Works Cited

Bates, Robin. “Audiences on the Verge of a Fascist Breakdown: Male Anxieties and Late 1930s French Film.” Cinema Journal, Vol. 36, No.3, Spring, 1997. pp. 25-55. Web.

Donahue, Collins Williams. “Pretty Boys and Nasty Girls: The Holocaust Figured in Two German Films of the 1990s.” New England Review, Fall 2000. Web.  

Imhoof, David. “Why We Fought: America’s Wars in Film and History.” The University of Kentucky Press, pp. 175-194. Web.

Kawin, Bruce. “Time and Stasis in La Jetee.” Film Quarterly, Vol. 36, No.1, Autumn, 1982. pp. 15-20. Web.

Kozma-Southall, Jan. “Omen and Image: Presage and Sacrifice in Moravia’s La Ciociara.” American Association of Teachers of Italian, Vol. 36, No.3, Autumn, 1984. pp. 207-219. Web.

Rosenstone, Robert A. “History on Film: Film on History.” Edinburgh Gate, UK: Pearson Education Limited, 2006. Print.

Smith, Bonnie G. “Europe in the Contemporary World 1900 to the Present: A Narrative History with Documents.” Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.

Europa, Europa

• Film Title: Europa, Europa
• Original Year of Production: 1990
• Studio: Central Cinema Company Film
• Director: Agnieszka Holland
• Cast: Marco Hofschneider, Julie Deply, Andre Wilms
• Producers: Artur Brauner, Janusz Morgensterm, Lew Rywin

The film Europa, Europa was based on the autobiography of Solomon Perel. Solomon was a German Jew who hid his heritage and became a member of the Nazi youth. The central argument of this film is one that the Nazi’s would not have taught in schools during their reign. The argument that prejudism is cruel and wrong. The fact that the Nazi’s taught and tried to ethnically cleanse an entire nation of a group of people was morally wrong and without merit. Although much of the film has many parts that find humor in rewriting Perel’s autobiography in order to present a more entertaining version to the audience, the film does provide a strong anti-prejudice argument.

The film tells the story of the Solly and his ducking, dodging, and eventual joining of the Nazi’s during WWII. This young, handsome, and courageous young man fools almost everybody into thinking he was an Aryan. In one scene, Solly is recognized as a hero after accidently leading hid German comrades to a battalion of Soviet soldier. Afterwards, Solly is recognized for his heroism and initiated into the Hitler Youth, a sect of the German Army that was supposed to symbolism the superior qualities of pure-breed Aryans. Not only did Solly fool his fellow German soldiers in one scene, he also fooled a professor into thinking he was of pure Aryan blood through a few obviously scientifically flawed tests. In the picture above, Solly is represented as having an “Aryan” Nazi body, in addition to a Jewish face. This is supposed to represent that although his body may seem like an Aryans to the Germans, his Jewish heritage and knowledge has to be hidden deep inside him-self as shown in the eyes without a face. The important turning points of the film were when he was discovered to be circumcised by a homosexual soldier named Robert, and when his he joined the Nazi Youth. These scenes had the possibility to transcend Solly into a criminal, but they sealed his future as a Jewish boy hiding within the ranks of the German Army. For only Jews were usually circumcised in Germany, and this caused Solly to hide a piece of his body from other men in wartime that you eat, sleep, fighting, and could potentially die with. It is in the scene that Robert lustfully reaches for Solly, from behind, while he is taking a bath. One could argue that the director, Agnieszka Holland, could be making a suggestion that even the “pure Aryans” were in fact in contradiction with their own prejudice beliefs of homosexuals within their own members.

Such a controversial movie was not very well received by audiences in Germany. The well criticized film was not accepted amongst the members of the German Export Film Union as worthy of being nominated for an Oscar. “Director Agnieszka Holland attributed that decision to a general German failure to “come to terms with the past”. (Donahue, 109)  One might consider that this would be a touchy subject that many German artists would have felt was not a part of their true identity and therefore would try to avoid whenever possible. However, there were some scenes that could Germans would find bothersome. The character of Robert playing an aggressive homosexual, while in one moment trying to unwillingly touch a minors genitals and then posturing up once discovering he was a Jewish and deciding to befriend Solly. In addition, the portrayal of the Germans, with the possible exception of Robert, as mostly loyal and onboard with the policies of the Nazi’s could be seen as false and wrong to many anti-Nazi Germans in 1990. For it was during this time that the Russians tore down the Berlin Wall a year later in 1991. Germany had felt the crippling defeat of WWI, II, and resulting Cold War.

