Film in the III. ReichIs there a way beyond the opposition uniformity v. resistance?

Dont forget:Screening of In jenen Tagen (dir. Helmut Kutner, 1947) Thursday 3rd week, 7.45pm Lecture Rm B

1. Recapitulation and Introduction

The uses of Die Frau im Mond (1929)Reviews of film suggest tension between technological realism and plotExploring reasons for doing things in world where shared reasons develop more slowly than technology/social institutionsMoon as metaphor for this insecure situationHarbou/Lang drawing on existing reasons of love, authentic action underpinned by the collective, but also by shared sense of everyday real world and the filmic conventions for conveying this shared world

Shared sense of reality Continuing this argument for 1930s:

Not being distracted by apparent ruptures (transition to sound; the Machtergreifung in 1933)Not accepting unquestioningly idea of film as propaganda in Third Reich

2. Film and the constitution of identity in Germany of 1920s and 1930s

Destroying identification in People on Sunday (1929/30): Willy Fritsch

More destroying identification in People on Sunday (1929/30): Greta Garbo

Sex appeal in Girls in Uniform (1931): Hans Albers

Film in Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)Franz felt quite wonderful, when the giggling around him started up. A bunch of people, free people, were having fun, and no-one can boss them around, how wonderfully nice, and Im here smack in the middleGanz wunderbar ergriff es Franz, als das Kichern um in losging. Lauter Menschen, freie Leute, amsierten sich, hat ihnen keiner was zu sagen, wunderbar schn, und ich stehe mitten mang! [dtv edition, p.24.

Title song from Women are my weak spot (1928) quoted in Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)Ja, die Frauen sind meine schwache Seite, sie sind die Stelle, wo ich sterblich bin, k ich die erste, denk ich an die zweite und schau verstohlen schon zur dritten hin.Dtv edition, p. 209

Continuities 1Continuities in the uses of sound and musicAdorno, Theodor W., and Hanns Eisler. Composing for the Films. Edited by Graham McCann. London: Athlone, 1994Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. London and Bloomington, Ind: BFI ; Indiana University Press, 1987Heidegger, Martin. Sein Und Zeit. 17th ed. Tbingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1993, esp. 31 on BefindlichkeitKalinak, Kathryn. Settling the Score: Music and the Classical Hollywood Film, Wisconsin Studies in Film. Madison ; London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992

Continuities 2Continuities before and after 1933Morgan, Ben. "Music in Nazi Film: How Different Is 'Triumph of the Will'." Studies in European Cinema 3, no. 1 (2006): 37-53

Uniform cap and identity in Hitler Youth Quex (1933)

Uniform cap and identity in Liebelei (1932)

Uniform cap and identity in Lachende Erben (1933)

3. Film in the Third Reich[For overview of Nazi film policy see Julian Petleys article in Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter and Deniz Gktrk, eds., The German Cinema Book (London: bfi, 2002)]

Political FrameworkAfter June 1933, non-Aryans were forbidden to work in the film industry. Only films made by members of the Reichsfilmkammer and its subsidiary organisations could be publicly screened. The film legislation of 1934 created a form of pre-censor (the Reichs-filmdramaturg) to whom all film scripts needed to be submitted even during the planning stage. Films would not acquire a certificate from the censor or Filmprfstelle if they were considered to offend National Socialist sensibilities.

GleichschaltungSo wird es nun mehr in noch gesteigerter Form unsere Aufgabe sein, fr die volksmig bedingte deutsche Filmschpfung einzutretenDer Film, 15. April 1933 announcing its GleichschaltungBisher habe allerdings der deutsche Film seine tiefste Aufgabe nicht erfllt, nmlich die Aufgabe einer jeden Kunst: Vorkmpfer nationaler Kultur zu sein, sondern er habe in unwrdiger Weise Schuputzerdienste geleistet und sei allen Erscheinungen hintennachgehinktFilm-Kurier, 27. April 1933, reporting Goebbels visit to Ufa

How Nazi is Nazi Film?The infamous Triumph des Willens (Riefenstahl, 1934/35)

Low angle glorifications?

Triumph des Willens (1934/35)

Der Schimmelreiter (1934)

More Schimmelreiter

Menschen am Sonntag (1929/30)

Goebbels on propaganda March 1937Ich wnsche nicht etwa eine Kunst, die ihren national-sozialistischen Charakter lediglich durch Zurschaustellung national-sozialistischer Embleme und Symbole beweist, sondern eine Kunst, die ihre Haltung durch national-sozialistischen Charakter und durch Aufraffen national-sozialistischer Probleme zum Ausdruck bringt. Diese Probleme werden das Gefhlsleben der Deutschen und anderer Vlker um so wirksamer durchdringen, je unaufflliger sie behandelt werden. (Albrecht, p. 456)

EntertainmentMach dir keine Sorgen/Gehts auch mitunter drber und drunter/Sag wenns dir zu bunt wird/Ich gehHans Albers in Ein Mann auf Abwegen (1939/40)

Some approaches to Nazi CinemaA-Filme: Filme aktionsbetonender Grundhaltung mit nur latenter politischer FunktionE-Filme: Filme ernster Grundhaltung mit nur latenter politischer FunktionH-Filme: Filme heiterer Grundhaltung mit nur latenter politischer FunktionP-Filme: Filme mit manifester politischer Funktion ohne Rcksicht auf ihren sonstigen InhaltGerd Albrecht, Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik

