Music in Film

“Europeans consider music important in film.”

-Reimer

The Blue Angel/Der Blaue Engel

Directed by Joseph von Sternberg. Screenplay by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmoeller, Robert Liebman, from the novel "Professor Unrat" by Heinrich Mann. With: Jannings, Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Hans Albers. Germany, 1930

Marlene Dietrich can't help it when, as cabaret singer Lola-Lola she just keeps "falling in love again", luring professor Emil Jannings to humiliation and doom. This film presents music in a seductive yet warning form. Von Stern berg’s adaptation used only a section of Heinrich Mann's novel. Also, as one of the better-known German films it is a social statement about the oppressive nature of German society. A closer look into the story and a parallel between Heinrich being communist and then turn into a Nazi, as does the main character. The Blue Angel was a form of propaganda for National Socialism in Germany. Emil Jannings later becomes a star in Nazi film.

Coming Home

Made in 1941. Nazi policy was to persuade Germans to come home. This movie describes Germans in Poland during the year 1939. The time period was when Germany’s border moved outward. Coming Home tells us how music can be used as propaganda. The specific scene was of an imprisoned woman singing of Germany while in a Poland jail waiting for her liberation.

Stalingrad

Germany/Sweden, 1993

Cast: Thomas Kretschmann, Dominique Horwitz, Jochen Nickel, Sebastian Rudolph, Dana Vavrova Director: Joseph Vilsmaier Producers: Hanno Huth, Guenter Rohrbach, and Joseph Vilsmaier Screenplay: Juergen Buescher, Johannes M.M. Heide, and Joseph Vilsmaier Cinematography: Rolf Greim, Klaus Moderegger, and Peter Von Haller Music: Norbert Juergen Schneider

Stalingrad, which takes place between August 1942 and January 1943, chronicles Hitler's failed invasion of the Russian city -- one of the miscalculations that lost the war for Germany. More than one million died in the struggle, the fatalities caused by wounds, disease, and the bitter cold. Stalingrad re-creates the historical aspects of the battle while telling an intimate tale through the eyes of a small group of German characters. Two trailers of this film where shown. The first, characterized as sad, sentimental, appealing, and romantic. The second trailer was deemed Hollwoodish being presented as an action film. Within the movie itself the German song, “Oh Tanumbum”, provoked emotions of truth, faithfulness, joy, and hope, as we the audience have the knowledge of the war and their fate.

The Same Old Song

Director: Ula Stockl

“Nothing ever changes” The national anthem of Germany is sung throughout this movie. Ula Stöckl presents a pessimistic view of the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The film also comments on Germany before 1945. The music in this song is used as a comment on history.

American Songs in German Film

The song : “I Will Survive”

At first I was afraid I was petrified
Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side;
But then I spent so many nights Thinkin' how you did me wrong
And I grew strong And I learned how to get along
And so you're back from outer space I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face I should have changed that stupid lock
I should have made you leave your key If I'd've known for just one second you'd be back to bother me

This song was played three different times.

The HBO Original Program Six feet Under - Comically as a thirty something divorcee drinks amongst friends in a limo. Her celebration leads her on out of the sunroof where she is decapitated.
The motion picture The Replacements – Comic relief is found when the replacement NFL football team members finally come together while in jail after a brawl. The song “I Will Survive” is sang incongruous to the idea of a typical football team’s reaction to the situation.
Doris Doerrie’s Enlightment Guaranteed – Uses the song in a situational form. Two brothers are in search of a new beginning at a monastery. They sing the song, drunken at a bar, telling how their situation will end in a positive light.

Goodbye Fransisca

Directed by: Helmut Kautner in 1941

Music can be used to choreograph a scene without actual dancing. As an ingredient to support the rhythm of the actors’ physical movement and language, music in “Goodbye” set the characters tempo. A couple’s interaction paralleled the style of the music. Another point to the film was the use of Jazz, the music of America, in a Nazi film where the enemy’s music was prohibited. The Jazz played at a low point in the newsreel reporter’s life when he was at a bar in Africa. The scene of the bar was a contrast to acceptable German culture.

Pop Music and The Big Chill

Movie Image

Starring: Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Kevin Kline, Tom Berenger and William Hurt.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
Produced by Michael Shamberg.
Written by Barbara Benedek and Lawrence Kasdan

The 1983 classic is about the gathering of old college friends for a funeral bringing out their real personalities. At the opening of the funeral scene, a song refrains of “you can’t always get what you want” plays a transitional tool. The Big Chill uses music perfectly to supplement the story line and as a structural bridge between scenes, giving cohesion to otherwise disjointed scenes.