Audi Festival of German Films 2009
EAST GERMAN FILMS RETROSPECTIVE AT THIS YEAR'S FGF 09
Among the many highlights of this year's 8th annual Festival of German Films 09, which includes the superb documentary that celebrates 100 years of German Cinema (Auge zu Auge/Eye to Eye) and the explosive political tale of The Baader Meinhof Komplex, is a specially curated screening of rarely seen films from East Germany dating from the 1960s through to just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
After World War 2, and the partition of Germany into West and East reflecting the political agenda at the time, the two countries established a series of films that brought to the fore the social and political forces at play. West Germany produced a number of films that attempted to expose the Nazi era and seek ways of ensuring that such a situation would never occur again. Films like Wolfgang Staudte's Die Morder Sind Unter Uns '46 (The Murderers Are Among Us) and Bernhard Wicki's Die Brücke '59 (The Bridge), portrayed the horrifying history of the Nazi era, the legacy it had, and the difficult healing process implied through the respective film narratives. To help counteract this terrible history and to assist in the healing process, a series of films were produced, labelled as Heimat films (or homeland in rough translation) during this period to evoke the positive aspects of German life, as well as the real nature of German belongingness and culture.
East Germany on the other hand produced largely musical, romantic or comedic films to assuage a concerned population, until a number of filmmakers produced films that explored the new political/communist/Stasi agenda, or attempted to criticize it in a veiled manner. During the 60s to the 80s a number of films were banned, or were censored, by the regimes, to ensure that only the endorsed political and social agenda was brought to the public. DEFA studios (which were fortunate enough to utilize the UFA studios that were located in East Berlin after the separation of Germany) produced around 900 films after World War 2 reflecting the initial "light-entertainment" agenda, and then the political/social agendas that permeated life in the East until the fall of the Wall.
The propaganda agenda in filmmaking probably reached its apotheosis in films like Joachim Hasler's teenage musical set at the Balkan coast Heisse Sommer '68 (Hot Summer), with a large group of young people celebrating the joys of work and life under Communist rule. Yet elements of criticism of this new social order, subtly disguised by filmmakers, could be found as early as 1957 in Gerhard Klein's Berlin – Ecke Schönhauser (Berlin Corner Schönhauser), as a group of young people hang around Eastern Berlin finding little to celebrate in their life.
The East German films featuring at this year's FGF 09 are representative of the best, and most notable, films of the era and deserve to be seen by a wide audience. The films are:
Karbit & Sauerampfer '63 (Carbide & Sorel)
Frank Beyer's film is a fascinating parable about an ordinary worker who takes a journey to find carbide in order to re-establish a factory destroyed by the war. This journey takes on a number of forms and events that reflect the political instability of the era, subtly critical of the impact that social forces have had on the population.
Spur der Steine '66 (Traces of Stone)
Another Frank Beyer, and certainly his best and most commented upon film, is a metaphoric tale set on building site, where the comfortable order established by the workers is upset by the arrival of a Party Secretary. Symbolism abounds (causing the film to be banned for a period of time) as a dispute and personal rivalries get in the way of construction. The film's resolution can be seen as very critical of the communist era, hence the film's (and the director's) reputation as being subversive by the ruling regime. In many respects one of the most internationally regarded films made during this period.
Die Legende der Paul and Paula '73 (The Legend of Paul and Paula)
Heiner Carow's film, a romantic drama, was made at a time when the traditional views of relationships and marriage were starting to be challenged in the East. The film's use of melodrama, tragedy and soaring romance challenged the conservative views promoted by the Communist hierarchy (especially as it was seen as decadent Western behaviour), so it was no surprise the film was almost banned at one stage. Yet cooler heads prevailed and the film eventually was released. Now we can see it as a ground-breaking film which serves the dual purpose of entertaining the audience, as well as delivering subtle messages about the social order of the day.
Jakob der Lügner '74 (Jacob the Liar)
Frank Beyer's film about a Jewish prisoner in the Warsaw ghetto who tries to save himself from being accused of being a Nazi collaborator, as well as engendering hope in his fellow prisoners, by spinning tales about the Russians ready to invade and liberate Germany, was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar in 1976. East German cinema found it more difficult to come to grips with the treatment of Jew during World War 2, and it took a more radical filmmaker like Beyer to portray that period as a revelation to a new generation of audiences. The film is quite straightforward in its account and does not shirk from the brutality of the era, yet always maintaining a positivist view of the Russian involvement in the war against Nazism. The irony of one sort of fascism being supplanted by another is subtly suggested in the deeper text of the narrative. The Franco-Hollywood remake directed by Peter Kassovitz in 1999, and starring Robin Williams, sentimentalized and bowdlerized the original story and became a manipulative piece of hokey filmmaking, which unfortunately has achieved more currency than the far superior East German original.
