ID: 8985  -  Francesca De Ruggieri  -  Bari Type: Text Format: Medium: Article Extent: 7 pp Identifier: Source: Title: Westfront 1918 Subtitle: Alternative: Agents: Creator: Role: Author Name: Bryher (Winifred Ellerman) Created: Date: Issued in/on: 1930 Language: English Rights: Relation: IsPartOf Qualifier: Close Up Coverage: Place: Time: 1930 Description: Review of Pabst's first sound film, Westfront 1918 Subjects: War Subjects: Arti/Facts Subjects: Wo/Men Subjects: Cultural Practices Subjects: War Subjects: Places Keywords: cinema Keywords: Pabst, Georg Wilhelm Keywords: censorship Keywords: pacificism Keywords: Berlin Query Subject+Keyword: (Arti/Facts, cinema) Query Subject+Keyword: (Wo/Men, Pabst, Georg Wilhelm) Query Subject+Keyword: (Cultural Practices, censorship) Query Subject+Keyword: (War, pacificism) Query Subject+Keyword: (Places, Berlin) Comment: This essay was devoted to Westfront 1918, the famous Pabst's film, and deals with the role of sound in cinema. Bryher writes: What opportunities of deeping consciousness there are in this new use of sound, this mingling of speech that may be listened to without obligation to understand or to reply, that may be experimented with or played with, according to desire. Close Up VII, 2, 1930, pp. 104-111. In her article Bryher brings out Pabst’s clarity and subtlety, but most of all she underlines the experimental tension in connecting sound to visual movement. She writes: It should be recorded that real creation with sound and movement began with Westfront 1918 and history must owe something always to this film, and to its use of visual image with auditory sensation.Our eyes are trained to see, but our ears are not yet trained to hear. Westfront was not only a war film, but also a film about the possibilities of developing a new sense, a balance of ear, eye and brain. No other director, co