Minutes for 7.12.01

q       German film history can be broken down into four different categories according to time periods:

1918-1933:  This period is referred to as Germany’s Golden Age concerning film and, accordingly, some of the best known films in Germany’s history were made in this time span.  Many were horror films such as Cabinet of Dr. Caligati (1919) by R. Wiene, Nosferatu (1920) by F.W. Murnau, and Metropolis (1925-1926) by Fritz Lang who also did M (1931).  Until 1929, films were silent.  The movies made in this time period set a tone for the art film.

1933-1945:  This period is known as Nazi cinema or cinema of the Third Reich, although, 90% of the films weren’t made purely for propaganda purposes but for entertainment instead.  One of the best-known propaganda films to come out of this period is Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl.  Riefenstahl was commissioned in 1933 by Hitler to do a documentary/propaganda type film on the Nuremberg rallies.  Although the movie was a flop, Hitler again commissioned her in1934-1935 to do Triumph, which was more popular.  After the war, Riefenstahl was never able to regain her career due to the heavy Nazi propaganda embedded in her films.  For instance, in Triumph, she shows individuals as part of a collective who are strong when joined together.  And whenever the word “Deutchland” is proclaimed, we either see Hitler or the Nazi flag.  In response to the criticism she receives, she insists that all she did was make a movie.

1945-1962:  Nothing much came out of Germany during these years.  At the close of the war, many Germans were driven out of some of their lands in the east such as Chezchoslavochia and Poland.  Their country was in ruins, and there was a general feeling of discouragement and depression.  As a result, what is referred to as Heimat films appeared in German movie theaters.  These films dealt with the happier times of the German people.  Also, youth pictures similar to American films such as Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One were popular in Germany, although, they gradually deteriorated as they did here in America.  Finally, a good deal of sex films were produced during this span of time with titles like Sven, I Need It and Inge, I Have a Desire.

1962-1982:  The movement that took place during this time period has been named the New German Cinema and was characterized by good, quality, director-oriented cinema.  The movement consisted of 30 or 40 directors who strove to return to the ideas and the ways films were made during Germany’s Golden Age.  They did away with commercialism in their films and replaced it with social messages.  R.W. Fassbinder, a prominent director leading the movement, died in 1982 of a drug overdose, bringing the movement to a close. 

q       When speaking of German film’s Golden Age, we first watched a clip from R. Wiene’s Cabinet of Dr. Caligati.  The scene that we watched was of a sleepwalker/murderer sneaking into a woman’s mansion to kill her.  Just as he’s about to perform the act he is stricken by her beauty and cannot bring himself to kill her.  He instead kidnaps her.  After the clip it was noted that the set was very obviously artificial, that the sleepwalker’s makeup was exaggerated, that there were very harsh contrasts between light and dark, and that the sleepwalker’s slow, sly movements expressed what he may have been feeling inside.

q       Next, we watched a clip from M, Fritz Lang’s most well known film.  It is about a child serial killer that is being chased by both the police as well as the criminal underworld.  The cops are trying to catch him to prevent any further murders, and the criminals are looking for him so that the police will stop lurking around bothering them, leaving them to commit their crimes unhindered.  In the scene we watch, the criminals have captured the murderer and proceed to try him in a mock trial.  By use of high angle camera shots, the murderer looks like an animal huddling in the corner.  His ‘lawyer’ argues that compulsive murderers should receive less harsh sentences than cold-blooded murderers.

q       Ali, Fear Eats the Soul (1974), by R.W. Fassbinder, is the name of the film from which we watch the next clip.  We see the opening scene in which an old German maid, Emmy, walks into a pub which is playing Arabic music and is filled with Arabs.  She orders a Coke and an Arab named Ali asks Emmy to dance.  She accepts and they dance to the tune of “The Black Gypsy.”  In American films the people at the bar would probably make small talk but here all the people at the bar stare at her; while she’s sitting at her table and later when she’s dancing with Ali.  Emmy and her dead husband used to be Nazis during the war so it is unusual to find that she falls in love with Ali, a minority in Germany.  Fassbinder is bringing to his people’s attention the negative way that Germans treat immigrants. 

q       After 1982:  Many of the films made after 1982 acknowledge Germany’s troubled past yet, at the same time, optimistically look toward the future. 

q       Next we watch a clip from a film that takes place in the 18^th century titled Brother of Sleep by Joseph Vilsmeier.  It is about a boy who plays organ who moves to a town that is so imbred, it seems half of the people living there are retarded.  First a girl falls in love with her and then her brother follows suit.  The brother is so jealous of his sister he sets their house on fire.  Later in the movie, a government inspector comes to the town and hears him playing and asks him to come to the city to compete in an organ contest.  He agrees and we watch the scene when he plays the organ at the church.  He blows everyone away and all seems well.  We find out later, however, that because he can’t get the girl of his dreams he ends up sleep depriving himself to death.  It is noted that the editing in this film is much more fast paced than

anything else we’ve seen coming from Germany (or Europe, for that matter) so far.

q       Finally, we watch a clip from a film entitled Maybe…Maybe Not (1996-1997) by Söhnke Wortmann.  It is a film dealing with homosexuals.  It’s about a wife who thinks her husband is gay.  He has an affair (with another woman) and his wife kicks him out of their house.  Then she discovers that she’s pregnant, takes him back, and then decides that she never wants to see him again.  It is a problematic comedy dealing with subtexts that people wonder about.