Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville across the Sprachraum

[sally]

oh i was fully aware i need to sit and watch those films with my friend google. i can't remember when you appeared, were you on mubi? did we watch a vachek film once for something? there was an extensive lecture from someone about A Film I Do Not Remember, extensive enough at least so that i had the luxury of being aware whilst watching that i had no idea what i was watching. (most times i do not know that i do not know what i'm watching in such specificity, it's a usually a pervading general sense of incomprehension not even necessarily linked to what's happening on the screen at that point)

in fact it'll be a relief to watch something like that, hooray they just flew higher up my watchlist and since this is not remotely sprachraum related now i'll leave it there.

[niminy-piminy]

1946 poll:

A DEFEATED PEOPLE (Humphrey Jennings, 1946)

Most of the footage for this film was shot in September and October of 1945 mainly in the ruined cities of Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Essen. The people (mainly women and children) huddled in the unheated cellars of ruined houses without gas or any water save that from stand-pipes in the street.

A Defeated People received a very favourable reaction from contemporary critics, who viewed it as an important film on a vital subject of its day, which would answer many of the questions being asked by its audience about the reality of life in defeated Germany. Comments included: "Once again the Crown Film Unit do an inspired job of reporting." (Sunday Dispatch); "This film will stay in your mind and that is high praise of any film. Though it reeks of desolation and defeat it is infused with purpose. You will never obtain from any written or spoken narrative such an effect of empty misery and crushed aggressiveness, of a country so lost it is ripe for anything." (News Chronicle); "A grim panorama of destruction and ruin, of shattered industries, of tattered people living in cellars and searching for lost relatives." (The Star) and "All the more impressive for its restraint. The tone is agreeably free from gloating." (Daily Telegraph).

The main shortcoming of the film was cited as its brevity (18 minutes), meaning that it could only skim over the surface of the complex and intractable issues involved. The Daily Worker noted "It is a fine piece of screen-craft...but how the subject screams for a wider, deeper approach". The Glasgow Herald agreed that while it was "a fine example of British production", it gave the impression of having been "cut down to the bone". The Sunday Times too felt that in such a short running-time "the attempt to cover...the whole task of the Military Government in the British zone is hopeless".

What about the children?
For them, a desolated landscape provides a dream playground.
The derelict weapons of war might have been specially designed to have games with.

https://youtu.be/x8XG-nbM3BE

[niminy-piminy]

1946 poll:

after peeking into the British sector (viz above), let's examine the political situation in the Soviet sector (in 1946).
we can see that East German Mensheviks (social democrats) are being swallowed by East German Bolsheviks (communists).
in budding doublespeak, it is called "unity" (of SPD and KPD) or "an act of internal purification".

SPD-KPD UNITY (Kurt Maetzig, 1946)
for English subs click CC

Documentary about the merging of the Communist Party of Germany and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in the Soviet occupation zone, a merger that would lead to the creation of the Socialist Unity Party that would rule the soon-to-be-created East Germany until 1989.

https://youtu.be/x6HgMUZKpKg

[sally]

avoiding the city-horror strain for a couple of days (but loving jiri going full pelt on the 46 train, hurrah for all these pieces!) now that maetzig's been mentioned can anyone get hold of berlin im aufbau? and for that matter paul rotha's land of promise (i suppose i should ask that in the brit thread or why o why since it's bfi they can't make it available online is beyond me)

[niminy-piminy]

1946 poll:

everything is fucked up.
the ruins surround us.
The Murderers Are Among Us...


but (no escapism!) we are marching (full of hopes) toward the bright future...

[sally]

everything is still fucked up

überall ist es besser, wo wir nicht sind - michael klier (1989) ♥♥♥

[niminy-piminy]

1984 poll:
SIRENS (Klaus Georgi)

This avant-garde short, produced by the East German state run studio, DEFA: Studio fur Trickfilme, takes an “eco-socialist” approach to the story of the Sirens, best known from Homer’s Odyssey. The lure of the Sirens’ song is shown growing less powerful as the centuries pass. Modern modes of transport befoul and ultimately overwhelm the dread creatures.

https://vimeo.com/152104278

[niminy-piminy]

