Films often are products of their time, and German cinema after
the fall of Nazism is a prime example.
Early “rubble” films like 1946’s “The
Murderers Are Among Us” unflinchingly deal with
Germany’s psychological guilt over the Holocaust. Sumptuous
productions like 1955’s “Sissi” were produced
after Germany’s economic boom.
UCLA Film and Television Archive hopes to illustrate this
history in its series, “After the War, Before the Wall:
German Cinema, 1945-1960,” starting April 19 in the James
Bridges Theater.
The stories detail the greater part of German reconstruction
after World War II. Margit Kleinman, programming coordinator at the
Goethe Institut, Los Angeles recognized that pushing the film
series to audiences and venues alike would be a harder task due to
the relative rarity of German cinema from the post-World War II
period seen within American mainstream.
“Very few people know about the titles; very few people
know about the period,” said Kleinman. “These films
weren’t aggressively exported, and these topics at the time
had very German appeal. They did not have international appeal
because these films were produced to shelter the war-battered souls
and minds of Germany. The topics were very German and tailored to
the people of that post-war generation.”
The majority of films shown during World War II under
Hitler’s Third Reich were propaganda and escapist. In
contrast, a number of German filmmakers after the war used a more
gritty film style in order to underscore the changes undergone
after 1945 with the fall of Adolf Hitler.
Andrea Alsberg, co-head of programming at the archive described
the filmmaking style as “real” realism, something
reminiscent of Italian realist films made at the same time, taking
a humble look at a slice of life.
“Then comes a film called “˜In Those Days,’
which was really amazing in terms of putting the camera on the
street and really showing the utter destruction of not only Berlin
but the whole country and on reflecting on what just
happened,” said Alsberg.
The reconstruction of the late 1940s led to an economic boom in
the 1950s, ushering in a more spectacular filmmaking style. For one
thing, more people could afford to see films.
“Movie-going was a big cultural event (in the
1950s),” said Kleinman. “It was a luxury, but people
went to the movies, and these movies actually played a role in the
restoration of Germany. In a way, they accompanied and then they
participated in the “˜economic miracle.'”
In trying to construct a new identity, the German cinema later
revisited the genre of heimatfilms, which Alsberg terms as
“returning to the homeland” films. In trying to return
to a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, many German films
attempted to restore a sense of nationalism. “Sissi,”
is known as the quintessential “heimatfilm” or
“feel good” German movie. Its plot of a Bavarian
princess falling in love with the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph is
an idyllic fairy tale. These films helped supply a connection to
Germany’s past glory while forgetting the unpleasantness of
daily war-torn life.
“I think (the filmmakers) were trying to return to
normalcy in some fashion,” said Alsberg. “They need to
examine society and perform some sort of healing
capacity.”
Though a useful guide to help connect audiences with how Germans
might have dealt with the devastating post-World War II effects,
many past film critics have attacked German cinema in this era as
aesthetically unpleasing or morally suspect.
“These are not the most polished, incredible forms of
studio filmmaking, but that’s because there was no money to
make films. In the early films, particularly in ’46,
’47, ’48, it was all shot with natural light because
they didn’t have any money to light the films.”
“In terms of the morality, I find the films made during
the Nazi regime much more offensive than these films,”
Alsberg added. “But whether you agree or not, I think these
are the kinds of films that people argue about. I think these films
will reap discussion.”
For more information, go to www.cinema.ucla.edu or call (310)
206-FILM.