WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.439 I want you to close your eyes for a second. We're 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:05.200 going to step out of a time machine. Always a 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:07.259 dangerous request. Right. But trust me on this 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:10.679 one. The year is 1912. The location is Berlin. 00:00:11.019 --> 00:00:14.109 But I want you to forget. The, you know, those 00:00:14.109 --> 00:00:17.929 gray, grim, jerky newsreels you usually see from 00:00:17.929 --> 00:00:20.010 this era? Oh yeah, those make it look so sterile. 00:00:20.469 --> 00:00:23.109 Exactly. This is a city that is absolutely vibrating. 00:00:23.289 --> 00:00:26.329 The cafes are loud, the electric trams are screeching, 00:00:26.390 --> 00:00:29.210 and there is this feeling, this buzz, that the 00:00:29.210 --> 00:00:31.289 world is just tilting on its axis. It was a very 00:00:31.289 --> 00:00:34.100 charged time. Very. And you step off the street 00:00:34.100 --> 00:00:37.000 into this darkened room. It smells like stale 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:40.060 tobacco and ozone, a projector whirs to life 00:00:40.060 --> 00:00:42.799 much louder than you'd expect, and a beam of 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.799 flickering light cuts through the smoke. You 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:46.439 aren't just watching a movie. You are watching 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:49.320 the birth of an entire industry. It's a great 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.380 image to start with, because we tend to look 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:54.460 back at cinema history as this, well, this smooth, 00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:56.619 inevitable progression. First the camera, then 00:00:56.619 --> 00:01:00.159 the silent movie, then sound. But the early teens 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:02.820 in Germany. That was the Wild West. Or maybe 00:01:02.820 --> 00:01:05.459 more accurately, a gold rush. It was chaotic, 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:08.439 it was experimental, and incredibly competitive. 00:01:08.620 --> 00:01:10.519 And we aren't trying to map the whole gold rush 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.079 today. That's just way too broad. We are grabbing 00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:16.659 our pickaxes and zooming in on one specific prospector. 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:18.980 Today, we're doing a deep dive into a company 00:01:18.980 --> 00:01:22.920 called IcoFilm. IcoFilm. Now, I know what you're 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:25.540 thinking out there. ICO isn't exactly Disney 00:01:25.540 --> 00:01:28.620 or Paramount. Far from it. But that is exactly 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.579 why we picked this stack of sources for today's 00:01:31.579 --> 00:01:34.780 deep dive. Sometimes looking at the giants doesn't 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:37.000 tell you the real story. No, it really doesn't. 00:01:37.019 --> 00:01:39.640 It's the mid -sized players, the ones that scrambled 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:41.959 and fought and eventually disappeared, that show 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:44.890 you how the machine actually worked. Eikofilm 00:01:44.890 --> 00:01:47.430 really is the perfect case study for that. If 00:01:47.430 --> 00:01:48.930 you follow their timeline, which we're going 00:01:48.930 --> 00:01:51.230 to do, you see the rapid construction of the 00:01:51.230 --> 00:01:54.109 German cinema infrastructure. You see the strange, 00:01:54.549 --> 00:01:57.209 paradoxical economic benefits of World War I. 00:01:57.269 --> 00:01:59.709 Which is fascinating. It really is. And you see 00:01:59.709 --> 00:02:02.390 the absolutely ruthless nature of the early film 00:02:02.390 --> 00:02:05.310 business. It's a story about how isolationism 00:02:05.310 --> 00:02:07.890 can accidentally build an empire. So just to 00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:09.669 give you an overview of what we're working with, 00:02:09.969 --> 00:02:12.490 we've got a really interesting stack of historical 00:02:12.490 --> 00:02:15.050 records here. We've got everything from the company's 00:02:15.050 --> 00:02:18.110 founding documents to architectural notes on 00:02:18.110 --> 00:02:21.189 their studios and this amazing detailed list 00:02:21.189 --> 00:02:25.210 of their film releases between 1914 and 1922. 00:02:25.650 --> 00:02:28.430 And that filmography is essentially a mood ring 00:02:28.430 --> 00:02:31.090 for the German people during the most turbulent 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:33.949 decade of the 20th century. A mood ring. I love 00:02:33.949 --> 00:02:35.949 that. Yeah, you can literally see the national 00:02:35.949 --> 00:02:38.879 psyche crack. and reforming just by reading the 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:40.659 movie titles. Okay, before we get to the movies 00:02:40.659 --> 00:02:42.939 though, we have to build the stage. The story 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:46.620 starts in 1912 with a producer named Franz Vogel. 