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[Richter, Hans] Rotha, Paul
Documentary Film: How the Motion Picture Records Our Civilization
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London: Faber and Faber, 1936. First UK Edition, and first edition in English. Noted avant-garde filmmaker Hans Richter's copy, heavily annotated on nearly every page in German with marginalia, in holograph pencil and red pencil. Inscribed to Richter by John Fernhaut (apparently a colleague) in the year of publication. Rotha's text is a definitive work in the literature of world cinema, one of the first to address documentary film as a means of recording American history as well as a sense of the zeitgeist. Taking on cinema as of 1936, Rotha addresses documentary films that are both functional (newsreels, propoganda films, educational films) and artistic (Eisenstein, Cavalcanti, Korda, Vigo), discussing relative merits in his typically efficient and readable style. Plates with stills from many films (many now lost) throughout, as well as a detailed appendix of important work, both by subject and director.
Richter was clearly engaged with the text as his annotations are heavy throughout, including marginal comments, underlining, queries, etc. The book was presumably given as a gift, and was used enough during its tenure with the director to have worn out the binding. It now lacks the backstrip and the boards have been archivally taped at the front and rear joints. In supplied dust jacket from the First American Edition. Letter of provenance laid in from Standish Lawder, Richter's son-in-law, on Lawder's stationery, attesting to Richter's ownership. [Book #122061]
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