1984 poll:
THE FAMILY OR SCHROFFENSTEIN (Hans Neuenfels)

after watching this film for 3 days (with many pauses and detours) i (finally) reached approximately the middle and thus i can tell/quote/emphasize something.
it is H. Neuenfels's second adaptation (out of three) of H. Kleist — and the last one i am dealing with (the other two i watched in the past).
HEINRICH PENTHESILEA VON KLEIST (1983)
THE FAMILY OR SCHROFFENSTEIN (1984)
THE LAST SEDUCTION OF EUROPE (1988)

After Kleist had abandoned his studies, he went first to Paris and then to Switzerland. There he wrote his first work, the tragedy Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803; “The Schroffenstein Family”), which depicts pathological states with ruthless clarity. Underlying this drama of error is Kleist’s recurring theme, the fallibility of human perception and the inability of the human intellect by itself to apprehend truth. At this time he was also working on the play Robert Guiskard, an ambitious work in which he attempted to unite ancient Sophoclean tragedy and the Shakespearean drama of character, but it would remain a fragment. He set out on a new journey and in Paris, overcome by despair, burned his manuscript of Guiskard (though he partially rewrote it later) and tried to volunteer for the French army.

https://second.wiki/wiki/die_familie_schroffenstein

The Schroffenstein family is Heinrich von Kleist's first work. The tragedy appeared anonymously in 1803 and was premiered on January 9, 1804 in the National Theater in Graz.

Kleist wrote the piece in Paris and on the Scherzliginsel in the Aare in Thun, Switzerland. He traveled with his sister to Paris via Dresden, and then decided on a simple life as a farmer in Thun; a project that he gave up shortly afterwards. During this time he worked on both his debut The Schroffenstein Family and Robert Guiskard, Duke of Normans and The Broken Jug. The play was originally supposed to be titled The Thierrez Family and set in France, then Kleist moved the setting to Spain (under the title The Ghonorez Family). The final location of the action, medieval Swabia, was recommended to Kleist by Ludwig Wieland (1777–1819), son of Christoph Martin Wieland. The tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1597) by William Shakespeare served as a literary model.

The location of the action is medieval Swabia. The Schroffenstein family is a torn family that has been enemies for a long time and lives in two houses, which are separated according to their ancestral seat in Rossitz and Warwand. But the two branches are chained to each other by an old inheritance contract: If one branch dies, the other inherits its property. Hence, there is deep distrust and aversion between the houses. The action begins in the first act with the Rossitzer standing around the coffin of the youngest son Peter. He was found dead and mutilated (his little finger is missing on his left hand); next to him stood two men of the Warwander with bloody knives. Rupert makes his wife and son Ottokar swear by the Lord's Supper, all of themTo take revenge on Sylvester's murder house. This oath binds the Rossitzers to exterminate the Warwander Line, because they seem to have been the commissioners for the murder. But Ottokar loves Agnes, Sylvester's daughter. They try to reconcile the families, much like Jeronimo, Ottokar's uncle. Jeronimo does a detective work in the play and tries to uncover the murder of Peter. But only Ottokar discovers that Peter drowned while playing and that his finger was cut off for a magic potion that Ursula (a gravedigger widow) wants to brew. Agnes and Ottokar, who meet in a cave in the mountains, decide to swap clothes and thus protect Agnes from Rupert, who approaches to seek revenge. But the two run separately into their own parents' arms - Ottokar, disguised as Agnes, is stabbed to death by his father Rupert, Agnes from her father Sylvester, who believes that the person bending over the dead body of his supposed daughter is her murderer. The patriarchs are reconciled over the corpses of their children.

Kleist's debut, like all of his later dramas, is radical, contradicts the current literary conventions of his time, is bursting with violence and pessimism, and is surprisingly modern. In the end none of the problems is solved, the viewer did not experience catharsis, but a strange situation arises. The catastrophe at the end of the piece is laughed at: "This is fun to laugh at!", Kleist lets say Johann, illegitimate offspring of Rupert, who fell into madness during the action.

Kleist's crisis in Kant, which led to the termination of his studies, made him reject the rationalism and optimism of the progress of the Enlightenment. In the play, Kleist fundamentally criticizes the human capacity for knowledge. The play begins with a wrong interpretation of a death and ends with a wrong interpretation that leads to the death of the children. The protagonists learn nothing and are guided by fear and vindictiveness in place of reason. According to this piece, man is not sensible; he is violent and instinctive.