00:02:46.939 --> 00:02:49.199 Vogel is an interesting character. He establishes 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:52.080 IKO film right as the demand for feature -length 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:54.759 content is just exploding. It doesn't waste any 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.939 time. The records describe IKO as swiftly becoming 00:02:57.939 --> 00:03:00.259 one of Germany's quote, more important companies. 00:03:00.509 --> 00:03:03.110 That word swiftly really jumps out at me. It 00:03:03.110 --> 00:03:05.229 implies there was a massive vacuum just waiting 00:03:05.229 --> 00:03:07.009 to be filled. They didn't struggle in a garage 00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.409 for a decade. They launched and hit the ground 00:03:09.409 --> 00:03:12.289 running. Well, the market was hungry. But to 00:03:12.289 --> 00:03:14.949 feed that market, you needed physical space. 00:03:15.349 --> 00:03:17.590 And this is where the logistics of 1912 gets 00:03:17.590 --> 00:03:20.469 super interesting. IKO didn't start with their 00:03:20.469 --> 00:03:23.110 own massive back lot. Initially, they were just 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:25.389 renting space at the Rex Film Studios in Berlin. 00:03:25.490 --> 00:03:27.449 Which feels like a classic startup move. You 00:03:27.449 --> 00:03:29.449 lease the co -working space until you can afford 00:03:29.449 --> 00:03:32.729 to build the headquarters. Precisely. But Vogel 00:03:32.729 --> 00:03:34.550 had ambitions. He didn't want to be a tenant 00:03:34.550 --> 00:03:37.169 forever. So they eventually moved to construct 00:03:37.169 --> 00:03:39.590 their own facility in the suburb of Merienfeld. 00:03:40.569 --> 00:03:42.949 They built the Merienfeld Studios. No, I want 00:03:42.949 --> 00:03:44.710 to spend a minute on this because the description 00:03:44.710 --> 00:03:47.090 of the studio is wild compared to what we have 00:03:47.090 --> 00:03:50.210 today. The source calls it a glass house studio. 00:03:50.569 --> 00:03:53.310 The glass house. It's such an evocative term. 00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:55.629 It really is. Because when I hear the word studio 00:03:55.629 --> 00:03:59.030 today, I think of a sound stage. A big concrete 00:03:59.030 --> 00:04:01.330 windowless bunker with massive air conditioning 00:04:01.330 --> 00:04:03.569 units and millions of dollars of LED lighting 00:04:03.569 --> 00:04:06.469 rigs. But a glass house studio, that's basically 00:04:06.469 --> 00:04:09.330 a greenhouse, isn't it? Effectively, yes. Literally 00:04:09.330 --> 00:04:11.689 a greenhouse. You have to remember the technological 00:04:11.689 --> 00:04:16.139 bottleneck of the time. Film stock in 1912. mostly 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:19.560 orthochromatic stock, was incredibly slow. I 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:21.660 mean, it needed a lot of light. A massive amount 00:04:21.660 --> 00:04:24.519 of light just to register an image. And electric 00:04:24.519 --> 00:04:27.160 lights, were they just too weak back then? They 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:29.819 were expensive, they were hot, and the light 00:04:29.819 --> 00:04:32.480 was incredibly harsh. You had carbon arc lamps, 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:35.180 but they sputtered and hissed and threw off awful 00:04:35.180 --> 00:04:38.120 fumes. The only light source powerful enough 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:40.519 and cheap enough to light a wide shot was the 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.079 sun. So you just build your factory out of glass. 00:04:43.699 --> 00:04:47.000 Exactly. Walls of glass, roof of glass. You were 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.339 basically trapping daylight. Which sounds beautiful 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:51.759 visually, like this crystal cathedral of light. 00:04:52.220 --> 00:04:54.600 But I'm imagining the physical reality of working 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:58.180 inside a giant glass box in July in Berlin. Oh, 00:04:58.180 --> 00:04:59.959 it must have been a total nightmare. Think about 00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:02.279 the actors. They're in heavy period costumes, 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:05.060 wool suits, layers of petticoats. Oh, wow. And 00:05:05.060 --> 00:05:07.180 they're wearing thick grease paint makeup because 00:05:07.180 --> 00:05:09.519 that early film stock washed out their facial 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:11.959 features. And now they're standing in a sealed 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:14.220 greenhouse in the middle of summer. The makeup 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:15.879 must have just been melting off their faces. 