In Germany, the advent of sound cinema was initially dismissed as American sensation seeking. The domestic success of Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) then represents a turnabout of public sentiment. The film encapsulates the paradox of Weimar cinema as it relates to its American counterpart. While in opposition to the American industry, German cinema consistently looked to Hollywood as a point of reference and the film is a result of this. As Professor Rath is seduced in the film by the cabaret singer, Lola Lola, German audiences became seduced by the film and by the technology of sound cinema. The film is a showcase of its own technological achievement and arises from the paradoxical engagement of German with American cinema, an …show more content…
engagement which is defined by conflicting impulses of attraction and repulsion. These we also feel towards the film and towards the character of Lola Lola. The film is at once a reflection and evidence unto itself of the paradigm shift which occurred in German cinema from silent to sound, that which arises from its interaction with American cinema. The tendency of scholarship with respect to The Blue Angel is to read the film from a sociological perspective.
It is most commonly located within a national framework wherein it is contextualised exclusively in terms of the ‘transition from Weimar to Nazi Germany’. (Petro, 2009; 255) That is to say that the film serves as a ‘statement n the psychological situation at the time’; the relationship between Lola Lola and Professor Rath is seen to depict the moral decay which precipitates the rise of Nazi Germany. (Williams, 2013; 801) It ‘proves anew the problem of German immaturity’, as Siegfried Kracauer wrote in his book From Caligari To Hitler, a pioneering work of this sociological approach which links cinema to developments within the state. (Petro, 2009; 258) The Blue Angel however is not a political work and if it does happen to capture some sort of cultural zeitgeist then this is hardly its intention. This is evident in how the film has been adapted from Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor Unrat; any political subtext has been erased and the character of Professor Rath is a reflection of this, his having been reformed from being a villainous and irredeemable figure of authority to a pitiful fool. Theodor W. Adorno, a German sociologist wrote on these differences between the film and the novel claiming that the film had turned a ‘petit bourgeois demon into a sentimental comedy figure’. (Koch, 1986; 61) In this way he is less an allegorical figure onto whom the history of the nation is traced; instead Janning’s Rath is sympathetic and nationally nondescript
fool. This is to say that such a perspective often neglects the commercial aspect of the film and more broadly German filmmaking. At the time of The Blue Angel the German industry was in fierce competition with Hollywood for not only its domestic market but the wider European market and so this transformation of the character of the professor may be read instead as a decision of commercial expedience. Translated in this way, he is then not limited by national specificity; his character is symptomatic of Weimar cinema’s outward reach. This necessitates that the film avoid being too nationally specific as this could potentially alienate foreign audiences and such considerations have clearly impacted on the film. The fact that there was a second English language version of the film further attests to this. The film is tailored to not only a domestic audience but also an international audience which has been reflected in the narrative; narrative decisions have here clearly been made with consideration of the film’s international viability. That is not to say then that The Blue Angel is not a German film however. Though not necessarily or is it specifically about Germany or developments in the state, the film is German in the sense that all aspects of its production were based in Germany. It is based on a German novel and features exclusively German talent. The fact that there was some collaboration with an American film studio does not negate this as such a practice was commonplace within the German industry. (Saunders, 1994; ‘German American Film Relations’) That this sort of collaboration can exist in amidst competition is yet another way in which this paradox of Weimar cinema is expressed by the film. This consideration of its transnational character aside however and the film retains a distinctly German aesthetic character. It opens on the shadowy image of jagged rooftops which immediately recalls and locates the film within a greater tradition of German expressionism. This in effect is a form of branding. The next image then expresses what the film is really about. It is an image of Marlene Dietrich’s Lola Lola as she is emblazoned on a shop window; this is a commercial image – the film is about the commodification of Lola Lola which is to say it is the film and sound as a commodity in itself. The film is in this way framed as a reflection unto itself and the technology which produces it. This played a central role in the film’s marketing with much of this revolving around the novelty value of sound. Newspapers championed the film as ‘Germany’s greatest sound film’ and in one city, Gottingen, the focus of David Imhoof’s study on the reception of the film, local newspapers even provided a feature explaining how the new technology worked. (Imhoof, 2011; 49, 60) The spotlight was firmly on the technology of the film as opposed to other aspects and that this is embodied by Lola Lola serves as a point of interest; her allure as a cabaret singer is like the allure of the film, that is, it is predicated on sound. John Baxter observes in this regard that ‘few important characters in cinema are developed as perfunctorily as Lola Lola’; she is less character than concept. (Baxter, 2011; 179 and Koch, 1986; 69) This can be seen as being true for the film as a whole as it plays out as the negotiation of silent film with sound cinema. If Lola Lola is sound, then Janning’s Rath is then silent cinema. Jannings being the quintessential silent film actor is codified as such in an early scene in which he is seen shutting a window as to literally block out the sound of singing choir. It is incredibly ironic then that he falls for Lola Lola, the