Solo Sunny '78
Konrad Wolf's tale of a singer whose journey of discovery involves her performing career, her romances, and ultimately some tragic situations, was quite a revelation for East German audiences who kept on being fed the notion that everyone is successful and very content in this social and political regime where control was the order of the day. The film does opt for an ending that would please audiences (read: the regime) but there is no denying the social commentary underlying the narrative of this film and the attitude to unmarried women trying to forge a career at the time. Wolf died too young (at 57), with unfulfilled films as his legacy, as well as a film academy named after him.
Coming Out '89
Heiner Carow's film about a couple of teachers, one male, one female, who have a relationship which ultimately is challenged when the male teacher discovers he is gay, was in many ways both a revealing film for the East German audience, where issues of sexuality were not usually seen as appropriate subjects for (politically) popular films, yet curiously old-fashioned already at that time from a Western standpoint. The melodramatic tone of the story occasionally sits uncomfortably with the humanistic exploration embedded in the narrative, yet it spoke to an audience that was well on its way to overthrowing the established hierarchy, and not long after the film was released, the Wall fell (literally and symbolically). In the context of the cinema of self-discovery and sexual orientation it is still seen as an important adjunct to the genre.
As a final comment, the whole issue of the fall of the Wall and the separate film industries and political situations that had been in play after World War 2, were satirized or explored in detail, in such films as the amusing (yet extremely political) Goodbye Lenin '03, Wolfgang Becker's popular film about a son hiding the fall of the Wall from his staunchly Communist mother, and the superbly constructed revelation of the Stasi era in East Germany, Das Leben der Anderen '06 (The Lives of Others), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's evocation of a period whose time had well and truly expired, especially due to the tragedy of the lives impacted by that era.
In summary, apart from viewing the fine, representative collection of contemporary German films of this year's festival, try to catch as many of the East German films as possible; they are a rare treat.
Peter Krausz
12 Means I Love You (12 Heisst ich Liebe Dich)
90 minutes, German with English subtitles, showing as part of the German Film Festival 2009 [S/W] Scarlett Kleint [D] Connie Walter [A] Claudia Michelsen, David Striesow, Michael Krabbe, Winnie Bowe [DOP] Peter Nix
"12 Means I Love You" has come as part of a wave of post-Berlin Wall German examinations of what it means to be a good citizen. It follows in the tracks of "Goodbye Lenin" and "The Lives of Others," and its topic is that of a relationship between interrogatee Bettina Kramer (Michelsen) and her interrogator Jan (Striesow).
This 2007 film examines the effect of a totalitarian state on the individuals who both inflict and are inflicted upon by the regime, and is based upon a true story.
"12 Means I Love You" is a quiet piece, which, unlike "The Lives of Others," has no recording equipment other than an old typewriter, little music, and the bulk of the action occurs within the interrogation room of the Stasi, where, in flashback, Bettina is interrogated over a number of weeks by Jan, and in the process they begin an unusual relationship. In their first interview, Jan tells Bettina he likes his job, but he also shows he is not an ogre; he allows her a cigarette and to sleep a little in a comfortable chair while he types up his report.
Flash forward to 1996, Bettina is a tour guide employed in the place where she was once held prisoner. Her boyfriend tells her she's always moody after her workday there, and he has in fact moved from Berlin to the former East German town where the story is set to be with her. Bettina tracks down Jan who, at first, is reluctant to meet her. Bettina's boss is keen for her to get a recorded interview with Jan for the official records of the ex-prison, but Bettina puts her off, saying it will take a few meetings to get Jan's confidence.
When Bettina and Jan first meet during the Cold War, they are both married to others. Jan is an unquestioningly loyal person to both his wife and the East German state. Bettina has an open marriage, and ends up admitting to smuggling secrets to the West. As their daily meetings continue, they each become attracted to the other, eventually falling deeply in love.
The pic has a movie of the week feel to it; the cinematography is impressive, but it is mostly a series of conversations; it was originally made for television. While the production design is suitably drab for the Cold War era, and more chaotically affluent afterwards; there is a sense of stark reality to times both before and after the Wall falls. Performances are fine throughout. I am sure some viewers will find Jan's decision towards the end of the film less than appealing, but it works within the story, which is, more than anything else, a Stockholm Syndrome tale, one of two people brought together as adversaries, and suffering before finding out they have more in common with each other than with each one's own original world.
Emma Flanagan