Germ 3160

Minutes for Monday, September 15, 2003

Early Sound Films

The class assembled and sheets on Kuhle Wampe and questions for Der blaue Engel (due Monday 22) were passed out.  Then Dr. Reimer gave a brief overview of M, focusing on Lang and Lorre:

                        Lang wanted to use sound to further his story.  For example, in M the child murderer whistles.  This adds dimension to the film and makes it a little scarier and more believable. Peter Lorre, who became known as the archetype villain, plays the murderer.  He became famous through Bertolt Brecht and with his stage role in the play “Mann ist Mann”.  Lang cast him for the role in M and assured him of having a career for the full length of his acting life.  For Peter Lorre, this of course wasn’t very long in Germany, as he was Jewish and by the 30’s he left for Hollywood. His role in M was used as propaganda material in the Nazi film The Eternal Jew as the “archetype evil Jew”.  The Nazi’s connected his character in the film with Lorre himself and sold his fictional abnormal behavior as actual footage of how the Jews behave.

                        As mentioned previously, M, shot in the 1930’s, is about a child murderer who whistles before he murders. This film, which was directed by  Lang, a left-leaning liberal, brings up two interesting subjects.  The first is the reasons behind the murders. Lorre’s character explains that a compulsion makes him kill and he can’t help it. He is not guilty due to his insanity. This “special type” of criminal sheds light on a new psychological way of looking at criminals, an early example of the psychological-sociologic  problem films of the fifties in Hollywood.  Also the movie shows close parallels between the police (legal society) and the group of criminals.  Parallel editing relates the cop-criminal action when the groups are discussing how to catch the murderer.

We then watched clip 1:

                        The movie began by showing the assembled criminals in a formal meeting discussing how to catch the murderer.  The union agreed a non-member was screwing up and something must be done because it was making their jobs much harder.  They agreed their reputation was suffering, there were too many nervous cops, and described the “monster” as not being on their level.  Full and medium shots were used and the room was very smoky.

                        Next the film showed the police meeting together trying to solve the same problem.  The group was very similar: men smoking, sitting around a table, and discussing how and why the murderer had to be caught. They expressed that they needed tougher searches, “quieter” girlfriends and wives, and that the man must “look” normal and his victims are by chance.

                        Then scenes flipped back and forth from the criminals to the cops, both portrayed in similar fashions. One technique used was that one shot of the criminals showed their shadows rather than their actual bodies. They decided the cops had to be kept under surveillance and the beggar union could take care of that. Then a scene from the beggars’ union is shown where they are doing “normal” activities of laying out food, drinking, sleeping, playing cards, and a man is shown changing the price of food (raising it) on a menu.  The last thing we saw was the beggars being assigned streets to watch.

Then Dr. Reimer opened the floor for reactions, asking specifically why the class thought he let the last few minutes run.

A student replied that this showed the director’s ideas about socialism and connected the thieves and policemen.

Dr. Reimer pointed out that neither group kills kids.

A student then added that there was no cut in the last few minutes of the film, and Dr. Reimer explained that normally we think that sound came into films and suddenly visuals were lost because everyone was so enamored by sound.  But that isn’t the case here.  Lang’s film work is very reminiscent of silent film in spite of the dialog.  There was a sequence when the talking stops but this doesn’t bother us. 

Then Dr. Reimer asked what else was seen.

A student replied that there was barely any difference between the two groups.

Dr. Reimer explained that both groups were doing the same thing. The police say more raids and the criminals do the same thing through their spy network.  He also pointed out that the film creates a 3^rd dimension (depth) through not only sound but also the smoke. Smoke adds dimension (substance) to the otherwise two dimensional screen image, also done through ceiling fans, etc. until this becomes cliché.

A student agreed and said that smoke and fans give constant movement.

Dr. Reimer said it also gave depth perception which the class will see in Blue Angel.

Then a student asked about the board in the last scene and why that was the focus. Was it anti-capitalist?

Dr. Reimer said one could read a great number of things. We don’t watch our children enough for example. Then he asked what else the board does.  A student replied that it added detail. Dr. Reimer agreed.

Then clip 2 was shown:

                        The murderer has been caught by the criminals.  He previously had tried to escape but backed into a mechanical toy and was given away (similar scene used in Nazi film a few years later).  A large group of criminals are gathered and deciding how to deal with him. They tell him that everything will be done lawfully. He is given a defense council (by a fellow criminal) and essentially what follows is how Lorre and the criminal judge go back and forth.  Lorre is worried that he will be killed and argues he is crazy and can’t help it. He wants to be turned over to the police.  The criminal judge says he is guilty and must be punished. At one point Lorre gives a speech which seems to tug on the strings of his criminal audience, but they remember their anger and quickly go back to their “kill him” approach. The defense strongly argues for the murderer to be turned over to the police and Lorre runs, followed by the mob. Then everyone freezes and slowly puts their hands up. The police have found them. Lorre has a legal trial (to which no verdict is given) and then there is a shot of 3 mourning mothers with that message “we should keep a closer watch on our children”.  The verdict of Lorre’s penalty essentially makes no difference.

Dr. Reimer asks for a response. Which is replied to that the “watch your children message” was pretty clear… Dr. Reimer agrees that it’s pretty heavy handed and that the verdict doesn’t matter because it won’t bring the children back.

Then a student says that he loved the movie and Lang really makes you feel sorry for Lorre. The film only shows one murder and only shadows are seen, so you don’t associate him strongly with murder. Then students added that we see Lorre as being hunted through his speech, the fact he’s cornered, and the mob even feels sorry for him.  People were surprised his attorney actually stood up for him. Also it’s interesting how we see what we want to see when the criminal crowd all put their hands up. Dr. Reimer added that audiences who were in the know would recognize the president of the criminals as “the devil” as he was played by a famous German star Gustav Grüdgens, whose best known role was Mephisto in Goethe’s Faust..

Then we had a brief overview of Kuhle Wampe:

            There are 3 episodes:

1.      A man who can’t find work jumps off a building.

2.      His sister and family are evicted and get invited to live at Kuhle Wampe (tent city for evicted, unemployed). She gets pregnant and her boyfriend wants to marry her (pressured...) but she refuses.

3.      Celebration of youth as future of socialism and Germany. (Forward we will change the world music)

We watched a brief scene from the 2^nd episode where the girl was invited to live at K.W. And the scene shows the carried to K.W. and presents the place as almost a resort in a documentary style. Cheery music is heard as the family unpacks.

            Then we fast forwarded…

Dr. Reimer explained that Hanns Eisler did the music.  Then the movie came on and showed scenery and 2 lovers. The music would crescendo at times and then become more peaceful again. Then the film was stopped and Dr. Reimer explained that there was lyrical movement but it strangely pushes us away because of the strangeness of the singing.

Class ended and we were told we will be watching Blue Angel Wednesday.