personification of sound. Within the narrative, we are put in the position of Janning’s Rath; we ironically too fall for Lola Lola as we are consumed by the film. This comes against what is meant to be our better judgment or at least, preconception, and this is completely intentional; as Petro observes of Weimar cinema, it derives from a male perspective. (Imhoof, 2011; 64) As Lola Lola seduces and destroys Rath, this is the film symbolically seducing its audience and destroying their preconceptions. One commentator, Max Maass from the Gottinger Zeitung went so far as to claim that after The Blue Angel that silent film was effectively dead. (Imhoof, 2011; 59) The only way forward was sound cinema, this perhaps being prophetic considering the oft cited contrast in career trajectories of Dietrich and Jannings after the film. (Andrew Sarris quoted by Bronfen, 2003; 13 and Bronfen, 2003; 17) Thus the film may be seen as depicting this triumph of sound over silent cinema and not only this but it was also received as such. This represents a major turnabout considering perceptions of sound cinema prior to the film’s release. Before The Blue Angel, sound was widely perceived as a symptom of the ‘American need for sensation’ or its ‘cultural backwardness’; it was a sign of regression in what already was a contentious art form, sound only drawing further attention to the mechanical and therefore inartistic nature of cinema. (Imhoof, 2011; 59 and Saunders, 1994; ‘The Coming of Sound and The Waning of America’) The language of this betrays a certain cultural bias however, this being an entrenched component of the German industry, naturally so with American being its principal antagonist. Essentially, what this often came down to was a matter of American cinema’s industrial might, that which was associated with ‘mass orientation, tempo, monumentalism, sensationalism and profit urge’. (Saunders, 1994; ‘Introduction’) There was a ‘latent aversion to the cultural might of big business’ which coloured the German perception of American cinema and sound cinema. (Saunders, 1994; ‘The Coming of Sound and The Waning of America’) That there then is such a turnabout reflects on the paradox of Weimar cinema in how it related to American cinema. Though critical of American innovation when it took these on board, The Blue Angel and the cinema of sound were reframed in terms of artistic achievement. For example, from one publication, Berliner Bossen Courier, the critic Herbert Ihering claimed that for The Blue Angel “one can [finally] speak about poetry and sound film”. (Imhoof, 2011; 54) Another critic from the Gottinger Tageblatt, Adolf Stein wrote that with the film, sound cinema emerged from its “childhood sickness” as if to say only with the input or interpretation by the German film industry that sound cinema then became legitimate. (Imhoof, 2011; 56) The complete denial then of commercial impetus which is so manifest throughout the film and in the very decision of the film to take on board the challenge of sound cinema presents as hypocritical. This irony is twofold when audience sympathies lie with Rath and make Lola Lola out to be some sort of wanton New Woman. (Williams, 2010; 59) That Rath against his better judgment submits to Lola Lola is to blame the German film industry for its own loss of artistry in conforming to American innovation. Thus the dissonance between how the film presents and how it is received articulates this paradox of Weimar cinema. It presents (and rather obtusely) as a carefully considered commercial product yet is received somewhat inexplicably as an artistic achievement without precedent. This is a slight against American cinema and by extension the film’s director, Josef von Sternberg, an Austrian American who came under much criticism for his apparent ‘shallowness’ and the ‘mental inertia’ of his work, it being characterised by its ‘vacuity’. (Saunders, 1994; ‘The Coming of Sound and The Waning of America’) As there is an ‘unwillingness to gloss over shortcomings in content for the sake of technical polish’, The Blue Angel as a German film represents a concession.(Saunders, 1994; ‘The Coming of Sound and The Waning of America’) The film is ever conscious of this and it is woven into and embraced by its narrative; through the relationship of Professor Rath with Lola Lola and our own with the text, the circumstances of this paradigm shift which is depicted in the film, from silent to sound, is modelled and experienced. It involves and epitomises the paradoxical nature of Weimar cinema as it relates to American film.
Perhaps one of the most haunting and compelling parts of Sanders-Brahms’ film Germany Pale Mother (1979) is the nearly twenty minute long telling of The Robber Bridegroom. The structual purpose of the sequence is a bridge between the marriage of Lene and Hans, who battles at the war’s front, and the decline of the marriage during the post-war period. Symbolically the fairy tale, called the “mad monstrosity in the middle of the film,” by Sanders Brahms (Kaes, 149), offers a diagetic forum for with which to deal with the crimes of Nazi Germany, as well a internally fictional parallel of Lene’s marriage.
The Killer Angles The novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara depicts the story behind one of bloodiest and highly significant battle of the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg consisted of 51,000-casualties between the Union and Confederate army forces. Mainly focused on letters, journal entries, and memoirs, Shaara tells the story of Gettysburg by using characters from both sides of the “spectrum”, the Confederate and Union army. These characters grasp the revolving points of view regarding the impending days of the war. Countless numbers of those views develop from characters throughout the novel. The characters include the Confederates own General Lee, General Longstreet; the Unions own Colonel Chamberlain, and soldiers from
The Killer Angels is a historical novel that recounts the battle of the Civil War, specifically focusing on the Battle of Gettysburg. Set from June 29 to July 3, 1863 and told from the point of view of several soldiers and commanding officers from both sides, Michael Shaara effectively illustrates the sentiments behind the war that tore America in two, from the strategic battle plans to the emotional hardships endured by all.
The novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara depicts the story behind one of the bloodiest, and highly significant, battles of the American Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg. The battle consisted of 51,000-casualties between the Union and Confederate army forces. Mainly focused on letters, journal entries, and memoirs, Shaara tells the story of Gettysburg by using characters from both sides of the war. The characters chosen grasp the divergent views regarding the impending days of the war, and countless numbers of those views develop throughout the novel. Such views come from the Confederates own General Lee and General Longstreet, and the Unions own Colonel Chamberlain and soldiers from both sides. From those depicted
The presence of an overwhelming and influential body of government, dictating the individuals of contextual society, may potentially lead to the thoughts and actions that oppose the ruling party. Through the exploration of Fritz Lang’s expressionist film, Metropolis (1927), and George Orwell’s politically satirical novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), the implications of an autocratic government upon the individuals of society are revealed. Lang’s expressionist film delves into the many issues faced by the Weimar Republic of Germany following the “War to end all wars” (Wells, 1914), in which the disparity between the upper and lower classes became distinctively apparent as a result of the ruling party’s capitalistic desires. Conversely, Orwell’s,
Killer Angels, written by Michael Shaara, takes place in Gettysburg in the year of 1863. Prohibiting slavery in the states that did not yet become states triggered the start of the Civil War. Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay was where the war was triggered by the Confederate Army opening fire on the federal garrison and forced it to surrender. For three long years, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia delayed attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac. All principal confederate armies surrendered by the spring of 1865.
McKeown’s book significantly traces the enforcement of the bio-power on the national border control system against the background of the expansion of capitalist global order, and thus further debunks that the seemingly neutral face of modern international migration is a discursive and institutional mask for coloniality. His arguments keep reminding me of previous insights on our modern world by thinkers like Foucault, Walter Mignolo, and Lisa Lowe, who all stay vigilant to the progressive and emancipatory vision from the enlightenment, or, the western modernity, by revealing its dialectic relevance to its opposite, the suppression and alienation of humanity from disciplinary regimentation of social life to colonial bloodshed and enslavement.
Penguin Books. 1991 German Cinema since the Unification. Edited by David Clarke. Continuum, in association with University of Birmingham Press. 2006
Compare and contrast the relationship of the detective to his or her community in Devil in a Blue Dress and Corollary In Walter Mosley’s “devil in a blue dress”, there is a clear cut distinction between the white and black man, this distinction is portrayed as something that is somewhat negative and looks at the situation from the eyes of a black man named Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins and how he is changed from a simple day to day laborer into an effective detective.
In the history of the United States, there have been many wars like Civil War. Civil War is a war in the United States between the North and the South. In “The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara is explained of the fogginess that often accompanies warfare. This novel talks about the period of June 30th, 1863 through July 3rd, 1863 when civil war was happening. It is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg, three years into the Civil War. The Killer Angels is also a story that at times questions what the Civil War was about. The Civil War was a war fought over slavery and the North made their own way to South by imposing the South. Slavery was the main reason what got the Civil War started in the South and separation between South and North was stronger.
The nation and people were separated and each man fought for what they believed to be right for them. Whether the men sided with the north or south it really did not matter. Whether they believed slavery should be abolished or not, it was not too prevalent in this book. Some men fought for themselves, for their families, to protect their land, and some because it was the morally right and loyal thing to do. Whatever reasons the soldiers decided to fight that day and days subsequently, I am sure they could not have dreamed of the legacy that their heroism and bravery that The Battle of Gettysburg has left in American History. With over 50,000 casualties occurred that occurred over three days of aggressive fighting, the battle was vital turning point in the civil war.
Classic film noir originated after World War II. This is the time where post World War II pessimism, anxiety, and suspicion was taking the world by storm. Many films that were released in the U.S. Between 1939s and 1940s were considered propaganda films that were designed for entertainment during the Depression and World War II. During the 1930s many German and Europeans immigrated to the U.S. and helped the American film industry with powerf...
In 2009, R&B singer, Maxwell released to the world Pretty Wings, a song in which meeting the right girl at the wrong time becomes bittersweet. Black was the first album of Maxwell 's BLACK summer 's night trilogy. He explained to MTV News "Three sides of my crazy personality. Black is dark. Summer 's is the lighter side. That album is more of a gospel side - not in the traditional sense, but more like Deepak Chopra meets that minister or that pastor down in the South somewhere. The Night album is the ultimate love record (Pretty Wings by Maxwell Songfacts)”.
Andreas Huyssen. “The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” New German Critique: and Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. (1982)
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.