00:05:16.459 --> 00:05:18.939 Constantly. Puddles of it. And it wasn't just 00:05:18.939 --> 00:05:21.019 the heat that was a problem. It was the consistency 00:05:21.019 --> 00:05:24.160 of the light. The sun, as we know, moves. Right. 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:26.000 You start filming a scene at 10 in the morning, 00:05:26.339 --> 00:05:28.759 the shadows are on the left. By lunch, the shadows 00:05:28.759 --> 00:05:31.319 are directly overhead. By three, they're on the 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:33.660 right. If you're a director trying to cut a scene 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:35.899 together later, that's a continuity disaster. 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:38.339 So how on earth did they manage that? You can't 00:05:38.339 --> 00:05:40.800 just tell the sun to stop moving. No, but you 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:44.139 can diffuse it. These glass houses were actually 00:05:44.139 --> 00:05:47.120 engineering marvels in their own way. They had 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:50.060 these highly complex systems of muslin shades 00:05:50.060 --> 00:05:53.160 and diffusers hooked up to pulley systems. Like 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:56.839 giant lines. Exactly. Crews would spend the whole 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:59.639 day scrambling around adjusting these massive 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:01.819 sheets of fabric to soften the light or block 00:06:01.819 --> 00:06:04.319 direct beams, just trying to keep the look somewhat 00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:07.079 consistent from shot to shot. That really emphasizes 00:06:07.079 --> 00:06:10.209 that this was an industrial process. The source 00:06:10.209 --> 00:06:12.290 specifically notes that this glass house was 00:06:12.290 --> 00:06:14.850 part of Germany's growing film infrastructure, 00:06:15.389 --> 00:06:17.750 and that word infrastructure feels really heavy. 00:06:18.250 --> 00:06:20.009 They weren't just artists running around with 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:22.670 hand -cranked cameras. They were pouring concrete 00:06:22.670 --> 00:06:25.170 and setting steel frames. That's the key takeaway 00:06:25.170 --> 00:06:28.110 here. Eiko wasn't just making movies. They were 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:30.920 building the physical capacity for an industry. 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:33.740 They were taking a novelty craft and turning 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:36.360 it into a factory system. And as it turns out, 00:06:36.500 --> 00:06:38.980 they finished building that factory just in time 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:41.319 for the world to completely fall apart. Right. 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.889 1914. The First World War begins. And this is 00:06:44.889 --> 00:06:47.350 where the story pivots from architecture into 00:06:47.350 --> 00:06:49.949 economics. And it connects to the bigger geopolitical 00:06:49.949 --> 00:06:52.389 picture in a way people often forget. Yeah. Usually 00:06:52.389 --> 00:06:54.110 when we think of war in the arts, we think of 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:57.110 destruction. Yeah. Museums bombed, theaters closed 00:06:57.110 --> 00:06:59.829 down. Right. Funding being diverted to weapons 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:01.850 and rations. And while there was certainly immense 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:04.769 tragedy for a company like IKO, the war actually 00:07:04.769 --> 00:07:07.470 provided a massive, albeit cynical, advantage. 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:10.290 The notes mention a very specific market condition. 00:07:10.950 --> 00:07:13.370 Foreign imports were largely excluded from the 00:07:13.370 --> 00:07:15.509 German market during the war. Think about the 00:07:15.509 --> 00:07:19.550 massive implications of that. Before 1914 cinema 00:07:19.550 --> 00:07:22.290 was a heavily globalized trade. If you walked 00:07:22.290 --> 00:07:25.449 into a theater in Berlin in 1913, you were just 00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:28.209 as likely to see a French comedy from Pathé or 00:07:28.209 --> 00:07:31.370 a massive Italian historical epic as your domestic 00:07:31.370 --> 00:07:34.199 German film. And suddenly the borders just snap 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:37.180 shut. The global supply chain is severed. It's 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:39.459 protectionism enforced by bayonet. No more French 00:07:39.459 --> 00:07:42.160 films, no more British films, eventually no American 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.459 films. So if you are a German cinema owner and 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:47.740 you have thousands of seats to fill every single 00:07:47.740 --> 00:07:49.420 night, where do you get your product? You have 00:07:49.420 --> 00:07:51.459 to buy local. You literally have no other choice. 