Destinations / The most popular places to visit in Düsseldorf, Germany / Düsseldorf Filmmuseum

About Dusseldorf Filmmuseum

  The Dusseldorf Filmmuseum is one of the most fascinating museums in Dusseldorf, and is known for its permanent and unique exhibitions like costumes, properties and decorative materials that were in use in those days when the museum vas founded. The museum is providing informative materials in a contemporary and interactive manner. It is a very nice museum with lots of things on display (including a large collection of cinema postcards) and their own little auditorium, the Black Box. The Film Museum in Dusseldorf takes you along on the captivating expedition of scientific development from those earliest depictions of motion through the many precursors to photographic moving pictures up to the advent of moving film frames. Also, here are shown a great number of historic and current art films. Visitors will get the chance to witness the apparatus which were used in the nascent times of cinema.

The History of Dusseldorf Filmmuseum

  Dusseldorf filmmuseum was inaugurated in 1993, but the cinema museum, a part of the museum, was founded in the year 1979. In the earlier years the collection was very small and contained a few exhibits like costumes, properties and decorative materials that were in use in those days. But the collection has expanded in the 1993. This museum is an evidence that Dusseldorf, in the years of World War one was a “The Capital of German cinema”. Even if the museum is not an old one, here you can find really old exhibits from the World War. That’s why here come a lot of visitors who appreciates the culture and the importance of the historical movie exhibits.

The description of the museum

  The museum is not a huge construction, and yet has a great number of exhibits and different interesting areas. The building has fourth floors which have unique exhibits and technique.
The museum exposition begins with the first floor which is a Pantheon of Film History, which is devoted to a number of early Russian, Polish, Japanese, Italian, American and, of course, German film directors, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog and Düsseldorf native Wim Wenders. There are some various photographs that charm the pantheon's cupola ceiling, while short movie excerpts can be viewed on interactive video columns. There is also the "Movie Cult - Movie Theater" room which is devoted to the movie house experience. In the center of this area, period movie costumes from various international films, including Akira Kurasawa's Dreams, are displayed in glass cases. There is also an exhibit of movie-related merchandise, from Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy memorabilia to Star Wars action figures and Disney character toys.
 
  On the second floor there is an amazing collection of original shadow puppets from Turkey, and a few counties from Asia, like China and Indonesia show how these early cut-outs were used to create the experience of watching a story take place on a screen. Further on in the second floor there is the Palace of Illusions. The secret of special effects that were used in 17th-century "light paintings" is revealed with the press of a button, which changes the back lighting of a painting and allows different parts of it to glow, turning day into night and vice versa. There is also an area where is showing how camera angles and editing can replicate or reinvent reality. There is also an area like "Flash-Lock", "The Captured Outer World" and "The Projected Inner World" - a display of the progression in development of film cameras and projecting equipment, which includes collection German, American, Russian and French cameras from the turn of the century through the 1980s. If you’ll like to know how camera works or how the editing is working, then on the second floor there are some exhibits demonstrates how camera angle and editing can replicate or reinvent reality.

  If you are attracted to the sounds of the movie than you should definitely visit the third floor where you will enter the world of silent films which is in one room and sound effects in the next. You will be amazed how the movies were made and what technique was used. Also on the third level you'll find an introduction to animation, from graphics to "stop action". Other interesting exhibits are The Blue Screen exhibit. You’ll try out some special effects for yourself, standing in front of the blue screen and seeing yourself on television against a different background.

  On the last floor, the fourth, you can see a Kaiserpanorama which was invented in 1880. It is an incredible construction, a ten-sided black tower surrounded by chairs and stereo viewers at each position where visitors can sit and look at black and white travel photos in 3D. Every few second, the photos inside the box rotate so you get a new view.
Also the Filmmuseum Dusseldorf is home to a huge collection that includes movie scripts, list of dialogues, film posters, photos, newspaper clippings and press kits, irrespective of whether it’s a national movie or an international one. The film archive of cinema museum is made up of about 4.000 videos and45.000 prints. There is a collection of around 1500 figures, which were used in the shadow plays during the period of 13th-19th century.
  Because of all its interesting, magnificent and unique exhibits, the Filmmuseum is worth to be visited. The pleasure and a better knowledge about the movie world are granted. So don’t lose the opportunity to spend a great time in an amazing place.
 

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