Politics of the UnpoliticalDissolve a false revelation of essence, a false naturalisation?Karsten Witte, How Fascist is The Punch Bowl? New German Critique, No. 74 (1998), pp. 31-36.Still: Die Feuerzangenbowle (1944, with Heinz Rhmann)

Looking for ambiguitiesI seek a more precise awareness of the form, address, and appeal of Nazi films. Rather than reducing them to ideological containers in which the Ministry of Propaganda packaged affirmation and falsehood, I aim to read them as ambiguous and complex entities, as still resonant portrayals of an ages different inclinations and disparate wishes, works that give rise to divergent official and popular responses since the Third Reich.Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion, p. 15

Textual ambiguitiesLinda Schulte-Sasse, Entertaining the Third Reich: Illusions of Wholeness in Nazi Cinema (Durham: Duke UP, 1996), p. 5:We have to be willing to modify the image we have of Nazi culture, to let its internal contradictions as well as its continuities to earlier and later cultures speak.

4. Zu neuen Ufern (1937) as test case

4. Ambiguity show caseDetlev Sierck/Douglas SirkMelodrama [] provides a supple texture in which traditional norms and their disruption coexist.Marc Silberman, German Cinema: Texts in Context (1995), p. 62

Clip 1: Zu neuen Ufern (1937)

Contrasting music

Cracked voice

Framing with obstacles

Leanders face in shadow

Confessing with eyes in light

Imprisonment

Grotesque figure v. grand orchestra

The passion of Gloria Vane

Rising through suffering

Face in the light

Imprisonment (2)

Aural contrast

Smooth transition

Beyond the text?The problem is, however, that Schulte-Sasse fails to adduce much evidence, other than her own textual analyses, for such a suggestionJulian Petley, Film Policy in the Third Reich, Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter and Deniz Gktrk, eds., The German Cinema Book, 180.

Contemporary reactions?The contradictions Sierck constructed so carefully in this film eschew a surface reading. Indeed, its very reliance on formulae, conventions, excess, exaggeration, and clichs invites a discursive reading of its representational system. Whether this functioned for the historical spectator of 1937 is impossible to determineSilberman, 1995: p. 65

The use of cinema in the III. ReichIch bin so sehr gern im Kino; es entrckt mich.Victor Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten: Tagebcher 1933-1941 (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1995), p. 13, entry for 20.3.1933.[Still: Viktor und Viktoria, dir. Schnzel, 1933]

The Use of Zu neuen UfernGoebbels abolished film criticism November 1936

Press coverage nevertheless, and reports of premiere

PremiereVorprogramme: Gesunde Frau - gesundes Volk (dir: Gsta Nordhaus, Ufa 1937)Kulturfilm der uns die Notwendigkeit eines gesunden Frauensports vor Augen fhrtDer Film 4. September 1937

Image: poster for 1932 exhibition in Dresden

International Art Film?Ein Werk von WeltformatNachtausgabeMit sprbar knstlerischem Ehrgeiz gestaltetBerliner Brsen-Zeitung

Reviews: Leanders voiceIn dieser Stimme ist alles: der Jubel, das Glck, des Lebens trunkene Melodie und sein wilder Schmerz. Und diese Stimme gehrt Zarah Leander, der groen Schauspielerin, der neuentdeckten Tragdin des deutschen Films. Neben ihr Willy Birgel kein glatter, eleganter Held, sondern ein getriebener, unglcklicher MenschBerliner Lokal Anzeiger

More on the voiceAus ihrer Stimme spricht die ganze, groe, starke und zugleich so weiche, jedes zarten Gefhls fhige Frau.Berliner Morgenpost Ein Werk von WeltformatNachtausgabe

Ideological voice?Der Opfergang einer groherzigen Frau und das Zgern eines Schwchlings: Durch diese bunte Welt tnt die Stimme Zarah Leander schreitet die tragische Maske einer leidenden, modernen FrauDer Angriff

CriticismsWeihmayrs camera using effect from Die Unbekannte (dir. Frank Wysbar, 1936)Der Film 4. September 1937

More criticismsPsychological transition from song Ich steh im Regen to being auf einem anderen UferDer Film 4. September

FanzineMan sieht neue Filme mit ganz anderen Augen wenn man schon vorher wei, um was es sich handeltFilmwelt special brochure for Zu neuen Ufern

Recycling publicityObwohl oder vielleicht gerade weil sie Henrys inneren Wert erkannt hatFilmwelt brochureObwohl sie oder vielleicht weil sie den inneren Wert Henrys erkannt hatUfa plot summary in German and Italian

Star biographiesEngste Fhlung mit den Darstellern ist fr Filmwelt-Leser das Wichtigste.Birgels WWI experienceHhn aufrichtiges MenschenkindStaals youthful rebellion

Typology of Ufa starsAnd in one respect the state remained an almost total failure: from among the significant number of well-trained actors who were popular with the public, it was never able to produce the homunculus of the new era, the prototype of National Socialist man.Klaus Kreimeier, The Ufa Story (1996), p. 295.

Background assumptions

5. Conclusions

Some uses of Zu neuen Ufern (1937)Presented as a film about womanImportance of status of international German filmThe voice holds different images togetherStar types and biographies. Interest in what feels realisticThe sense of being true to oneselfHolding the contradictions of being true to oneself?

Two aspects in particularLooking at the limits of what feels realThe role that music plays in creating/reinforcing the sense of involvement in what feels real

ReferencesGerd Albrecht, Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik: Eine soziologische Untersuchung ber die Spielfilme des Dritten Reiches (Stutgart: Ferdinand Elke, 1969).Eric Rentschler, The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and its Afterlife (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1996).