Presented in cooperation with The Goethe Institute, San Francisco. An introduction by Michael Schulte, author of Karl Valentin (1968), will be available at PFA on the night of the screening, along with program notes based on his book and on Hans Günthe Pflaum, Die Filme Valentins. PFA wishes to thank Mr. Schulte, as well as Deborah Griggs of the Goethe Institute, and Leslie Paul for their translations.

Karl Valentin (1882-1948) was one of the most popular comedians in Germany during the first half of this century. His comedy has been called a forerunner of the Theater of the Absurd in its unique combination of virtuoso slapstick, extreme pessimism, and poetry. Valentin was master of a grotesque mime of his own invention, and also a musician who performed on almost a dozen instruments. From the Munich music halls (the Bavarian equivalent of Vaudeville) he grew in popularity and at his height was appearing in Munich, Berlin, Vienna, and Zurich, performing pieces which he wrote and directed, and for which he often designed and built props. From 1911, Liesl Karlstadt was his partner on stage, and then in films. Valentin counted among his fans Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, who saw in him a teacher. He recognized the importance of the cinema early on and made over 40 films which did not achieve popularity in his lifetime, but which were rediscovered in the sixties. When Charles Chaplin saw Valentin's films in Vienna in the thirties, he said, “That is the only comic who could give me some competition.”
Karl Valentin's Wedding (1913, c. 4 mins, directed by Ansfelder), the spindly Valentin is roped into marriage with an Amazon; The Hearty Vagabonds (1913, c. 3 mins), Valentin as a witless policeman taunting two tramps; The New Writing Desk (1913 or '14, c. 5 mins), a clerk trying to cut the legs of a tall desk down to size evenly; Karl Valentin in His Private Life and His Studio (1913 and on, c. 3 mins), documentary footage with a home-movie flavor; Mysteries of a Barbershop (by Bertolt Brecht and Erich Engel, 1922 or '23, c. 16 mins), a masterpiece of dadaist comedy, in a barbershop where chaos, humiliation and mutilation are the order of the day; Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt on the Grounds of the Oktoberfest (1923, c. 7 mins), turning the amusements into catastrophes; Karl Valentin as Musical Clown (1929, c. 4 mins), demonstrating his unique acting ability by capturing the music of his best-loved routines in entirely silent, visual gestures.