00:07:51.639 --> 00:07:53.759 Exactly. So IKO is sitting there in their brand 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.379 new glass house in Marienfeld and suddenly they're 00:07:56.379 --> 00:07:58.779 operating in a walled garden. They have a captive 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:01.459 audience of millions who cannot buy the competitor's 00:08:01.459 --> 00:08:03.899 product. It's a massive irony. The war, which 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:06.980 is tearing Europe apart, is acting as a greenhouse, 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:10.560 pardon upon, for this specific domestic industry. 00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:13.139 It's a dark irony, but a very consistent one 00:08:13.139 --> 00:08:16.339 in economic history. Isolationism forces domestic 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:19.399 production to scale up incredibly fast. Germany 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:20.959 had to make its own entertainment because it 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:23.870 couldn't import it. This period from roughly 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:27.490 1914 to 1918 is really what created the bedrock 00:08:27.490 --> 00:08:30.170 foundation for the massive German film industry 00:08:30.170 --> 00:08:32.590 of the 1920s. That's fascinating. We always talk 00:08:32.590 --> 00:08:34.850 about masterpieces like Metropolis and Nosferatu 00:08:34.850 --> 00:08:37.070 later on, but those films don't happen without 00:08:37.070 --> 00:08:39.789 companies like IKO filling the void and building 00:08:39.789 --> 00:08:41.809 the technical skills and the audience habits 00:08:41.809 --> 00:08:44.110 during the war years. So they have the studio, 00:08:44.149 --> 00:08:46.230 they have the market dominance. The obvious question 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:48.809 is what were they actually making inside that 00:08:48.809 --> 00:08:50.889 glass house? This is where we get to play cultural 00:08:50.889 --> 00:08:53.330 psychology. Let's look at the selected filmography 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:57.389 we have here from 1914 to 1922. It's fascinating 00:08:57.389 --> 00:08:59.570 because, like you said earlier, you can almost 00:08:59.570 --> 00:09:01.750 see them reacting to the newspaper headlines 00:09:01.750 --> 00:09:04.110 in real time. Let's start right at the beginning 00:09:04.110 --> 00:09:08.269 of the conflict. 1914. The war begins in August. 00:09:09.490 --> 00:09:12.950 Patriotism is at an absolute fever pitch. Everyone 00:09:12.950 --> 00:09:14.950 thinks the truth will be marching home victorious 00:09:14.950 --> 00:09:18.889 by Christmas. And what does Ico release? A film 00:09:18.889 --> 00:09:22.500 titled Bismarck. Bismarck, as in Otto von Bismarck, 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.539 the Iron Chancellor, the guy who literally unified 00:09:25.539 --> 00:09:29.120 Germany a few decades prior. The ultimate unquestionable 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.960 symbol of German strength, unity, and military 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:34.159 prowess. Well, it's not subtle. That's like an 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:36.059 American studio releasing a movie called George 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:38.200 Washington right after Pearl Harbor. It's a total 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.759 blockbuster move. It's perfect timing. They're 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:43.139 capitalizing directly on that initial wave of 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:45.120 nationalistic fervor. It's a very smart commercial 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:47.320 play, but it also shows how quickly the film 00:09:47.320 --> 00:09:49.000 industry aligned itself with the state's narrative. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:51.080 The message is basically, here is where we came 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:53.279 from, and here is why we are strong. But then, 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:56.200 look at this shift in the timeline. We fast forward 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:00.259 to 1916 and 1917. The home by Christmas Dream 00:10:00.259 --> 00:10:03.279 is completely dead. The reality is brutal trench 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:06.500 warfare, naval blockades, and severe hunger on 00:10:06.500 --> 00:10:08.779 the home front. The initial excitement is long 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:11.690 gone. And what is ICO releasing now? we have 00:10:11.690 --> 00:10:14.870 a title here his coquettish wife from 1916 and 00:10:14.870 --> 00:10:17.970 the unmarried woman in 1917 these sound like 00:10:17.970 --> 00:10:19.970 i mean they sound like rom -coms or at least 