camera for underground recordings. The exhibition is not just a feast for film buffs, but pure contemporary history, full of emotions and memories. Great cinema, in other words.
Good luck – lights, camera, action! Cinema and film history of the Ruhr area | until March 2, 2025 | Ruhr Museum, UNESCO World Heritage Site Zollverein | 0201 24 68 14 44
Claudia Heinrich
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