Europa, Europa is a mainstream historical drama from the 1990s. It tells the “true” story of Salomon Perel, a young Jewish man trying to survive during World War II who eventually becomes a Nazi solider. The movie is meant to appeal to a mass audience, and it is interesting to note that while the film was critically acclaimed in the United States, it was widely panned in Germany, where it was shot. William Collin Donahue’s article”Pretty Boys and Nasty Girls” details possible reasons for this dislike, and much of it seems to extend form the inability of the audience to sympathize with the protagonist. Solly becomes a Nazi to hide the fact that he is Jewish, and to accomplish this he must act and think like a Nazi solider. What the film then asks its audience to do is to sympathize with a Nazi, which a German audience would be extremely uncomfortable with.
Solomon Perel (left) and Marco Hofschneider as Solly (right) in Europa, Europa. (Source: Amazon.com)
The key scenes in the movie come first when Solly and his family's lives are disrupted by the events of Kristalnocht, during which his sister is killed. Solly hides naked in a barrel, and when he returns home h is wearing a Nazi uniform jacket to cover himself. This foreshadows Solly’s later induction into the ranks of the army and the Hitler Youth. Another key scene in the film is Solly’s separation form his brother while trying to flee Poland, which is in the process of being invaded. He is now alone in the world, and he then lives in a Russian orphanage for several years, where he becomes fluent in Russian. Later, after he passes himself off as a German orphan and has been recruited by the invading Germans as a translator, Solly is taken to a farmhouse where a Jewish family has been killed. Distressed and angry, he uses the gun mounted on the motorcycle he is riding in to shoot the house and set it on fire. Though his new German comrades mistake his rage and actions as anti-Jewish fervor, the reality is that Solly is angry and at war with himself. In order to survive, he must become the very thing that wants to destroy him. This theme is echoed in the scene showing his induction to the Hitler Youth, where he must take an oath to die in service to the Third Reich.
Cover for Solomon Perel's book Europa, Europa, on which the film is based. (Source: Amazon.com)
Personally, I found this film interesting, though, as Bates points out in his article, it did contain frequent nudity. The purpose of Solly’s frequent nude scenes was to portray the innocence and vulnerability of the character, however their frequency diminishes their impact. The appearance of the author of the memoir on which the film is based to assert the authenticity of the story was odd, especially in light of the fact that some of the events and situations in the film were exaggerated and in some cases completely fictional. It seems to me as a viewer as if the director was trying to justify the film, which was unnecessary. This film reflects the time in which it was made through its subject matter, which while still sensitive would not have been considered appropriate material for a film audience in earlier decades. The most telling aspect of this film, however, is its reception both in Germany and the United States.
La Ciociara tells the story of a mother and her daughter as they struggle to survive in Italy during World War II. Italy was ravaged at the time the film takes place, from both the war between the Allies and the Axis powers but also because of its own internal war. Mussolini’s fascist regime was brutal on both outsiders and Italians alike. This film also informs us about the time in which it was made. It was released in the early 1960s, when the woman's rights movement was beginning to gain momentum. This film presents us with the image of a strong woman who does what she has to protect her daughter, which falls in line somewhat with the emerging feminist movement.
Benito Mussolini. (Source: Google Images)
Cesira leaves Rome to escape the ravages of the war and seeks shelter with family in the mountains. As they travel to seek refuge, the women encounter other desperate people, and experience cruelty at their hands. One of the most important scenes of the film depicts the rape of the daughter, Rosetta. She and her mother have taken refuge in an abandoned church, when they are found by a group of men who beat Cesira and rape Rosetta. This scene is key because it demonstrates not only the vulnerability and ultimate weakness of the characters in the face of such brutality, but it also marks a change in the relationship between mother and daughter. This event has changed things for both of them and neither they nor the way they see each other will ever be the same. I believe that it is also a metaphor for the experiences of civilians during the war as a whole, representing the violent loss of innocence and security that accompanies war. There is also a scene where Cesira and her daughter are walking and encounter a man on a bicycle. They speak to the man, but he is then killed. This scene demonstrates the impersonality and cruelty of war, as well as its indiscriminate nature.
