Articles
Film is Power to Jean Oser
Film is the most powerful means of communication in this century, and Saskatchewan is on its way to developing one of the strongest film industries anywhere, according to Jean Oser, film production consultant with Sask Media and a lecturer on film history and [aesthetics] at the University of Regina....
Film Pioneer to Discuss Work
In March 1975, Mr. Oser received the Venice Art Gold Medal for his outstanding contributions to international film.... Saskatchewan is indeed fortunate to have a man of such stature in residence and we in Saskatoon are finally able to share his experience....
Jean Oser outside College Building in 1972 (U of S, Regina Campus). Photo by Ian Preston.
Introducing Jean Oser
Norman Sawchyn, a former student and friend of Jean's, takes offense at John Hofsess' reference to Jean as a "windbag" and respectfully rebukes the reference in the following letter to the editor section of Cinema Canada (circa mid to late 1970's):
http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/viewFile/528/600
Preface to The Alienated Affections of Atom Egoyan
In the preface to his article, José Arroyo mentions Jean Oser as a friend with whom he agreed about a film by Atom Egoyan in 1987.
José Arroyo currently teaches film studies at the University of Warwick. The complete version of the 1987 article can be found here:
http://cinemacanada.athabascau.ca/index.php/cinema/article/view/3720
Photo of José Arroyo retrieved from
MB: Qu'est-ce qui a été gardé ou supprimé dans le film?
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JO: Toutes les versions de L'Opéra de quat'sous, y compris les deux mises en scène pour le film, ont ceci en commun: une critique sociale, une attaque contre les dirigeants de la société, contre la pauvreté, etc. En plus d'une affirmation d'un refus de devoir rester des paumés dans la vie. Les voeux d'un monde meilleur ne sont pas toujours exaucés, mais le caractère cie révolte est toujours là, grisant aussi, oui, c'est le mot, même chez Pabst.
Jean Oser
A Filmmakers Story
This article by Susan Martin appeared in the premiere issue of UpTown magazine in November of 1992.
Jean Oser - Biographical Outline (for A History of World Cinema)
"It was Jean's good fortune to meet... the Austrian film-
maker G.W. Pabst. Jean was employee #5 at the progres-sive Tobis Corporation and he was loaned out to assist Pabst, who was in a crisis. Pabst was producing his first Talkie, Westfront 1918. The crisis it turns out, was formidable...."
A History of World Cinema Premieres in Europe
"The European premiere of A History of World Cinema - A Personal View by Jean Oser took
place on May 6, 1993, at the Kino Arsenal in Berlin. Jean Oser and I were honoured to be able to attend and take part in a post-screening
discussion organized by the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek."
Verheiratet mit G.W. Pabst
The Jean Oser Interview
German Exile Cinema
This section provides a brief look at articles which mention Jean (Hans) Oser and the numerous films he worked on with his fellow exiles during a tragic period in world history.
German Exile Cinema
Sirk's Early Exile Films
Jan-Christopher Horak, Director of UCLA Film and Television Archive, 2015
In the two articles above written by Jan-Christopher Horak about mid-career, the reader will find "Hans Oser" mentioned in regards to the last film Jean (Hans) Oser worked on for G.W. Pabst, Le Drame de Shanghai (1938), in "German Exile Cinema", 1996, p. 386. Jean is again mentioned in the second article in regards to the film he edited for Douglas Sirk (Detlef Sierck), Die Zehnte soll es sein (Accord final) (1938), "Sirk's Early Exile Films", 1999, p. 124.
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In the final article in this listing, the reader will find that a film directed by Jean Le Monde en Armes (The World in Arms) (1939) is mentioned in the section: On the eve of war: The banned films of 1939-40 in an article by Paul Lesch, "Film and Politics in Luxembourg", 2004, p. 439.
Film and Politics In Luxembourg
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"Paul Lesch, PhD in communication sciences, is assistant associate professor at the University of Luxembourg and lecturer at Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center. He teaches history and cinema", retrieved on May 18, 2017 from a translated page of the University of Luxemberg, found here. Additionally, while I cannot locate much more than a poster of Le Monde en Armes (1939), I have found a website page which lists a description of the scenes of all seven reels of the original film. Please see Net Film - The World is Armed.
Jean Oser, einer bedeutendsten Schnittmeister der Weimarer Republik, ist in Berlin
On Jean Oser's last visit to Germany in 1997, he appeared in a major newspaper in Berlin.
Jean Oser
"Gerald Saul speaks with Jean Oser, the pioneer of European film who has so influenced the independent spirit of Saskatchewan filmmaking, as he approaches his 90th birthday."
Please note that the following article has been edited and excerpted:
A Life in Pictures
Jean runs the four fingers of his right hand through his thick, white hair, making crests
and troughs in his gel-coated coif. In a thick, German accent, he says, "Film is the closest
thing to ballet. It is the closest thing to dance...."
Three Penny Opera (1931)
Photo retrieved online May 18, 2017
Adventures of Don Quixote 1933
Jean Oser's comments about the making of Don Quixote live on in academia. Scott Raines' article appeared in the International Journal of Music and Performing Arts June 2015, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 103-105, please see p. 104.
Photo of G.W. Pabst retrieved from mubi.com 05/06/17
Bringing to life an artistic movement that has inspired generations
Jean received a brief mention in the following article by Costa Maragos on the Caligari Project as follows:
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"And last but not least, the Film Department is related to German Expressionism by one degree of separation – its founder, the late Jean Oser, who came to Regina via the US, after fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s, began his career as an editor for the German Expressionist director G. W. Pabst in the 1920s."
The full article on the Caligari Project can be found here:
https://www.uregina.ca/external/communications/feature-stories/current/2016/10-04.html
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An important note of correction must be added to the above assertion that G.W. Pabst was an "Expressionist director." Pabst may have used the expressionist aesthetic in theatre but when he came to film, he most definitely turned his back on the aesthetic:
The Austrian G. W. Pabst was prominent among the directors cultivating the new realism. He came to the cinema from the theater, which he had left because of his doubts as to its artistic future. He was a late arrival in the studios; it was only at the end of the postwar period that he made his first film, Deb Schatz (The Treasure, 1924), a legend of love and greed clumsily unfolding within medieval decors. This dull and impersonal product demonstrated that Pabst felt himself a stranger in a period bent on externalizing inner conflicts and longings without any regard for the given facts. Pabst was a realist. He once said in a conversation: "What need is there for romantic treatment? Real life is too romantic, too ghastly." 7
7. Quoted from Bryher, "G. W. Pabst: A Survey," Close Up, Dec. 1927, p. 60. in Siegfried Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, 1947 (reprinted 1966), p. 167. A complete pdf copy of From Caligari to Hitler can be found online here.
Director Stephen Surjik returns to Regina, SK for the U of R Living Skies Student Film Festival (March 2-4, 2017) and refers to Jean Oser in two articles:
"It was at the U of R that Surjik was inspired to pursue a career as a director. He attended a film course taught by Jean Oser. "I would watch and listen and I was star struck," said Surjik."
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"This is where the film bug bit him as a 15-year-old Sheldon-Williams student, auditing his student-mother’s U of R film class taught by Jean Oser. “I was so intrigued and inspired by him that I kind of felt that there was actually a real business out there,” said Surjik. So he went to find it, moving to Montreal for film school at Concordia University almost four decades ago."
Stephen Surjik presented at the Living Skies Student Film Festival on March 2, 2017. Photo courtesy Mark Wihak, Department of Film, Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance, University of Regina. Please see http://www.livingskiesstudentfilmfest.com.