Playwright Bertolt Brecht, taking advantage of a break in between two plays he was presenting in Munich, provided a brief outline of notes of skits for his first film he directed, 1923's "Mysteries of a Barbershop," otherwise known as "The Mysteries of a Hairdresser's Shop." This short 33-minute film illustrates several bizarro events taking place during an afternoon at an ordinary hair cuttery. Brecht instructed his actors to fill in the gaps of his brief scenario by ad libbing.
The more memorable skits were the barber (Karl Valentin) cutting a customer's hair so much he resembles a person from China, and an incident where he accidentally cuts off another customer's head while shaving the neck. With all the chaos swirling around the barbershop, employees Erwin Faber and Blandine Ebinger find time to embrace and kiss, a signature happy ending Brecht found in many of his plays' conclusions.
From all accounts, everyone involved in the production, including director Erich Engel, weren't exactly enamored with the finished product and decided not to distribute it. The film, discovered in a Moscow archival house in the 1970's, was reassessed and determined that, because of Brecht's involvement and its inventiveness, "Mysteries of a Barbershop" was a very important work in the German cinema of illusionism.
The more memorable skits were the barber (Karl Valentin) cutting a customer's hair so much he resembles a person from China, and an incident where he accidentally cuts off another customer's head while shaving the neck. With all the chaos swirling around the barbershop, employees Erwin Faber and Blandine Ebinger find time to embrace and kiss, a signature happy ending Brecht found in many of his plays' conclusions.
From all accounts, everyone involved in the production, including director Erich Engel, weren't exactly enamored with the finished product and decided not to distribute it. The film, discovered in a Moscow archival house in the 1970's, was reassessed and determined that, because of Brecht's involvement and its inventiveness, "Mysteries of a Barbershop" was a very important work in the German cinema of illusionism.