Film Is What Belongs to Film. The Reuse of Photographic Pictures and Typographies in Illustrated Film Magazines

So far, illustrated film magazines have mainly been included in research as secondary objects – the focus was instead on journalistic, political or historical aspects. In this paper, however, the mediality and visuality of illustrated film magazines will be the focus of attention. As an important aspect of this mediality, it will be shown in what ways exemplary German (e.g. Neue Filmwelt) illustrated film magazines remediate film, especially through the reuse of images and typographies, by referring to other print publications and places of film representation. Examples will demonstrate how illustrated film magazines incorporate and transform poster layouts, illustrations and typographies, poster photos, lobby and cigarette cards into a journal-specific layout.

The general thesis is that the representation of the medium film entails that media also representing film are included, or at least approached, in the film journal’s specific representation. What film is in the illustrated film magazine is above all what is understood as film, and what other representations of film in other media understand as being filmic. Thus, such representations allow us to gain knowledge about the understanding of the media involved in the illustrated film journal at a given time: it is a constant negotiation of medial self-perception/self-presentation (magazine) and of the reference to other media (photography and film). Not only other media are referenced here, but also places of media representation, such as movie theatre showcases, as important places that shape the perception of the said medium. Each time these different processes of representation mean that the medium to be represented, or more specifically, certain characteristics relative to the medium to be represented, are transformed into the aesthetics inherent to the medium to be represented, the illustrated film magazine.