00:10:19.970 --> 00:10:22.879 domestic farces they almost certainly were His 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:25.080 coquettish wife, that sounds like a very light, 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:27.960 very frothy bedroom comedy. And in the exact 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.679 same year, 1917, they dropped The Adventures 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:33.100 of Captain Hanson. Which heavily implies high 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:36.080 adventure, maybe some swashbuckling, exotic locations, 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.320 bit of danger. So we've gone from Bismarck heavy, 00:10:39.639 --> 00:10:42.200 serious, patriotic history to flirting wives 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:44.899 and seafaring adventure stories. That feels like 00:10:44.899 --> 00:10:47.299 a massive pivot for a studio. But does it really? 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:49.139 Think about the audience sitting in the dark. 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:52.299 By 1917, the German public is exhausted. They're 00:10:52.299 --> 00:10:54.340 grieving lost sons and brothers. They're literally 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:56.679 starving due to the blockades. Do they want to 00:10:56.679 --> 00:10:58.600 go to the cinema to see more war? Do they want 00:10:58.600 --> 00:11:01.529 to see serious political dramas about duty? Definitely 00:11:01.529 --> 00:11:04.470 not. They want out. Exactly. They want a window 00:11:04.470 --> 00:11:06.389 to a completely different world. They want to 00:11:06.389 --> 00:11:08.049 sit back and laugh at a husband getting tricked 00:11:08.049 --> 00:11:10.230 by his wife. They want to see Captain Hanson 00:11:10.230 --> 00:11:13.009 sailing the high seas far, far away from the 00:11:13.009 --> 00:11:16.629 mud of the Western Front. It's pure, uncut escapism. 00:11:17.049 --> 00:11:19.230 Escapism manufactured in a glass box. It really 00:11:19.230 --> 00:11:21.570 highlights that IKO was a generalist studio. 00:11:22.029 --> 00:11:23.950 They weren't trying to be an elevated art house. 00:11:23.970 --> 00:11:26.629 They were a business, first and foremost. They 00:11:26.629 --> 00:11:28.950 looked at the public mood and said, OK, you want 00:11:28.950 --> 00:11:30.960 distractions. We will... print distractions. 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:33.039 Which is a completely valid service during a 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:36.340 severe crisis. Then we move into 1918 and 1919. 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:40.019 The war ends in November 1918. The German Empire 00:11:40.019 --> 00:11:42.340 essentially collapses. The Kaiser abdicates. 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:45.000 It is absolute terrifying chaos on the streets 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.080 of Berlin. And in 1918, Eiko releases a film 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:50.860 called The Bracelet. And in 1919, a movie just 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:54.620 titled Love. Love? Simple. Elemental. And The 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:57.480 Girl and the Men, also in 1919. It really feels 00:11:57.480 --> 00:11:59.440 like the scope of the storytelling is shrinking 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:01.740 rapidly. We aren't doing national heroes anymore. 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:03.860 We aren't even doing high seas adventure. We 00:12:03.860 --> 00:12:06.080 are just looking at regular people. The scale 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:08.480 becomes deeply intimate. I think that reflects 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:11.139 a society that is trying to figure out how to 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:13.799 rebuild itself from the absolute ground up. The 00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:15.460 grand political narratives completely failed 00:12:15.460 --> 00:12:18.570 them. They led to utter ruin. So art retreats 00:12:18.570 --> 00:12:21.169 to the personal level. Questions like, how do 00:12:21.169 --> 00:12:23.309 men and women relate now? What does love even 00:12:23.309 --> 00:12:25.830 look like in a ruined city? These titles, The 00:12:25.830 --> 00:12:27.870 Bracelet, The Girl, and The Men, they sound like 00:12:27.870 --> 00:12:30.490 melodramas or tight chamber pieces. They are 00:12:30.490 --> 00:12:33.450 processing immense trauma on a micro -human level. 00:12:34.429 --> 00:12:37.809 Then we hit the post -war boom, 1920 to 1922. 