Screening

About The Devil Strikes at Night

Year Released:

1957

Genres:

Drama, Thriller

Metadata:

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Nachts wenn der Teufel kam (The Devil Strikes at Night) tackles the paradox of a serial killer at large in a society premised on exponential serial killing, Nazi Germany, and against the carnage of the Second World War. Directed in 1957 by Robert Siodmak on his return from Hollywood, Nachts mixes expressionist lighting and documentary footage to present this true case of a serial killer in wartime Berlin. It uses both murder and detection to illuminate Nazi attitudes to deviance, the law and individualized murder. In German language with English subtitles. (35mm presentation)
This screening is possible with support from the Goethe-Institut.

The screening will be introduced by Richard Dyer and is linked to the James Naremore Lecture, which is dedicated to continuing the tradition of scholarly excellence and honoring the similar breadth and depth in the work of other pre-eminent scholars in the field of media studies. James O. Naremore is Chancellors’ Professor Emeritus in Communication and Culture, English, and Comparative Literature at Indiana University.

Richard Dyer
Richard Dyer is a Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London. He has an MA in French with German, English and Philosophy from St. Andrews University (MA) in French with German, English and Philosophy, with his PhD in English from the University of Birmingham in the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. He has had multiple visiting professorships across the U.S and Europe. His research interests include entertainment, representation and the relationship between them, as well as music and film (including melodrama), Italian cinema (especially in its popular forms) and gay, lesbian, and queer cultures.