NOVEMBER 14 - NOVEMBER 21
FROM THE WAR TO THE WALL:
GERMAN CINEMA 1945 -1960
- Die Morder sind unter uns ( Wolfgang Stradte 1946)
After Germany was divided in 1949, the neutered film industries of East & West developed along separate lines. Unlike the other Axis nations, Germany did not enjoy a post-war film renaissance. Japan had Kurosawa and Ozu; Italy had De Sica, Rossellini & neorealism. Germany had Willi Forst, Helmut Käutner, & the Heimat movies nostalgic, pastoral romances celebrating the countryside & traditional values that Hitler himself might have found wholesome. Meanwhile, initially, the dominant West German genre was the so-called "rubble films" works shot in ruined cities & marked by the self-pity of a defeated people.
This small season is devoted to the neglected masterpieces made during this transition period between the state-controlled fabrications of the Third Reich & the New German film renaissance of the 1960s. Made by filmmakers who struggled against the odds to be heard, this season includes Germany's first post-war production, The Murderers are Among Us (1946), whose crew was dominated by veterans of the Nazi industry & whose art director, Otto Hunte, had worked on nearly every great Fritz Lang film of the 1920s; & Peter Lorre's The Lost One (1951), a subtle & spectral film met with total indifference. Also screening are Bernhard Wicki's ferocious & moving Oscar-winning early feature, The Bridge (1959), as well as the curios, Fanfares of Love (1951) & Roses Bloom on the Grave in the Meadow, the darkest & nastiest of the Heimat films.
NOVEMBER 14 - 7.00pm
THE LOST ONE
Peter Lorre (1951) 98 mins
In his only film as director, Lorre adapted his own novel about a doctor whose feelings of guilt only intensify as he tries to adapt to postwar Germany. Heavily influenced by expressionism, the characters are always captured in half-light, & one can physically sense the doctor's growing, murderous rage against his assistant & his lover. An impressive first film, it was nevertheless a failure with a German public unwilling to confront questions of individual & collective guilt. Imported 35mm print.
Preceded by...
Brutality in Stone Alexander Kluge & Peter Schamoni (1960) 12 mins. Kluge's early meditation on Germany's Nazi past. The mobile camera ranges over the ruins of monumental Nazi architecture accompanied by a disjunctive sound.
NOVEMBER 14 - 9.00pm
THE BRIDGE
Bernhard Wicki (1959) 103 mins
During the dying days of WWII seven school pupils are called up to defend a bridge from the advancing US troops. Accurately depicting the home front, Wicki takes a homogeneous group in a single location to illustrate the absurdity & meaninglessness of war. Filmed in a direct, documentary style reminiscent of Sam Fuller, this intellectually sincere film packs an emotional wallop, deservedly earning the film an Oscar nomination & a reputation as one of the best post-war German films. Imported 35mm print.
Preceded by...
Machorka-Muff Jean-Marie Straub/Danièle Huillet (1963) 18 mins. Straub & Huillet take up Heinrich Böll's theme of the imposition of militarism on West Germany against the wishes of the majority. A subtle critique achieved through the accumulation of documentary detail shaped by precise & spare use of camera placement & sound to connote the moral vacuity of the characters.
NOVEMBER 21 - 6.30pm
THE MURDERERS ARE AMONG US
Wolfgang Staudte (1946) 91 mins
In the ruins of post-war Germany a doctor is tormented by guilt over Nazi atrocities. Filmed in East Germany as the Western bloc countries were unwilling to authorise such a daring film, Staudte successfully blends neorealism with expressionism. This powerful movie was Germany's first postwar film, & bravely attempts to confront & debate the crimes committed under National Socialism. Imported 35mm print.
NOVEMBER 21 - 8.10pm
FANFARES OF LOVE
Kurt Hoffmann (1951) 91 mins
Two jobless musicians dress up in order to join a lady's band, complicating their love lives. Billy Wilder re-made Fanfare of Love as Some Like It Hot, but the German original was a remake of a French film, with director Hoffmann capturing the seamier side of German show biz. The film chronicles the postwar revival in swing & pop music, & stars Dieter Borsche, one of Germany's best-known romantic leads who here shows a noteworthy talent for comedy. Imported 35mm print.
NOVEMBER 21 - 9.50pm
ROSES BLOOM ON THE GRAVE IN THE MEADOW
Hans H. König (1952) 90 mins M
A genuine discovery, a kind of feminist version of Bergman's The Virgin Spring, in which the tragedy is triggered by the obsession of an older farmer with his young fiancée. Cross-fertilising the Heimat film with noir, König introduces new & unexpected elements to the Heimat genre. Here the landscapes are expressionistically unfriendly & shadowy, creating the dark, deeply ominous atmosphere of an irrational nightmare. Imported 35mm print.