00:12:38.409 --> 00:12:40.870 Inflation is starting to tick up. Politics are 00:12:40.870 --> 00:12:43.409 getting weird and radicalized. And Ico gives 00:12:43.409 --> 00:12:46.360 us Wibble the Tailor in 1920. Now, I actually 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:48.120 looked this one up. Schneider Wibble is a pretty 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.519 famous German play, isn't it? It is. It's a very 00:12:50.519 --> 00:12:53.159 classic regional folk comedy. The basic story 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:54.679 is about a tailor who gets in trouble with the 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:57.159 law, but he manages to swap places with his apprentice 00:12:57.159 --> 00:12:59.120 to avoid going to prison. So it's a story about 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:02.700 outsmarting authority. Bingo. Think about that 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:05.639 specific theme in the context of 1920 Germany. 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:09.220 The old authority figures, the military generals, 00:13:09.340 --> 00:13:11.639 the aristocracy, the Kaiser had just led the 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:13.860 entire country off a cliff. there was a deep, 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:16.659 very cynical distrust of authority across the 00:13:16.659 --> 00:13:20.460 board. So a comedy where a little guy, a simple 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:22.840 tailor, makes a fool of the police in the courts, 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:25.279 that would have played incredibly well to a bitter 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.480 audience. It's comfort food, sure, but with a 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:30.639 real rebellious anti -establishment edge. Exactly. 00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:32.580 And then they follow that up with Sons of the 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:36.230 Night in 1921. which sounds much darker. Maybe 00:13:36.230 --> 00:13:38.690 dipping a toe into that gritty crime thriller 00:13:38.690 --> 00:13:41.049 genre that became so massive in the Weimar era 00:13:41.049 --> 00:13:43.529 later on. And finally we have The Inheritance 00:13:43.529 --> 00:13:46.590 in 1922. The Inheritance. That is just a painfully 00:13:46.590 --> 00:13:48.830 fitting title for their last listed film considering 00:13:48.830 --> 00:13:51.309 what happens to the company next. It really is. 00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:54.470 Because by 1922 the independent high -flying 00:13:54.470 --> 00:13:57.450 run of ICO film hits a solid brick wall. We mentioned 00:13:57.450 --> 00:13:59.669 earlier that the film business is ruthless. Eiko 00:13:59.669 --> 00:14:02.370 had a really good run. Ten years, surviving a 00:14:02.370 --> 00:14:04.470 world war, building a massive studio from scratch. 00:14:04.990 --> 00:14:08.230 But in 1922, they basically get eaten. Acquired 00:14:08.230 --> 00:14:11.309 is the polite corporate term. The entire company 00:14:11.309 --> 00:14:13.409 and the Marienfeld studios were taken over by 00:14:13.409 --> 00:14:15.409 Terrafilm. And Terrafilm wasn't just another 00:14:15.409 --> 00:14:17.929 scrappy startup. They were becoming a legitimate 00:14:17.929 --> 00:14:21.549 giant. Right. The 1920s saw a massive wave of 00:14:21.549 --> 00:14:24.129 consolidation in the industry. It wasn't enough 00:14:24.129 --> 00:14:27.269 to just be a successful standalone studio anymore. 00:14:27.549 --> 00:14:29.970 You had to be a conglomerate. Smaller studios 00:14:29.970 --> 00:14:31.889 were getting bought up left and right to form 00:14:31.889 --> 00:14:35.960 these huge vertical monopolies. IKO Despite its 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.899 success, or honestly perhaps because of its success, 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:41.700 became a very tasty asset for a much bigger fish. 00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:44.500 But here is the plot twist in the business history 00:14:44.500 --> 00:14:47.220 that I absolutely love. The source clearly says 00:14:47.220 --> 00:14:49.379 that even after TerraFilm bought them Lock, Stock 00:14:49.379 --> 00:14:52.100 and Barrel, the name IKO didn't disappear. Yeah, 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:54.480 it didn't. But crucially, it didn't stay with 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:57.019 TerraFilm either. Right. The notes specify that 00:14:57.019 --> 00:14:59.460 the name IKO was used by productions released 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:02.480 by a rival company, National Film, until much 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:05.659 later in the decade. This is such a fascinating, 00:15:06.259 --> 00:15:09.279 almost modern detail of corporate history. Think 00:15:09.279 --> 00:15:11.399 about what actually happened in that boardroom. 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:14.240 Terra buys the physical assets. They want the 00:15:14.240 --> 00:15:16.820 glass house, the cameras, the lighting rigs, 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:19.379 maybe the actor contracts. They want the physical 00:15:19.379 --> 00:15:20.899 means of production. But they didn't care about 00:15:20.899 --> 00:15:23.519 the actual sticker on the door. Apparently not. 