1POPULAR CINEMA

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1. Das häßliche Mädchen (1933, The Ugly Girl), Advertisement from Die Filmwoche, 17 May 1933 moments suggests that her efforts are bound to be only partially successful. The opening sequence articulates this dilemma by staging a scene of public humiliation. The setting is quintessential white-collar society: a sleek modern office building. The situation is equally typical for working women during the early 1930s: an insurance company has an opening for a secretary. However, framing and editing deviate from standard treatments in the close 32 Popular Cinema of the Third Reich
attention to questions of perception. Its pitfalls are thematized in relation to the power of the gaze and the experience of objectification. From a young woman’s beautiful face in close-up, the camera moves along eight similarlooking women dressed in fashionable suit jackets and coats, adorned with small caps or cloches, and all armed with the obligatory confident smile. Then the extensive traveling shot comes to a halt on the face of a very different-looking woman. Her eyes are averted, her cropped hair covered by a beret, and her hunched shoulders the very expression of painful selfawareness. Suddenly, an off-screen voice shouts: “You!” The woman looks up, frightened, turns her head to the left and the right, and then—visibly confused—stares straight ahead. “Yes, you!” the male voice insists. With the camera now placed behind her, she rises and moves toward an officiallooking man positioned in front of the group. In the following reverse shot, the camera is located slightly above the man’s head to demonstrate how she eagerly complies with his request: “Why don’t you come here?” The personnel manager’s subsequent questions about her typing skills confirm that the company indeed has an opening for a secretary. Much to the surprise of the other contenders, the “ugly girl” is hired—as we find out shortly afterward, precisely because she is ugly. With a slight smirk, the manager takes her to the accounting department. He opens the door to an open-floor office with numerous similar-looking young men seated at almost identical desks. Now it is her inquisitive gaze that becomes identified with a mobile camera registering various expressions of shock and dismay. Repeating the shot /reverse-shot pattern from the opening sequence, the camera’s point of view moves back and forth between the young woman and the accountants, with the manager serving as an occasional mediator. “Gentlemen, this is the new secretary,” he declares. “I hope that you will finally be able to work in peace.” Of course, the organizing principle behind this game of perceptions is the consensus, reached through suggestive glances among the men, that the new secretary is indeed unattractive and destined to become the target of cruel jokes and mean pranks. While identification with the camera’s point of view is predicated on certain unspoken assumptions about femininity, the editing establishes a more dialogic structure and, in so doing, bears witness to the violence inherent in the exchange of looks and perceptions. On the most basic level, the man is confirmed as the bearer and the woman as the object of the gaze. Such objectification links the exercise of male power to an ability to humiliate others. The woman’s return gaze seems to bear out her lack of agency. Made in 1933 33
Page 2 and 3: POPULAR CINEMA OF THE THIRD REICH
Page 4 and 5: SABINE HAKE Popular Cinema of the T
Page 6 and 7: CONTENTS Preface vii 1. Popular Cin
Page 8 and 9: PREFACE Why another study on the ci
Page 10 and 11: elements in the productive encounte
Page 12 and 13: culture and between the public and
Page 14 and 15: national cinema into international
Page 16 and 17: Mary-Beth O’Brien, Stephen Brockm
Page 18 and 19: popular genres and styles, the favo
Page 20 and 21: lemished by the times in which it w
Page 22 and 23: could pretend that fascist ideology
Page 24 and 25: tion that, “Instead of determinin
Page 26 and 27: codes, and the heavy loans from bou
Page 28 and 29: separated from the almost programma
Page 30 and 31: definition of popular cinema can th
Page 32 and 33: fused with, folk culture, which is
Page 34 and 35: tion of the spectator in the realiz
Page 36 and 37: mestic industry and its need for pr
Page 38 and 39: Hence its audience was constantly a
Page 40 and 41: the German cinema, a sensibility th
Page 42 and 43: tained cinema after 1933 and provid
Page 44 and 45: director or producer could continue
Page 46 and 47: the musicality of his direction in
Page 50 and 51: However, at no point does she enter
Page 52 and 53: Lotte rehired, this time as the dir
Page 54 and 55: subsequent efforts at adaptation an
Page 56 and 57: 2. Viktor und Viktoria (1933, Victo
Page 58 and 59: the spectator to partake in the ill
Page 60 and 61: early slapstick comedies of Lubitsc
Page 62 and 63: 3 CINEMA, SET DESIGN, AND THE DOMES
Page 64 and 65: sensual and emotional excess. The r
Page 66 and 67: cism first presented by Walter Benj
Page 68 and 69: spaces to the largely decorative fu
Page 70 and 71: worked on numerous Paul Martin come
Page 72 and 73: of surface phenomena. In their view
Page 74 and 75: liner in Allotria (Tomfoolery, 1936
Page 76 and 77: young sculptor in Weimar Berlin who
Page 78 and 79: terity. The two love stories that I
Page 80 and 81: Berlin Building Exhibitions. The pi
Page 82 and 83: several light-colored carpets with
Page 84 and 85: 4AT THE MOVIES FILM AUDIENCES AND T
Page 86 and 87: material, must we conclude that, to
