A View on Kracauer’s Concept of Found Story Through People on Sunday (1930)

Abstract

Siegfried Kracauer, is one of the first theorists who approached cinema from a sociological perspective. In his book From Caligari to Hitler (1947, 2011a), he examined the cinema of the Weimar period and stated that symbols of fascist tendencies can be seen in films before Hitler came to power. Expressing that cinema should reflect society realistically, Kracauer states that physical reality can be captured in cinema with a 'found story'. Although the found story is a functional form in capturing reality in cinema, it is not sufficient by itself to reflect the reality of society. People on Sunday (1930, R. Siodmak, E. Ulmer), which portrays the daily lives of ordinary people, is in a unique place in terms of shooting conditions, the bridge it builds between documentary and fiction in Weimar cinema era. And also structure of found story can be seen in film. At the same time, it allows for a critical reading as it is a product of the cinema of the Weimar period, which Kracauer criticizes in his book From Caligari to Hitler (2011a). In this article, in order to examine the found story structure and Kracauer's understanding of realistic cinema in the context of the relationship between cinema and society, the film People on Sunday will be analyzed with the sociological method. As a result, although the film overlaps with the found story structure, it has been seen that it is not sufficient on its own to reflect the period and society.