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:26.539 They had their own brand. But National Film, 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:30.179 their rival, saw real value in the brand itself. 00:15:30.769 --> 00:15:33.509 The name ICO meant something to the ticket -buying 00:15:33.509 --> 00:15:36.090 audience. It meant, hey, that's the company that 00:15:36.090 --> 00:15:38.529 gave us Wibble the Tailor. It signified a certain 00:15:38.529 --> 00:15:40.769 level of quality or at least reliable entertainment. 00:15:41.409 --> 00:15:44.220 So national films somehow... negotiates or ends 00:15:44.220 --> 00:15:46.059 up with the rights to the name and they just 00:15:46.059 --> 00:15:47.960 keep slapping it on their own movies. It's almost 00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:50.620 like a zombie brand. Yes. The body is totally 00:15:50.620 --> 00:15:52.659 gone, the original founding team, the studio 00:15:52.659 --> 00:15:56.059 ownership, the building, all gone, but the name 00:15:56.059 --> 00:15:58.820 just keeps walking around on movie posters. It 00:15:58.820 --> 00:16:01.600 feels very 21st century, doesn't it? We see this 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:04.570 all the time today. We're a beloved electronics 00:16:04.570 --> 00:16:07.250 company goes bust. But ten years later, you can 00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:09.950 still buy cheap TVs with their logo on it at 00:16:09.950 --> 00:16:11.909 the supermarket because some holding company 00:16:11.909 --> 00:16:15.049 bought the IP. It shows that by the 1920s, film 00:16:15.049 --> 00:16:17.190 wasn't just considered an art form. It was a 00:16:17.190 --> 00:16:19.509 highly sophisticated consumer goods industry. 00:16:20.090 --> 00:16:22.509 They understood that the brand was a commodity, 00:16:23.149 --> 00:16:24.990 completely separate from the factory that actually 00:16:24.990 --> 00:16:27.820 made the product. It really drives home the idea 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:30.320 that these weren't just bohemian artists in berets 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:32.980 making art for art's sake. These were hardcore 00:16:32.980 --> 00:16:36.759 industrialists trading assets. The studio building 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:38.700 is one asset and the intellectual property of 00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:41.200 the name is another. Absolutely. It shows a level 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:43.460 of commercial maturity and ruthlessness that 00:16:43.460 --> 00:16:46.039 we don't always credit to that early silent era. 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:47.940 So let's just step back for a second and look 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:49.679 at the whole arc we've covered here. We start 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.419 in 1912 with Frantz Vollwer renting a room. Betting 00:16:52.419 --> 00:16:54.580 everything he has on a brand new medium. Right. 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:57.830 They build this fragile glass palace in Marienfeld, 00:16:58.309 --> 00:17:00.730 battling the sun and the melting grease paint. 00:17:00.950 --> 00:17:03.350 Betting heavily on physical infrastructure. Then 00:17:03.350 --> 00:17:05.789 the war hits. It cuts them off from the rest 00:17:05.789 --> 00:17:08.089 of the world. And instead of collapsing under 00:17:08.089 --> 00:17:10.430 the weight of it, they thrive because they own 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:13.670 the local captive market. The accidental empire 00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:16.619 built entirely on isolation. And they churn out 00:17:16.619 --> 00:17:19.380 a filmography that perfectly tracks the emotional 00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:22.220 rollercoaster of an entire nation. From the fierce 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.019 pride of Bismarck, to the desperate escapism 00:17:25.019 --> 00:17:28.599 of Kukedish wife, to the deep cynicism of Wibble 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:31.160 the tailor. A full decade of cultural therapy 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:33.700 basically printed on celluloid. And finally, 00:17:33.779 --> 00:17:36.359 they are carved up and sold off for parts in 00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:39.339 1922 with their physical studio going to one 00:17:39.339 --> 00:17:41.740 giant and their good name going to another. It's 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:43.880 a complete perfect life cycle of a business. 