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| Der Untergang Film Poster |
The post reunification period falls in to 3 periods.
- Pre 1993 described by Hake as “ cinema of consensus” (Berghahn, 2005, 244)
- The post 1993 saw Hollywood inspire German directors to respond Germany's Nazi past for the second time. In this case the motor for this inspiration was the release of Steven Spielberg’s Schnidler’s List (Hake, 2008, 215).This story of German redemption in the Holocaust enabled German film makers to plot a new course in war film production and hastened the move to the Normalising of German history. This has led to Hake identifying three “tendencies” in German war film (Hake, 2008, 212) in this period. The first "tendency" is to show the “survival of the past in the present”. The second is to focus on the influence of the Holocaust on German/Jewish relations on in to the 21st Century. Thirdly and finally Hake identifies the role of ordinary Germans in choosing between resistance of National Socialism and accommodation with it. (Hake, 2008, 212).
- The 21st Century sees the final move for the war to have slipped from memory and to be "Normalised". To a UK audience the German desire for films about the war seems counter intuitive however Hake has identified a desire amongst German film makers to create a past, which is the “privileged site for the imaginary reconstruction of the German identity” (Hake, 2008, 213)
Europa, Europa (1990)
Hitlerjugend Salomon
Germany
Dir: Agnieszka Holland
Germany
Dir: Agnieszka Holland
His identity has to be hidden and he has to pretend to be the thing he hates until he and his Hitler Youth colleagues are pitched in to battle in the defence of the Reich.
The film is available from amazon.co.uk here
Oscar© winning and according to Empire Magazine one of the top 100 war films in the world. It tells the story of the last days of Hitler and fall of Berlin through the eyes of his personal secretary Traudl Junge. While the lead actor Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Hitler has become almost the definitive portrayal of the tyrant, the film fits in to the discourse of German victim hood and the falsifying of history. Although the film clearly shows Hitler as a monster, the histories of those around him are amended to create heroes from murderers and humanists from brutal killers.
Stalingrad (1992)
Germany
Dir: Joseph Vilsmaier
Continuing the history of post war films about the catastrophic defeat at Stalingrad in 1943 that stretches back to Dogs, do you want to live for ever. Three soldiers Reiser, Rohleder and Müller are trapped in the encirclement of Stalingrad, known in German but the much more picturesque “Kessel” or Kettle. They are poorly armed and equipped, encircled starved and forgotten. They are sent of hopeless missions that prove ever more strongly that their leaders have lost control and do not understand that the war is lost and catastrophe awaits.
The film is available from amazon.de here
Aimée und Jaguar (1998)
Germany
Dir: Max Färberböck
A film with a love affair between two women. One woman Lilly the convinced Nazi, wife of a front soldier and mother of 4 children. The other a strangely self confident Jewish resistance fighter Felice.
Set in 1943 Lilly takes Felice in under her own roof and for a while they are able to keep the horrors of the war and the Nazi’s at bay. That is until one day in August 1944 the Gestapo arrive at the flat.
Germany
Dir: Max Färberböck
A film with a love affair between two women. One woman Lilly the convinced Nazi, wife of a front soldier and mother of 4 children. The other a strangely self confident Jewish resistance fighter Felice.
Set in 1943 Lilly takes Felice in under her own roof and for a while they are able to keep the horrors of the war and the Nazi’s at bay. That is until one day in August 1944 the Gestapo arrive at the flat.
The film is available from amazon.co.uk here
Downfall (2004)
Germany
Der Untergang
Dir: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Oscar© winning and according to Empire Magazine one of the top 100 war films in the world. It tells the story of the last days of Hitler and fall of Berlin through the eyes of his personal secretary Traudl Junge. While the lead actor Bruno Ganz's portrayal of Hitler has become almost the definitive portrayal of the tyrant, the film fits in to the discourse of German victim hood and the falsifying of history. Although the film clearly shows Hitler as a monster, the histories of those around him are amended to create heroes from murderers and humanists from brutal killers.
The film is available from amazon.co.uk here
Since the 1960’s TV have picked up the mantel of the German War film. This TV film depicts the attempt by the military to topple Hitler in an ultimately failed coup. It concentrates on the key figure Wehrmacht officer Von Stauffenberg who tried to kill Hitler with a bomb. The film concentrates on his Christian motivation to rid Germany of its evil leader and on Stauffenberg’s death with the words “long live our holy Germany” on his lips.
Stauffenberg (2004)
Germany
Dir:Jo Baier
The film is available from amazon.de here
Dresden (2006)
Germany
Dir: Roland Suso Richter
This film, once again puts the woman's story at the centre of a narrative about the Second World War and the notorious attack on Dresden by the RAF in February 1945.
At its centre it has a love triangle between Anna, a hospital nurse, who is caring for a downed POW pilot in a Dresden hospital and her German Officer Finance. As Dresden is bombed and the firestorm takes hold the director brings together the motifs of reconciliation, victimhood and responsibility in one of the most expensive films ever made in Germany.
At its centre it has a love triangle between Anna, a hospital nurse, who is caring for a downed POW pilot in a Dresden hospital and her German Officer Finance. As Dresden is bombed and the firestorm takes hold the director brings together the motifs of reconciliation, victimhood and responsibility in one of the most expensive films ever made in Germany.
The film is available from amazon.de here
Anonymous- A Woman in Berlin (2008)
Anonyma - Eine Frau in BerlinGermany
Dir: Max Färberböck
Dir: Max Färberböck
Max Färberböck returns to the story of the woman in war, this time using the famous diary Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin, which describes a married woman's struggle to survive in Berlin in the last days before capitulation and in the terrible days that followed. It describes rape, sexual assault, suicide and the need to survive. The lead character Anonyma faces and sees the catastrophe around her and is forced to take various Soviet lovers for her own protection and to ensure that she will survive to see her husband return from the war.
The film is graphic shocking and extremely depressing. It links with Downfall and Dresden to depict the suffering of Germany's women at the end of the war and finally move the discourse from the soldier's to the citizen's story.
The film is available from amazon.de here
