Die Holstentorrolle

The founders of the Nordic Film Days Lübeck strove to get away from your granddad’s cinema, which hogged screens during the Adenauer era. To do that, they trained their sights to the North. But at the time, regular movie theatres showed not only regional films and American studio productions, but also advertisements. They were a way for cinema operators to bring in a little extra income. Local companies took advantage of the opportunity to advertise their wares or services with slides, cutout animations, or even – if they could afford it – short 35 mm ads. In Lübeck, Globus was the company responsible for placing and sometimes also producing those small gems. Some of the films have survived on celluloid in the firm’s estate and have now been digitised and compiled for this special programme. The advertising represents a sort of “condensed zeitgeist”, from which the Nordic Film Days sprang in a kind of cinematic coup. We wish you lots of fun re-visiting well-known and forgotten stores, department stores, brands, and places.