Page 88 and 89: Efforts to attract more regulars in
Page 90 and 91: practice of “locked doors” (i.e
Page 92 and 93: from the perspective of those group
Page 94 and 95: In the absence of any measurable re
Page 96 and 97: gional differences would eventually
Page 98 and 99:
ures, Walter Panofsky distinguished
Page 100 and 101:
women and cinema—reason enough fo
Page 102 and 103:
produced by sociological studies, s
Page 104 and 105:
the form of romantic comedies, film
Page 106 and 107:
man,” is clearly recognizable as
Page 108 and 109:
Lowry has relied on such opposition
Page 110 and 111:
some of Harold Lloyd, Edith Hamann
Page 112 and 113:
1933 as an ongoing reflection on th
Page 114 and 115:
ity projected by one of the leading
Page 116 and 117:
figurations—but less through his
Page 118 and 119:
7. Heinz Rühmann, Terra Advertisem
Page 120 and 121:
sence of man. His performance encou
Page 122 and 123:
To conclude: As the prototype of th
Page 124 and 125:
Sirk continues to feature prominent
Page 126 and 127:
duction and reception. At the same
Page 128 and 129:
Delineating the formative influence
Page 130 and 131:
Garvenberg (Willy Birgel) and his b
Page 132 and 133:
aerial shots of Berlin’s historic
Page 134 and 135:
sical encoding of otherness. As an
Page 136 and 137:
seek the spiritual rewards availabl
Page 138 and 139:
the articulation, however compromis
Page 140 and 141:
dominant ideology, Linda Schulte-Sa
Page 142 and 143:
unhealthy need for self-discovery,
Page 144 and 145:
7 THE FOREIGN AND THE FAMILIAR ON G
Page 146 and 147:
The myth of the Hollywood dream fac
Page 148 and 149:
office hits. Paramount’s reputati
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Less frequently, Hollywood became i
Page 152 and 153:
motion-picture theaters, including
Page 154 and 155:
MGM maintained their Berlin offices
Page 156 and 157:
and often marred by insufficient ti
Page 158 and 159:
They included the Seventy-ninth Str
Page 160 and 161:
and they included American Nazi sym
Page 162 and 163:
newsreel Sieg im Westen (Victory in
Page 164 and 165:
of Hollywood films—and, in so doi
Page 166 and 167:
sion policies, and, of greatest rel
Page 168 and 169:
a clear sense of national identity.
Page 170 and 171:
and had contributed significantly t
Page 172 and 173:
panion piece, Café Electric (1927)
Page 174 and 175:
yond local and national differences
Page 176 and 177:
10. Wiener Blut (1942, Viennese Blo
Page 178 and 179:
too, becomes associated with “fem
Page 180 and 181:
11. Operette (1940, Operetta), Adve
Page 182 and 183:
Ringtheater intensify after her fir
Page 184 and 185:
the so-called Überläuferfilme. Co
Page 186 and 187:
drop of an artificial Vienna re-cre
Page 188 and 189:
9THE POWER OF THOUGHT REDEFINING PO
Page 190 and 191:
ciliation—for other mass cultural
Page 192 and 193:
film journalists and scholars over
Page 194 and 195:
And these, in turn, were determined
Page 196 and 197:
ative subjectivity, film art achiev
Page 198 and 199:
debates because of their greater ab
Page 200 and 201:
entertainment. Such thinking propel
Page 202 and 203:
era’s point of view find a place,
Page 204 and 205:
of the racial community in resolvin
Page 206 and 207:
ception of mise-en-scène. In the s
Page 208 and 209:
equally noticeable shift from senti
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the following thematic overview and
Page 212 and 213:
play rather than a didactic device
Page 214 and 215:
The disciplining force behind these
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prosecutor who neglects her husband
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tions of war. The later Harvey film
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tender impulses that hitherto susta
Page 222 and 223:
14. Unser Fräulein Doktor (1940, O
Page 224 and 225:
ing sexuality. As a woman, Elisabet
Page 226 and 227:
11 THE LEGACIES OF THE PAST IN THE
Page 228 and 229:
logical innovations, artistic movem
Page 230 and 231:
screenplay about the pervasiveness
Page 232 and 233:
the theater director cancels a Zuck
Page 234 and 235:
ole in the rebuilding of the German
Page 236 and 237:
the privileges of traditional mascu
Page 238 and 239:
trauma, it might be argued, found e
Page 240 and 241:
joint appearance in the Viktor Tour
Page 242 and 243:
transformation of a figure of moral
Page 244 and 245:
of the eponymous 1924 film by F. W.
Page 246 and 247:
come—its own past played a key ro
Page 248 and 249:
equally problematic use of “featu
Page 250 and 251:
Genrefilm in der Weimarer Republik
Page 252 and 253:
21. Based on detailed analysis prov
Page 254 and 255:
und Film-Bauten (Reinbek: Rowohlt,
Page 256 and 257:
ledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), pp. 77-9
Page 258 and 259:
33. Anon., “Das ungelöste Rätse
Page 260 and 261:
Langemarck to Verdun” (pp. 45-76)
Page 262 and 263:
Berlin and the conference organized
Page 264 and 265:
Press, 1991), p. 274. Even someone
Page 266 and 267:
1936. For the few articles dealing
Page 268 and 269:
press, see “Jüdischer USA.-Kampf
Page 270 and 271:
21. Hugo Jury, quoted by Oliver Rat
Page 272 and 273:
The book is based on “Das Gesetz
Page 274 and 275:
Third Reich, see Klaus Vondung, Vö
Page 276 and 277:
and Ursula Bessen, Trümmer und Tr
Page 278 and 279:
Jens Schumann, Hans Albers: Seine F
Page 280 and 281:
Hull, David Stewart. 1969. Film in
Page 282 and 283:
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Page 284 and 285:
Eggebrecht, Axel, 3 Eggerth, Marta,
Page 286 and 287:
Liebelei (1933), 29, 155 Liebeneine
Page 288:
Weiss Ferdl, 143 weiße Hölle vom
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