La Jetee is what Rosenstone would refer to as an innovative drama. It is filmed entirely in black and white and is a “photo roman,” a photographic novel consisting of only a series of still images. These images are accompanied by transitions as well as soundtrack, and a narrator tells the story of what the images mean. While the film is short, it is dense with meaning. The title itself, La Jetee, refers both to the pier on which the beginning and end scenes take place, but also to the idea that the protagonist is a projectile (Kawin, 16.) This makes sense when one thinks of the protagonist as a man thrown through time by both his captors and the power of his own mind. The drama of the film centers on a man in a post-apocalytic Paris who is held captive by an unidentified enemy and subjected to a series of experiments with the ultimate goal of sending him to the future to obtain a source of energy for his own devastated time. To accomplish this, he is sent back in time by means of his own strong memories of the past.
The first eight minutes of the film. (Source: YouTube)
There are several key scenes to this film. The first comes at the beginning, when we see the protagonist as a young man standing on the titular pier. It is here that he sees a woman, who makes an indelible impression on his memory. On this pier he also sees a man die, as he runs toward the woman, but it is her face that creates the strongest impression on him. This particular scene serves to foreshadow the final moments of the film. Later, when the boy has become a man and is sent into the past through his memories he meets the woman he had seen as a child and begins a relationship with her. Another key scene from the film is when the two go to a museum that is full of taxidermy animals. These animals are stuck in a moment of time and can never change. It is also a metaphor for the extinction of humanity, where all that is left of is the bodies and the traces of what we once were. The final scene of the film sees the protagonist returning to the pier he visited in his youth to find the woman, and while he is running toward her he is killed by one of his captors. The man realizes that he is the man he saw die in his childhood, and the scene is a reminder of the cyclical nature of time. The narrator intones that one cannot escape time, and the protagonist cannot, though it is only in his final moments that he realizes this. According to Kawin, film is just as inescapable as time (Kawin, 16.) I took this to mean that we are unable to escape the films we have seen, regardless if we want to or not. Film and images leave indelible impressions on the viewer, just as the memories of the protagonist mark him.
One of the experimenters (Source: Foto Azzaro blog.)
This film is my favorite of those that we have covered in this course. It is a reflection of the time in which it was made in that it reflects the anxieties of the 1960s. The film was shot during the Cold War, when the fear of nuclear annihilation was a major source of concern, and the post-apocalyptic setting of the film demonstrates this, among other themes. Another part of the film that gives us historical context is use sound, particularly the inclusion of voices whispering in German in the background of scenes that depict the protagonist in the prison camp. I believe this is an allusion to the Vichy Regime which ruled France during the Nazi occupation, which the filmmaker lived through and which was still present in the French public consciousness.
The museum scene. (Source: YouTube)
In his article "Time and Stasis in La Jetee," Bruce Kawin examines the film. In it he, mentions that the title of the film can mean, among other things, breakwater. This is an allusion to the protagonist, who is the constant against which the waves of time break. Memory also plays an important role in both the film and Kawin's anlysis. The Man is chosen because of the clarity and strength of his memories, and through these memories, presented to the audience as images, he is able to travel back in tiem (Kawin 16-7.)
While researching this film, I came across this article, which examines the film from a Platonic perspective. I found it an interesting read that presents a unique perspective on this film. I also found out that this film served as the inspiration for the 1995 Hollywood movie 12 Monkeys, directed by Terry Gilliam.
The trailer for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys. (Source: YouTube)
La Regle de Jeu (English: The Rules of the Game,) is a film that satirizes the lives of the upper class in the time immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II. The film follows many different individuals as they go about their lives, and the setting changes from Paris to the country estate of the very wealthy Marquis and his wife Christine. Other characters include the Marquis’s mistress Geneviève, his wife’s suitor Andre, her childhood friend Octave, and the gamekeeper of the estate, Schumacher and his wife Lisette.
Jean Renoir (Octave) and Gaston Modot (Schumacher) on set. (Source: The Blue Lantern blog.)
