Lichtspiel by Daniel Kehlmann
Lichtspiel is the title of the most recent novel by Daniel Kehlmann. It tells the story of G.W. Pabst, the celebrated film director of the Weimar Republic, who rose to fame with films such as The Joyless Street (1925, with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen) and The Threepenny Opera (1931). After a failed attempt to establish himself in Hollywood, Pabst returns to Europe. On a trip to his home country Austria, he and his family are surprised by the start of the Second World War. The borders are closed and they can no longer get out of Nazi Germany. Pabst is ensnared by the Nazis, blackmailed and ultimately continues to make films. The book about cinema, power and non-resistance was published by Rowohlt in October 2023.
The title typography is a flawless case of LTypI: the condensed caps with the low waistline are from a typeface called Lichtspielhaus. Designed by Stefan Hübsch of Typocalypse, it was released in 2014, together with Lichtspiele. The latter offers lowercase characters and comes in a range of display styles including Contra Italic and Neon 3D variants. Lichtspiele is “inspired by the 1920s – the golden age of cinema – where neon lights and marquee letters decorated cinema facades”. Spurred by the success, Huebsch added Handmade and Slab versions, and completed the series with the extreme Lichtspiele Reklame,
The book’s text is set in Kepler, with non-ligning numerals for the page numbers and italics for the chapter heading. The drop cap is from Lichtspiele.
The title page uses Lichtspielhaus with the alternate C that is provided in the lowercase.
