Exploding the Cosmopolitan and Treating the Foreigners’ Foreignness: Paul Leni’s The Diary of Dr. Hart

Abstract

Fisher’s chapter examines the titular film as an important historical document that chronicles both the changing institutional context of German cinema and the evolving perspectives on the “war to end all wars.” Subsidized by the German Supreme Army Command’s wartime propaganda unit—the Photo and Film Office—The Diary of Dr. Hart is a transitional and transformative instalment in Leni’s career and the wider landscape of German cinema during the latter stages of World War I. Combining a thorough production history of the film with early cinematic trends, such as the popularization of cinematic–medical discourses and the representation of contemporary European cosmopolitanism, this chapter shows how Leni’s directorial debut combines a number of styles to transform the war genre and how such genres were already evolving at this relatively early moment in German cinema history.