00:17:44.059 --> 00:17:45.819 You know, when you look at the bibliography for 00:17:45.819 --> 00:17:48.359 this deep dive, we see some really heavy hitters 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.220 in cinema history. Books like The Ufa Story by 00:17:51.220 --> 00:17:54.299 Klaus Kreimeier and A Second Life, German cinema's 00:17:54.299 --> 00:17:57.380 first decades. In the grand sweeping scope of 00:17:57.380 --> 00:18:00.019 those massive books, ICO is probably just mentioned 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.720 on a few pages, right? Oh, absolutely. In the 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:06.380 broad history books, ICO is what Wikipedia would 00:18:06.380 --> 00:18:09.259 call a stub. It's a footnote compared to the 00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:12.440 absolute behemoths like UFA that came along later 00:18:12.440 --> 00:18:16.019 and dominated the globe. But I really think dismissing 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:18.299 them as just a footnote is a massive mistake. 00:18:18.579 --> 00:18:20.960 Why is that? Why should you, the listener, care 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:23.619 about the stub? Because the massive German film 00:18:23.619 --> 00:18:26.539 industry that shocked the world in the mid 20s, 00:18:26.819 --> 00:18:29.180 the industry that gave us German expressionism, 00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:31.799 the industry that revolutionized camera movement 00:18:31.799 --> 00:18:34.400 and shadow work that directly influenced Hollywood 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.680 film noir that didn't just appear by magic. It 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.140 wasn't a sudden lightning strike. No, not at 00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:42.119 all. It was built directly on the infrastructure 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.099 that companies like Ico created through trial 00:18:44.099 --> 00:18:47.039 and error. Ico built the glass houses. Ico trained 00:18:47.039 --> 00:18:49.720 the lighting crew to deal with the sun. Ico cultivated 00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:51.920 the audience habit of going to the movies every 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:54.680 week during the war. They were the literal building 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:57.319 blocks. You simply can't have the beautiful skyscraper 00:18:57.319 --> 00:18:59.319 without the concrete foundation, even if that 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:01.400 foundation gets buried underground where nobody 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:04.690 can see it. It's the invisible history. IKO is 00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:06.789 the shoulders that the Giants eventually stood 00:19:06.789 --> 00:19:09.329 on. Precisely. And they show us that film history 00:19:09.329 --> 00:19:11.890 isn't just about analyzing the masterpieces. 00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:15.410 It's about the daily sweaty grind of business. 00:19:15.569 --> 00:19:17.750 It's about the weather, the shifting politics, 00:19:17.890 --> 00:19:20.789 and the sheer dumb luck of being in exactly the 00:19:20.789 --> 00:19:22.750 right place when the borders suddenly close. 00:19:23.099 --> 00:19:25.640 You know, thinking about their filmography particularly, 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.519 that stark shift from Bismarck to his coquettish 00:19:28.519 --> 00:19:30.880 wife, it actually leaves me with a question that 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:33.420 I can't quite shake. What's that? If we looked 00:19:33.420 --> 00:19:36.099 at the movies released during a major crisis 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:38.799 today, like right now in our modern era, what 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:40.980 would they tell us? If a historian in a hundred 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:43.319 years looked at our collective filmography during 00:19:43.319 --> 00:19:46.259 a global pandemic or a massive recession or a 00:19:46.259 --> 00:19:48.839 modern conflict, would they see the story of 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:51.200 the crisis itself or would they just see the 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:54.200 story of our distraction from it? Wow, that is 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:57.000 a very uncomfortable question. Do we want a mirror 00:19:57.000 --> 00:19:58.900 held up to us, or do we just want a window look 00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:01.759 out of? Ico managed to give their audience both, 00:20:01.859 --> 00:20:04.319 depending on the specific year. I really wonder 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:06.599 which one we are overwhelmingly choosing today. 00:20:06.759 --> 00:20:09.079 It's definitely something for you to mull over 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:10.980 the next time you're endlessly scrolling through 00:20:10.980 --> 00:20:15.279 a streaming menu, trying to decide between a 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.690 heavy documentary and a superhero movie. Thanks 00:20:18.690 --> 00:20:21.029 for taking this deep dive into the flickering 00:20:21.029 --> 00:20:23.650 black -and -white world of ICO film with us today 00:20:23.650 --> 00:20:25.630 It was a real pleasure keep digging and we'll 00:20:25.630 --> 00:20:26.349 see you on the next one