Hitler's Hollywood
Fascinating for history and film buffs alike.
Hitler's Hollywood
“These films left the viewers with a feeling of clenched longing, longing which the Third Reich then promised to fulfill.” – Alexander Kluge
Filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland suggests that the Third Reich was essentially an immersive movie starring the German nation, produced and directed by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Hitler’s Hollywood collages key films from the more than 1000 features the Nazis produced from 1933-1945: musicals, melodramas, romances, costume dramas, war films – and when the real war got tough, insanely lavish, over-the-top fantasies. The German volk were portrayed as happy and sporty with lives of exaggerated cheerfulness or, conversely, full of morbid yearning for a death that would serve the Fatherland. Hannah Arendt gives perspective and context: “One of the chief characteristics of modern masses… (is) they do not trust their eyes and ears, but only their imaginations. What convinces masses are not facts, not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the illusion.” It’s a frightening insight that could just as easily apply to the American political landscape today. – Karen Cooper, Film Forum
Filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland suggests that the Third Reich was essentially an immersive movie starring the German nation, produced and directed by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Hitler’s Hollywood collages key films from the more than 1000 features the Nazis produced from 1933-1945: musicals, melodramas, romances, costume dramas, war films – and when the real war got tough, insanely lavish, over-the-top fantasies. The German volk were portrayed as happy and sporty with lives of exaggerated cheerfulness or, conversely, full of morbid yearning for a death that would serve the Fatherland. Hannah Arendt gives perspective and context: “One of the chief characteristics of modern masses… (is) they do not trust their eyes and ears, but only their imaginations. What convinces masses are not facts, not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the illusion.” It’s a frightening insight that could just as easily apply to the American political landscape today. – Karen Cooper, Film Forum
Genre
Documentary,
Films & Filmmakers,
History,
Fascism
Runtime
105
Language
German
Director
Rüdiger Suchsland
Writer(s)
Rüdiger Suchsland
Cast
Udo Kier (narrator)
FEATURED REVIEW
Godfrey Cheshire, RogerEbert.com
“Hitler’s Hollywood,” which bears the subtitle “German Cinema in the Age of Propaganda: 1933-45,” is the second documentary director Rudiger Suchsland has made about German movies prior to the collapse of the Third Reich. The first, “From Caligari to Hitler,” was based on the groundbreaking 1947 ...
Played at
Lumiere Music Hall 5.11.18 - 5.24.18
Town Center 5 5.11.18 - 5.17.18
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