Class differences play a major role in this film, and this fits in with the idea of the titular “game.” Each person in the film has their place, based both on their social status and gender. Even among the servants there is a hierarchy, with the butler and Lisette, Christine’s chamber maid, at the top. At the bottom is Marceau, the poacher who is allowed to work on staff at the estate after he amuses its owner, the Marquis. Most of the drama in the film comes about as a result of the rather complicated love lives of the various characters. The game in the films title refers to the way one should behave in life, which is determined by ones social standing and class. Characters such as Christine and Andre break these rules by attempting to run away together instead of carrying on a quiet affair, which would have been the socially acceptable thing to do. They pay the price for this breech of protocol, and Andre is accidentally killed, forcing Christine to stay and continue playing the game.
Danse Macabre. (Source: YouTube.)
The plot of the movie is rather dense, with many different intersecting story lines, and it is shot accordingly. Scenes like the performance at the estate have many different characters doing many different things all in the same shot, which gives the film an energy as well as a sense of realism, as if the events are taking place in real time. The pace of the film alternates between being rather slow to moments of frenetic activity, which is at times somewhat disconcerting. This style of film, though well known to audiences today, was very unique and innovative at the time it was released.
Renoir's introduction to the film. (Source: YouTube)
I found this film to be very enjoyable and it is one of my personal favorites among the films we have seen in class so far. However, this was not an opinion shared by the French viewing public at the time of its premier. This film famously (or infamously) caused riots, and its director, Jean Renoir, recounted seeing a man attempt to burn down the theatre during one showing. In his article “Audiences on the Verge of a Fascist Breakdown: Male Anxieties and Late 1930s French Film,” Robin Bates posits that this extreme reaction was a result of the portrayal of men in the film and its relationship to the rapid social and political changes in France in the years preceding World War II. The men featured in the film all display various traits that were considered by French audiences as feminine, such as cowardice and the inability to handle pressure (Bates 40.) This depiction of male weakness coming at a time of such high stress and social upheaval created an atmosphere that was not favorable to the film. Indeed, Bates admits that his film, with its portrayal of men who were not courageous and who exhibited weakness was "doomed from the beginning." (Bates, 40.)
Original movie poster. (Source: Movie Tally Blog.)
The chain of events that lead to the outbreak of World War I have their roots in the complicated alliances and rivalries that existed between the various European political powers in the early 20th century. The event most crucial to the outbreak of was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914 at the hands of a Serbian nationalist (Smith 128-31.) As a result of various political treaties and alliances, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire found themselves facing the prospect of war not only with Serbia, but Russia, France, and Britain as well.
Map of World War I participants. (Source: emersonkent.com)
All Quiet on the Western Front tells the story of a group of young German soldiers during World War I. The film opens with a parade, given in honor of soldiers leaving to fight in the war. The first key scene of the film takes place in a classroom of the village schoolhouse, where an enthusiastic teacher tells his students about another group of students who walked out on their schoolmaster to enlist in the army. He then gives a passionate speech about patriotism and heroism meant to inflame his students to a similar action. The students, taking their teachers words to heart, do exactly that. They each have their own fantasies of being heroes, and believe that they will become generals one day. This naivety lasts until the young men enter basic training, where they begin to get an idea of the reality of being in the army. They are extremely resentful of their drill sergeant, Himmelstoss, who was their postman in their home village. Himmelstoss’s treatment of the men and their subsequent resentment of him are symptoms of an upset in the social order: back home, the men are of a higher social standing than Himmelstoss, while in the army they are his inferiors. This causes Himmelstoss to take an almost sadistic pleasure in mistreating his charges, and causes even more resentment among them.
Trench warfare scene. (Source: YouTube.)
At the core of this film is an antiwar message. This becomes apparent when the men are sent to the front the, reality of war truly sets in. They realize that they have been tricked into believing that war is an honorable and heroic endeavor, when it is in fact neither. The film is very effective at communicating the horrors of war. Scenes of trench warfare are graphic and violent, as are those of men dying in field hospitals. But just as effective are the scenes which don’t include fighting but instead show the harsh and psychologically damaging conditions that soldiers were forced to endure.