The play, which Kleist himself called Trauerspiel, cannot be clearly assigned to the tragedy. Rather, attention must be paid to the ironic distancing that suggests the tragicomic end. Kleist does not take his piece seriously, in the end there is aporia and hopelessness. Kleist's debut ends in nihilistic pessimism. The Schroffenstein family has more in common with modern hybrid forms of tragic comedy and Shakespeare's mixture of comedy and tragedy (for example in Macbeth ) than with the strict poetics of Gottsched or the ancient theory of drama.

if anyone is still at doubt if to watch this film or not, then all i can say (to lure anyone and everyone) is the following...
Angela Schanelec (of the Berlin School) reenacts in the film (as Agnes) the famous scene (by Hedy Lamarr) from Ecstasy...


anyway, tomorrow gonna continue (and this week (i believe) gonna finish it).
(certainly ends up on my ballot!)

[niminy-piminy]

1984 poll:
NAVELFABLE (Mara Mattuschka)

In NavelFable Mara Mattuschka subject herself to a second birth through endless pairs of tights. Her body struggles so hard and in such a deformed manner from out of the layers of nylon that the sheer struggle for survival becomes visible. —Peter Tscherkassky

https://youtu.be/wABNwnCVGdo

[rischka]

This website needs to be preserved for jiri's contributions alone

[niminy-piminy]

this website needs more rants!

[sally]

after watching this film for 3 days (with many pauses and detours) i (finally) reached approximately the middle

in which it is thereby revealed that jiri has never finished a film, never watched it to completion, never strolled through the gaping black doorway at the end of the corridor of vision...a love unconsummated, a passion never spent (and thus renewed), a thousand passive endless separate threads, a million lingering fingers poking limply into eternity, into a universe which merely by contrast is more active and thus decides to fade away......

un utterly maniacal way to watch movies!

[niminy-piminy]

in which it is thereby revealed that jiri has never finished a film, never watched it to completion, never strolled through the gaping black doorway at the end of the corridor of vision...a love unconsummated, a passion never spent (and thus renewed), a thousand passive endless separate threads, a million lingering fingers poking limply into eternity, into a universe which merely by contrast is more active and thus decides to fade away......

there has never been a mortal who could read my psyché so thoroughly (from the very first till the very last page)!

[niminy-piminy]

1984 poll:
DECODER (Muscha)

a burger shop employee discovers that by changing the background music from pleasantly calming to industrial "noise" music, he can incite riots and a revolution against the looming power of the government.

https://youtu.be/EXZWrFRMblE
https://youtu.be/otetf01G_d0

[niminy-piminy]

THAT ANDECHS FEELING (Herbert Achternbusch, 1974)

So... that was gymnastics.
Now, we’ll turn to the human hair.
The hair... the hair...
The armpit hair gets less as you get older.
You’ll only notice this later.
The Indians have 445 hairs on their head.
Sudanese, on the other hand, have only 440 hairs on their head.
So...
A human can have 60,000 hairs on his head.
Those of you who will go to high school will also learn the weight of the hair.
If one of you should go to university, he’ll learn the percentage difference between morning and evening hair loss.
For the rest of you, it’s enough to know that we lose 120 hairs a day.
By the way, hair grows faster in summer than in winter.
That’s it, now you can take a break.

[niminy-piminy]

1995 poll:
THE CACTUS (Franz Winzentsen)

dancing cactus...
https://youtu.be/xpjmOsY6fkY

[niminy-piminy]

TENDERNESS OF THE WOLVES (Ulli Lommel, 1973)

the victim was typically given food and drink before Haarmann bit into his Adam's apple, often as he was strangled. Often this caused the victim to die of asphyxiation, but on several occasions Haarmann bit completely through his victims' Adams apple and trachea. (Haarmann referred to the act of biting through his victims' neck as his "love bite".)

From an early age, Haarmann's behavior was noticeably effeminate, and he was known to shun boys' activities, instead playing with his sisters' dolls and dressing in their clothes. He also developed a passion for both needlework and cookery, and would develop a close relationship with his mother, who spoiled her youngest child.

After serving this 12-year sentence, Grans was extralegally interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Following the conclusion of the Second World War, he continued to live in Hanover until his death in 1975.
Haarmann's head was preserved in formaldehyde and remained in the possession of the Göttingen medical school from 1925 until 2014, when it was cremated.