Popular Cinema of the Third Reich (Paperback)
Product Details
* Paperback: 288 pages
* Publisher: University of Texas Press (January 15, 2002)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0292734581
* ISBN-13: 978-0292734586
* Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
* Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Editorial Reviews
Review
Alice Kuzniar, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill : This is an immaculately researched, sophisticatedly argued investigation into the richly varied aspects of popular cinema during the Third Reich. . . . The result is an impressive, highly informative, and insightful book.
Book Description
“This is an immaculately researched, sophisticatedly argued investigation into the richly varied aspects of popular cinema during the Third Reich…. The result is an impressive, highly informative, and insightful book.”
—Alice Kuzniar, Professor of German and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Too often dismissed as escapist entertainment or vilified as mass manipulation, popular cinema in the Third Reich was in fact sustained by well-established generic conventions, cultural traditions, aesthetic sensibilities, social practices, and a highly developed star system—not unlike its Hollywood counterpart in the 1930s. This pathfinding study contributes to the ongoing reassessment of Third Reich cinema by examining it as a social, cultural, economic, and political practice that often conflicted with, contradicted, and compromised the intentions of the Propaganda Ministry. Nevertheless, by providing the illusion of a public sphere presumably free of politics, popular cinema helped to sustain the Nazi regime, especially during the war years.
Rather than examining Third Reich cinema through overdetermined categories such as propaganda, ideology, or fascist aesthetics, Sabine Hake concentrates on the constituent elements shared by most popular cinemas: famous stars, directors, and studios; movie audiences and exhibition practices; popular genres and new trends in set design; the reception of foreign films; the role of film criticism; and the representation of women. She pays special attention to the forced coordination of the industry in 1933, the changing demands on cinema during the war years, and the various ways of coming to terms with these filmic legacies after the war. Throughout, Hake’s findings underscore the continuities among Weimar, Third Reich, and post-1945 West German cinema. They also emphasize the codevelopment of German and other national cinemas, especially the dominant Hollywood model.
This book is not an overview of popular cinema of the Nazi era. It is an examination of 9 separate topics pertaining to the popular cinema of the 1933-45 era. While these chapter/essays are arranged in chronological order, reading this book does not give anyone a cohert picture of what Nazi Popular Cinema was like.
Some of the essays are good, such as the one on two comedies of 1933 and the fate of Nazi era actors after the War. However, the more abstract the topic of an essay, such as how set design reveals attitudes toward “modernity,” the less interesting it is for the general reader curious about the topic of Nazi Popular Cinema.
Thomas Elsaesser’s “The Ministry of Illusion” or (to a lesser extent) “Entertaining the Third Reich” would be far more helpful to the American reader who is seeking to understand the controversial films of the Nazi era.