Cinema in Hitler's Germany Final Exam
Choose two of the following questions and write an essay in response to each. In your essay you should draw evidence from the films mentioned below the question to support your argument. Do not be too general. Where possible, refer to specific scenes or situations in the films as examples to illustrate your point.
1. In the years right after the Second World War, Siegfried Kracauer, a German-born Jewish film critic, argued that even the films of the Weimar period (when Germany was a democracy during the years before Hitler came to power) display certain authoritarian tendencies-themes or ideas which pointed towards Hitler and the Nazis. In particular, Kracauer felt that Weimar filmmakers were reluctant to deal with real social problems, that they toyed with the idea of the rebellion but in the end always supported authority, and that the films of the period show a desire for a charismatic leader who will unify the German people and tell them what to do. Is Kracauer right about this? Do the films of the Weimar era on some level (perhaps unconsciously) reject democracy and individual freedom and yearn instead for discipline and authority?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - Wiene
Nosferatu (1922) - Murnau
Metropolis (1926) - Lang
The Blue Angel (1930) - Sternberg
M (1931) - Lang
2. Films were one of the most effective forms of propaganda that existed in Nazi Germany, and Josef Goebbels, the minister of propaganda, lavished a great deal of time and money on them. Based on the Nazi propaganda films that we watched in class, do you feel that these movies had a consistent message? What were these movies trying to tell the German people about themselves, their country, their society, their leader, and their enemies? Which aspects of Nazi philosophy were most effectively conveyed in these films? Can you identify any ways in which these films fail? For example, were some of the Nazi ideas put across in a clumsy or ineffective or overly obvious manner?
HitlerjungeQuex (1933) - Steinhoff
Triumph of the Will (1935) - Riefenstahl
Jud Süss (Jew Süss) (1940) - Harlan
Kolberg (1945) - Harlan
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3. Few issues were more discussed, and more controversial, in the 1920s and 1930s than the proper role of women in the modern world. Compare and contrast the female characters in Weimar and Nazi era films. What sort of qualities do the heroines have in Weimar films? Are the filmmakers celebrating or condemning these women? How are women depicted differently in movies of the Nazi period? Are the Nazi women more active or more passive than the Weimar heroines? Do they look different? The differences between the female characters of these two eras are obvious enough, but do you see any similarities in attitudes towards women? Do the Weimar and Nazi filmmakers actually agree in some ways on the proper role of women?
Nosferatu (1922) - Murnau
Metropolis (1926) - Lang
Pandora's Box (1928) - Pabst
The Blue Angel (1930) - Sternberg
HitlerjungeQuex (1933) - Steinhoff
La Habanera (1937) - Sierck
Jud Süss (Jew Suss) (1940) - Harlan
Kolberg (1945) Harlan
4. The filmmakers of the Weimar period are famous for making frequent use of expressionist techniques-weird angles, distortion, sharp contrasts between light and dark, shadows, symbolism, exaggerated acting, unusual costumes, etc. What sorts of ideas or psychological insights or moods can a director more easily convey through expressionism than a more "realistic" style? In which of the Weimar films do you feel expressionism was used most successfully? On the other hand, can you identify a Weimar film where heavy-handed expressionist methods may have undermined the movie, where the story might have been better told with a simpler, more realistic style? Finally, even though the Nazis rejected Weimar culture as "degenerate" and immoral, do you see any elements of expressionism that are carried over into the Nazi-era films?
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) - Wiene
Nosferatu (1922) - Murnau
Metropolis (1926) - Lang
The Blue Angel (1930) - Sternberg
M (1931) - Lang