Movie giants come together: Martin Scorsese, Michael Ballhaus and Osram

Osram, the double Oscar award winner and leading manufacturer of cinema light, supports a special exhibition at the Kinemathek

The camera icon Michael Ballhaus, the curator Michael Warnecke, and Hans-Joachim Schwabe, manager at Osram for the special lighting business sector and responsible for cinema and film set light, came together at 10th February for a podium discussion concerning the life and work of Martin Scorsese. An exhibition currently being held at the Filmhaus on Potsdamer Platz offers an insight into the work of the director, one of the most important of our times, and Martin Scorsese has for the first time also allowed the Deutsche Kinemathek access to his private archive. Osram is a main partner of the exhibition. The HMI lamps from the company's Berlin works are fitted into every second film projector worldwide, and without the Osram XBO lamp around half of all cinema screens would remain in the dark.

Only few directors manage to develop a distinct style of filmmaking. They transform a good film into an excellent one and become the star of their own movie. Martin Scorsese is one of the most famous stars of this kind. His unique interplay of camera, cut and sound enables highly unusual visions of locations, especially New York. In many of his films this has been made possible by the work of camera icon Michael Ballhaus. "Michael Ballhaus has managed to impressively transform Scorsese's typical style into images," attested Nils Warnecke, the exhibition curator. "Of course light is certainly important. It generates or influences moods and atmosphere and gives faces their characteristic contours."

High performance light from shooting right up to the premier

With its technology Osram has not only provided support for the presentation of the exhibition; the company's products have characterised film lighting over many decades – every second cinema screen worldwide for example and every second film set is illuminated with Osram technology. It is for this reason that the company has twice been awarded the Oscar. Production of film set lamps takes place in the Osram works in Berlin, and product development and sales are also to be found in the German metropolis.

Special exhibition “Martin Scorsese” of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen (January 10 – May 12, 2013)

Filmhaus, Potsdamer Straße 2, 10785 Berlin, Germany

Martin Scorsese, one of the most important directors of our time, has opened his archive to the Deutsche Kinemathek. The first international exhibition devoted to him divides his work into three chapters.

The first deals with the characters and the central setting of his films – the New York metropolis, especially “Little Italy,” the quarter of Italian immigrants, where Scorsese grew up. A model of the city shows locations where the director has staged his diverse stories.

The second chapter introduces Scorsese as a cineaste and connoisseur of film history, who actively supports the preservation of film heritage. He assembled a selection of historical film posters from his private collection for the exhibition.

The last chapter offers a view of Scorsese’s aesthetics and compositional techniques.

“Directors of Photography,” such as Michael Ballhaus and Robert Richardson, and also the editor Thelma Schoonmaker, have made a contribution to Scorsese’s decisive style. Working photos, camera diagrams, storyboards and cut lists clarify the construction of some key scenes from Scorsese’s oeuvre. His music films receive a section of their own.

Among the highlights of the exhibition are storyboards that Scorsese drew, original

costumes worn by Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, props from films like “Raging Bull“ (1980) and “Hugo Cabret“ (2011), numerous unpublished photographs, as well as costume and production designs.

The end of the exhibition takes shape through an installation of four large-scale projection screens, which allows the viewer to become immersed in Scorsese’s cosmos. It is completely in keeping with his credo: “I am the films that I make.”