Although the film seems to portray the times in an accurate way, there are seems examples that were clearly fabricated by the director. According to an article written by William Collins Donahue, when “Perel turns himself over to the Russians, is about to be executed as a Nazi perpetrator, and is saved at the last moment by his brother David, who recognizes him in the nick of time” never occurred and is therefore false. (Donahue, 111)  This leads to an important question presented by Rosenstone, “Can we really represent the past, factually, or fictionally, as it was, or do we always present only some version of the way it possibly was or may have been? “ (Rosenstone, 135) This is such an issue that historians wrestle with when analyzing movie that base some claims on history.

La Jetee

• Film Title: La Jetee
• Original Year of Production: 1962
• Studio: Unknown
• Director: Chris Marker
• Cast: Jean Negroni, Helene Chatelain, Davos Hanich
• Producers: Anatole Dauman

This black and white French film is one that stands out. The film is a series of still images that are narrated to provide a post-WWIII science fiction story that delves into love, time travel, and murder. In France, a captured soldier is taken prisoner and given drug and forced to travel in time. However, the soldier can only remember a traumatic event that occurred at the airport as a child.  He saw a man collapse and die and specifically remembered a beautiful woman’s face. In a weird yet beautiful series event the soldier is sedated and travels back forth in time to that enables him to establish a sporadic relationship with a beautiful woman. They have different outings at random places and times. In the poster above, you can see the object of his affection, one of their outings, and the experiments the soldier had undegone. After a series of meetings the scientists responsible for sending the soldier throughout time establish a mission to find a way to rebuilding his native lands. Upon completing his mission he was to be executed however he escapes by his comrades from the future. Upon being saved he requests to be brought to that moment in time as a child that was etched into his mind. Upon returning he saw the beautiful woman and ran towards her only to be assassinated by a research scientist. In his last moments, the soldier realizes that the image of the man dying at the airport that haunted him as a child was in fact him.

This thesis of this film can be hard to identify at first glance. The lack of historical background, dialogue, and character development leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Seeing how the film was shot in France during the tense political times of the Cold War and Vietnam, one can make the assumption that the political and military disputes of the time are represented in the films arguments. In the beginning of the film, the soldier as a boy sees a man assassinated only to find out that he was the very man who was to meet his death. France during this time was faced with the defeats and hardships of the first world wars and Vietnam. One could see draw parallels between the soldier and seeing his own death without realizing it and the ideas of nationalism. For example, France saw the ideas of Nazi nationalism during WWII fail and the results were dramatic for the Germans resulting in the splitting of Germany between two different ideologies and in the west and the east. Just as the boy witnessed the death of a man, the French witnessed the death of the Nazi’s. However, the soldier still fought and participated in activities such as war that bread chaos and death, just as France sent troops to Vietnam and parts of the Middle East.

The historical context of the film was in relation to the cold-war. During this time,”Europe was enmeshed in the cultural manifestations of the cold war just as it was drawn into cold war alliances that developed around the superpower rivalry.”(Smith, 414) Many people believed the world was soon to meet again in WWIII.  In the early 1960’s, the Soviets began building the Berlin wall in order to stop their citizens and others from entering or exiting. In addition, in 1962, “the CIA reported the installation of launching sites for Soviet medium-range missiles in Cuba, a counter to nuclear weapons aimed at the USSR that the United States had installed in Turkey.”(Smith, 417) The times were marked with fear and alienation by the Soviets, the Americans, and other countries caught in between. This was the backdrop for the film that expresses a strong anti-war message for the reasons of complete chaos and global amounts of deaths and suffering as the result of nuclear arms.

The film has a unique style that adds to its apocalyptic message. The film is basically just a collection of various still images that in concert with music and narration come together and act similar to other major motion pictures. In an article critiquing La Jetee, Bruce Kawin discusses the different elements of the film that make it so unique. One such element is that of the use of stills. The jumps back and forth in between time, however, “our reality is not composed of stills; even the instant is a mental construct.”(Kawin, 17)  This powerful technique used by the director does not follow the traditional linear models of film. Another technical aspect of the film is the use of stasis images. Many images in film such as that of the stuffed animals in the museum, the statue of a cherub, and airport are examples of stasis imagery. According to Kawin, “all of the images are fixed and are calculated to give the impression of life while insisting on the fact that they are images, art, statues, the product of the interaction between life and the attention of the artist.”(Kawin, 18)  The director also uses strong mood setting narrations and music to illustrate different dramatic feelings. For example, the use to whispering narratives and strong classical music set the mood for the scene when the soldier is traveling into the future. It’s these elements that when analyzed reveal the true beauty and uniqueness of the film La Jetee.