Nazi Film Still Pains Relatives

[groovedaddy]

In the history of the cinema, the German director Veit Harlan occupies an especially ignominious position. It is his name that is attached to “Jew Süss,” perhaps the most notoriously anti-Semitic movie ever made, a box office success in Nazi Germany in 1940 that was so effective that it was made required viewing for all members of the SS.

But what motivated Harlan to write and direct such a film? Was he a Nazi true believer, an opportunistic careerist or just a filmmaker too fearful of retribution to say no to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief? Those are some of the questions that another German director, Felix Moeller, asks in “Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss,” a documentary that opens a two-week engagement Wednesday at Film Forum in Manhattan.

“Harlan may be forgotten, but he was an influential figure, frequently mentioned in Nazi documents and in Goebbels’s diary,” Mr. Moeller said. “That interested me as a historian, but I also wanted to know what the younger generation thinks of this. We think we know everything, but when you ask what your grandfather did on the Eastern Front, what went on in your own family, it’s a different matter, and that story is important to me.”

Mr. Moeller’s film includes some snippets from “Jew Süss,” whose commercial exhibition or sale as a DVD is still prohibited in Germany and several other European countries. Set in the 18th century, it claims to be a dramatization of the true story of how a sinister, cunning Jewish financier, Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, took control of the duchy of Wurttemberg while preying sexually on a pure Aryan maiden, played by Harlan’s wife, Kristina Söderbaum. The bulk of Mr. Moeller’s film, however, consists of interviews with descendants of Veit Harlan, forced to live with his surname and the stigma of “Jew Süss.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/movies/02suss.html?th&emc=th

[hlthe2b]

1. Never heard of it or Harlan... but Nazis were adept at this kind

of film as propaganda... Probably an important story to tell, no matter how painful.

[groovedaddy]

2. I took a "Politics through Film" course in getting my b.a. in Poli Sci. I can't remember

the name of the film we studied as part of the course, but it was a Nazi propaganda film. They were the "pioneers" of this genre, to very ill effect!

[verges]

8. Do you mean "Triumph of the Will" ? nt

[groovedaddy]

9. Yep. That's the one. Thanks! n.t

[teknomanzer]

16. I believe Lenin was the pioneer...

Lenin used cinema to spread the new communist governments propaganda across the expanse of the USSR, and an even more interesting was the fact that he had "boxcar" theaters traveling by train to do this.

[11cents]

3. I've seen this documentary.

It's quite good -- not only for the portrait of the various family members but for the discussion and clips of Veit Harlan's films, which are propagandistic but not in the Leni Riefenstahl sense. They're almost sickeningly lush, over-the-top melodramas which were tremendously popular in Germany and occupied Europe.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. For those unfamiliar with this film...

...Jud Süß



The above is the restored version and has English subtitles (at Amazon).

[hlthe2b]

5. Surprised it is apparently widely available for sale...

although one of our own highly controversial films (Birth of the Nation)is apparently likewise readily available on DVD. Interesting that the mildly controversial (in comparison), Song of the South has never been released because Disney considers it too radioactive. :shrug:

[Behind the Aegis]

6. It is for sale in this country (US).

There are a handful of places where it is illegal. I haven't seen the Nazi film, but I have seen "Birth of a Nation." I am thinking of ordering it, the former, not the latter.

[11cents]

7. The director of the documentary is being interviewed right now....

...on WNYC, the Leonard Lopate show:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2010/03/02

"Jud Suss" is still banned in Germany and some other European countries. The restored version available here is apparently quite good -- includes appropriate historical context and commentary by a well-known film scholar who specializes in Nazi-era movies.

[proteus_lives]

10. I've watched US, German and Soviet WWII propaganda films.

They're all worth watching. They are excellent for understanding the times even if it is difficult to watch the Nazi crap.

[Vinnie From Indy]

11. I have as well

Someday, future civilizations will make movies about FOX News and Rush Limbaugh in the same vein as "Triumph" etc.

[classysassy]

12. Yes

we do agree on some things,sorry if I was a bit rude toward you today.

[Hardrada]

13. Song of the South is available here and there also. And

I think it is easily available in the UK.

[hlthe2b]

15. Not an offically licensed copy-- Disney has not released

http://www.songofthesouth.net/faq/index.html


but, yes, there are bootlegs.

[Hardrada]

14. I think there is also a documentary on the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Is that one on DVD?