Only the fog is grey (1965)
Impressions from the new August Thyssen-Hütte plant
"Only the fog is grey" is not the title of an advertising brochure for tourism in the Ruhr region, but the title of an award-winning industrial film from 1965. It presents the new Beeckerwerth plant of August Thyssen-Hütte AG in Duisburg. Here, for the first time, workers are given a voice in an industrial film, reporting on their relationship to work and their leisure time. The film, which is over 50 years old, also shines with spectacular camera movements through the production facilities and also documents a technical malfunction in the new plant.
Between 1961 and 1965, August Thyssen-Hütte AG built a completely new factory with a high degree of automation on a greenfield site in Duisburg-Beeckerwerth. The award-winning film by French director Robert Menegoz (1926–2013), which approached the topic of man and machine in steel production using new stylistic means, is just as modern and avant-garde. The unconventional director Menegoz worked together with his wife Marga Menegoz (born 1941) and recommended Sacha Vierny (1919–2001) as cameraman. Vierny had developed a special film aesthetic with Alain Resnai (1922–2014) and would later work intensively with Peter Greenaway (born 1942). The French team was given absolute artistic freedom and unlimited support from the company for the film project. Already in the first days of shooting, it became clear that the director was working with different methods than usual for industrial films. This included, for example, a tracking shot through the slab mill, which had never been done before. For this purpose, an artificial slab was constructed that contained the camera and the lighting. The movement of a rolling coil in the cold rolling mill was also to be recorded. Another trick helped here: the camera was screwed onto a strong magnet, which was then placed on the steel strip. The German composer, pianist and conductor Hans Posegga (1917–2013) contributed the music. He had already composed melodies several times for Deutsche Industrie- und Dokumentationsfilm GmbH (Dido) and other industrial film producers. He also wrote the title music for “Die Sendung mit der Maus”.
"Only the fog is grey" - the new plant itself is colourful, located in the green surroundings of the steel city of Duisburg. The work there is less strenuous than it used to be in the old factories. Automation is presented as a fundamentally positive development, even against the backdrop of the labor shortage in the early 1960s: This is the central message of the film, which uses brilliant color images to demonstrate that the employees feel comfortable in their work and in their new working environment. The film therefore neither traces the path from ore to steel, nor does it explain the function of the new plant for the company, but shows aesthetically composed impressions that are intended to impress the viewer. The proof of this statement - and this is also new - is provided by the workers themselves, who talk about their work. They are proud of the performance of "their" plant, talk about their previous jobs (bricklayer, baker and confectioner) and their leisure activities. On a second level, the viewer is drawn directly into the human dimension of the world of work, which is changing due to automation and rationalization, by means of seemingly randomly picked up fragments of words that underline the impressions of the factory. Another special feature of an industrial film is the detailed depiction of a malfunction, for which humans and their skills are needed to resolve it quickly and systematically. Even in the highly automated factory, humans are irreplaceable. “Only the fog is gray” is definitely a high point in recent industrial film history.
Astrid Dörnemann, thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives
Filmographic information
Producer: German Industrial and Documentary Film GmbH
Client: Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG)/Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (GBAG)
Music: Bert Grund
Director: Hans Joachim Ruths
Screenplay: Dieter Rüsse
Year: 1963
Runtime: 10 minutes
Format: 16 mm light tone, color
Contact
Historical Corporate Archives RWE
Hans-Georg Thomas
Ernestinenstrasse 60
45141 Essen
hans-georg.thomas@rwe.com
Filmographic information:
Year of production: 1965
Format: 35 mm optical sound recorded on Eastmancolor using the Techniscope system (widescreen process)
Color: color
Language: German
Running time: 24 min.; short version for cinema screenings: 12 min.
Director: Robert Menegoz
Assistant director: Marga Menegoz
Production: Hans Joachim Ruths
Producer: German Industrial and Documentary Film GmbH, Düsseldorf (Dido)
Screenplay: Robert Menegoz
Camera: Sacha Vierny (1st cameraman), Walter Gebauer, Guy Tabary
Editing: Ginette Boudet
Sound: Hans Ruhe
Music: Hans Posegga
Speaker: Karl Maria Schley
Director: Harald Schott
Client: August Thyssen-Hütte AG
Premiere: May 14, 1965, Annual General Meeting of August Thyssen-Hütte AG in the Düsseldorf Congress Hall
Other versions: 16mm optical sound version; English 35mm optical sound version “Only the fogs are grey”; French 35mm optical sound version with German title; Japanese 35mm optical sound version with English title
Awards: “Particularly Valuable” rating from the Wiesbaden Film Evaluation Board; Special Prize from the “Conseil National du Patronat Francais” for the best film of the festival at the 6th International Industrial Film Festival in Rouen, 11th – 16th October 1965; “Grand Prix” at the 2nd Documentary Film Festival of the European Iron and Steel Industry in Luxembourg, 24th – 27th October 1965; “Outstanding” rating at the 1st German Industrial Film Forum in Düsseldorf, 30th November – 3rd December 1966; 1966 Cultural Film Prize from the Federal Ministry of the Interior; “1st Prize” in Category C “People and Work” at the 3rd German-Language Business Film Days in Linz, 9th – 12th May 1967; “1st Prize” in the “People and Business” category at the 8th International Industrial Film Festival in Lisbon, 5th – 10th October 1967. September XNUMX.
Contact
thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives
Astrid Dörnemann MA
Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 12
47119 Duisburg
The slab with built-in camera and lighting.
Photographer: Karl Lang.
Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg
This is how the look over the shoulder in the moped scene came about. Robert and Marga Menegoz discuss the scene with the moped driver in the rolling mill, with Sacha Vierny on camera, 1964. Photographer: Karl Lang.
Source: thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg