Ordinary fascism
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Ordinary fascism |
| Original title | Обыкновенный фашизм |
| Country of production | Soviet Union ( Russian SFSR ) |
| original language | Russian |
| Publishing year | 1965 |
| length | approx. 123 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mikhail Romm |
| script |
Maja Turovskaya Yuri Chanjutin Mikhail Romm |
| music | Alemdar Karamanov |
| camera | German Lavrov |
| cut |
Valentina Kulagina Mikhail Romm |
Ordinary Fascism ( Russian original title: Обыкновенный фашизм Obyknowenny Faschism ) is a Soviet documentary by Mikhail Romm from 1965.
content
Romm asks how Hitler fascism came about . In sixteen chapters Romm seeks answers to his question, what leads people to affirm fascism and even to become murderers.
Already the entry suggests a special approach by Romm to the subject of fascism and initially shows a loose sequence of children's drawings: a happy tomcat, a hungry tomcat, a cunning tomcat, a sad lion, a bear. This is followed by recordings of parents and their children and students in Warsaw , Moscow and Berlin . The articulated thought of these pictures: "Everyone sees the world a little differently, but everyone is human."
The idyll is abruptly interrupted by a shot and a photograph is faded in showing a Wehrmacht soldier shooting a woman who is holding her child in his arms. The camera goes back to a child who looks seriously into the camera; it symbolizes the question of what can make a person so cruel. This runs through the entire film and an attempt is made to find an answer based on various images, for example of mass marches and speeches by the Nazis and fascists. Excerpts from Nazi propaganda films are also shown, often ironically commented on by the director. At the end of the film the “capitalist profiteers of the war” and the fascists of the present are shown: fascist currents in the USA, South America and Europe. The last sequence shows children in whose hands the future of humanity lies.
Footage
For his documentation, Romm evaluated film material that the Red Army seized after the invasion of Germany. Most of it comes from the former Reich Film Archive and ended up in the Soviet Union as spoils of war . There was also additional archive material and some private recordings; Together with his colleagues, he viewed more than two million exposed film meters.
Film aesthetics
In order to convey his cinematic message, Michail Romm chose a direct dialogue; At the beginning he addresses the audience personally and the translator sitting next to him invites the viewer to “think with [him]”.
Romm shows a large number of recordings, including speeches by Hitler and Mussolini. However, he is less concerned with the speaker's rhetorical skills than with their behavior and gestures . Mussolini's mouth movements are particularly noticeable, which are ridiculed by the long focus and Romm's comment.
Many images are commented on laconically and give the film a cheerful atmosphere in places, for example when Hindenburg cannot find his way while walking through a formation . Romm's ridicule is also reflected in one of the chapter headings, “ Mein Kampf or how to work calfskins”, which shows how tanners and bookbinders make a particularly valuable edition of Hitler's “Book of Germans”.
Such ironic representations are often followed by scenes of great cruelty, for example at the beginning, after the representation of a mother with her child in a peaceful atmosphere, there is a representation of a soldier who shoots a mother; After a scene, which is also commented on, which deals with racial hygiene , there are pictures of soldiers who were photographed standing next to the dead with happy expressions on their faces.
The creative means of contrast shows that Michail Romm learned his profession from Sergei Eisenstein . It was based on the model of the Soviet silent films, the icon of which is Eisenstein; hard contrasts, detailed shots and representations such as those found in B. appear in the armored cruiser Potemkin , are typical of its aesthetics and also that of ordinary fascism .
backgrounds
The fact that ordinary fascism was not banned by the party leadership of the CPSU was thanks to the film Romm's commitment. He betrayed those responsible in Moscow and in 1965 sent the film to the VIII International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film , where the film was great Received approval and was awarded the special prize of the jury. After its celebrated premiere, however, it was not allowed to be shown on television and was only accessible to a select audience. The book for the film was also not allowed to appear - with the comment of the censor "Millions [would] have seen it (the film) and millions [would have] forgotten it."
The reason why the party leadership in Moscow wanted to have the film banned was the way the scenes of violence were depicted. This violence was attributed to the fascists, but many Soviet citizens also experienced things like those shown in the film, namely under the rule of Stalin . Opinions deviating from the party were neither wanted nor approved in Soviet socialism. The film contains not only a criticism of fascism, but of totalitarianism itself, be it fascist or communist coloring, guided by the question " how to behave when power is totalitarian. "
Reviews
“Classic documentary in which Michail Romm questions the traditional images of the Third Reich. From around two million meters of material in the Reichsfilmarchiv, from newsreels and photos of individual soldiers, he filters moments that show how much National Socialist Germany relied on mass suggestion, the eradication of thought and reason, and unconditional obedience to the "Führer". In impressive montages he shows the transformation of the civilian crowd into a uniformed society. "
"An unusual and interesting, but also informative and serious analysis that can be recommended to both young people and adults."
Workbook for the film
- The Ordinary Fascism - A workbook for the film by Michael Romm , Eds. Wolfgang Beilenhoff and Sabine Hänsgen with the participation of Maja Turowskaja, Verlag Vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009
See also
literature
- Michael Töteberg (Ed.): Metzler Film Lexicon. JB Metzler Verlag
- Ordinary fascism . A workbook for the film by Michail Romm, edited by Wolfgang Beilenhoff and Sabine Hänsgen with the collaboration of Maja Turowskaja, screenwriter of the film. vorwerk 8, Berlin 2009, 335 pages
Web links
- Ordinary Fascism in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ordinary fascism on filmz.de
- Review of the workbook on Deutschlandfunk As an audio file
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from: Töteberg (Ed.): Metzler Film Lexikon , p. 474.
- ↑ a b Töteberg (Ed.): Metzler Film Lexikon , p. 474.
- ↑ a b c d Maja Turowskaja about Ordinary Fascism on the website of the Documentary Film Festival in Leipzig ( Memento of the original from July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Ordinary fascism. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 8, 2017 .
- ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 473/1965
