Moral film

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A moral film is a film that deals with taboo subjects under the guise of enlightenment , mostly from the area of sexuality .

description

The film genre of the “moral films” was used for erotic entertainment and reached its peak in Germany from around 1918, aided by the fact that there was no film censorship between November 1918 and May 1920 . The genre experienced a brief renaissance in the late 1920s.

In terms of their dramaturgical structure, the majority of the films were based on crime films and melodrama . The plot only served as a motor for the representation of key scenes typical of the genre such as seduction , undressing, rape , fetishism and sexual perversion . The focus was not on the joy of sexuality, but on the compulsions and violence that it exerts on people.

Even if the “moral film” is often equated with the educational film , it differs from it in its exploitative character and the primarily voyeuristic aim of the content.

Quote

“The moral film is called the moral film because it is considered immoral. He occasionally grieves the public prosecutor's office, and so does the audience. I have not yet been able to find out who actually enjoys it. "

- Rudolf Walter Leonhardt : X times Germany. Munich 1961, p. 411

literature

  • Malte Hagener , Jan Hans (Ed.): Gender in fetters. Sexuality between enlightenment and exploitation in the Weimar cinema, 1918 - 1933. Munich: edition text + kritik, 2000.
  • Georg Seeßlen , Claudius Weil: Aesthetics of the erotic cinema. (Basics of popular film. 7) Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Georg Seeßlen, Claudius Weil: The German Sittenfilme. In: Dies .: Aesthetics of erotic cinema. Reinbek near Hamburg 1980, pp. 107-109.
  2. Hans Scheugl : Sexuality and Neurosis in Film. Munich 1978, p. 204.
  3. Keyword educational film. In: rororo Filmlexikon , vol. 1. Reinbek near Hamburg 1978, p. 51 f.