Basement film
Basement films or shelf films , after Kurt Maetzig's The Rabbit, I am also insultingly referred to as rabbit films , were unofficially called those films produced in the GDR that were not released for performance after their completion due to state censorship . They got their name because they were stored in the GDR State Film Archive and were not accessible to film scholars either. A large part of the cellar films comes from the years 1965 and 1966, when many cultural workers were hoping for political liberalization and dared to try socially realistic film material. These hopes were dashed with the XI. Plenary session of the Central Committee of the SED , as a result of which a number of films were banned, which is why they were also referred to as plenary films . Film scholarly bodies in the post-reunification era, such as the DEFA Foundation, on the other hand, predominantly use the term prohibited films .
The most famous of the more than 20 GDR cellar films is Frank Beyer's Trace of Stones .
history
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When the hope of a liberalization process arose in the GDR in the mid-1960s, a number of feature films went into production that dealt critically with everyday life in the GDR and turned against narrow-minded dogmatics without, however, leaving the world of ideas of socialism. At the 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee in December 1965, ideological hardliners prevailed and the films The Rabbit I Am ( Kurt Maetzig , 1965), Just Don't Think I'm Howling ( Frank Vogel , 1965) and The Spring Needs prevailed Time ( Günter Stahnke , 1965) was forbidden. Maetzig had drawn a critical picture of an opportunistic judge, Vogel portrayed a youth who opposed his hypocritical environment and Stahnke addressed incompetent leadership figures in the economy.
Subsequently, further bans related to the films Karla ( Herrmann Zschoche , 1966) about a courageous teacher, Berlin around the corner ( Gerhard Klein , 1965) about the Berlin working-class milieu, the comedies When you grow up, dear Adam ( Egon Günther , 1965) and hands up or I'll shoot ( Hans-Joachim Kasprzik , 1966) and the Ernst Barlach film The Lost Angel ( Ralf Kirsten , 1966). With Spur der Steine ( Frank Beyer , 1966) the filmmakers hoped to be able to overcome the censorship with the participation of the popular leading actor Manfred Krug . The film was shown at short notice, but withdrawn after staged protests in the cinemas on Ulbricht's instructions. The film year 45 ( Jürgen Böttcher , 1966) was also banned, although it did not make a political statement, but rather observed the wrong ways of a young man in Prenzlauer Berg in the style of the Nouvelle Vague .
Even later there were occasional bans on showing films in the GDR, for example for Heiner Carow's Die Russenommen (1968), for Iris Gusner's Die Taube auf dem Dach (1973) and for Rainer Simons Jadup and Boel from 1981, which, however, in 1988 but still came into the cinemas. After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the basement films were fetched from the archive, partially completed and reconstructed, and made accessible to the public at the beginning of 1990 at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin and on the occasion of the Berlinale .
List of GDR cellar and prohibition films
- 1950/51: Das Beil von Wandsbek - Director: Falk Harnack based on the novel by Arnold Zweig , performed on May 11, 1950, "withdrawn from distribution" on July 7, 1951, 1962 performance of a heavily abridged version, 1981 reconstruction and Performance of the original version for the 75th birthday of the main actor Erwin Geschonneck
- 1957: Die Schönste - Director: Ernesto Remani , after numerous changes finally banned in 1959, premiere May 24, 2002
- 1958: Sun Seeker - Director: Konrad Wolf , first performance September 1, 1972 (TV premiere: March 27, 1972)
- 1960: Sommerwege - Director: Hans Lucke , performance prohibited after completion, first performance October 27, 2014
- 1961: Das Kleid - Director: Konrad Petzold , banned after completion shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall, first performance February 9, 1991
- 1962: Monologue for a taxi driver - director: Günter Stahnke , TV film based on a scenario by Günter Kunert , prohibited at the end of 1962, first screening January 25, 1990
- 1965: Spring takes time - Director: Günter Stahnke , started on November 26, 1965, banned, revival on January 18, 1990
- 1965: I am the rabbit - director: Kurt Maetzig , not permitted for performance, first performance December 13, 1989
- 1965: Just don't think, I'm crying - Director: Frank Vogel , test performance, ban, first performance January 11, 1990
- 1965: Karla - director: Herrmann Zschoche , canceled and forbidden, reconstructed, first performance June 14, 1990
- 1965: When you grow up, dear Adam - Director: Egon Günther , banned before completion, partially destroyed, first performance October 18, 1990
- 1965: Berlin around the corner - director: Gerhard Klein , rough cut version prohibited, first performance of the cut version 10 November 1987, 1990 production of a rental version, premiere 10 May 1990
- 1966: Hands up or I'll shoot - Director: Hans-Joachim Kasprzik , initially withheld, then forbidden, first performance June 28, 2009
- 1966: Fräulein Schmetterling - Director: Kurt Barthel , the rough cut broken off, reconstructed as a fragment in 2005 and performed for the first time in June 2005
- 1966: Spur der Steine - Director: Frank Beyer , editing changed several times, banned after the premiere in 1966, re-performance on November 23, 1989
- 1966: Year 45 - Director: Jürgen Böttcher , rough cut canceled, ban, first performance February 6, 1990
- 1966: The Lost Angel - Director: Ralf Kirsten , forbidden, after cuts on April 22, 1971, only a few copies allowed
- 1968: The Russians are coming - Director: Heiner Carow , banned after completion, scenes were used in Carow's career , reconstruction and first performance December 3, 1987
- 1973: The Dove on the Roof - Director: Iris Gusner , not removed after completion, color version missing, premiere of the black and white version October 7, 1990
- 1974: Polizeiruf 110: At the age of ... - Director: Heinz H. Seibert (1974) / Hans Werner (2011). Was destroyed by order, the later found camera negative was reworked. Premiere of the reconstruction: June 23, 2011.
- 1977: Fire Below Deck - Director: Herrmann Zschoche , banned after Manfred Krug's departure for the FRG before the premiere, first screening on June 6, 1979 on GDR television, from 1981 onwards in the cinema
- 1981: Jadup und Boel - Director: Rainer Simon , changed several times, finally banned in 1983, premiere on May 12, 1988 and subsequent cinema release with a few copies
- 1983: Island of the Swans - Director: Herrmann Zschoche , censored and partially prohibited from performing
Situation in other socialist countries
In the other socialist countries, too, there was film censorship, albeit at different times and locations. In Czechoslovakia, for example, many of the films made in the so-called Czech New Wave of the early 1960s were prohibited from showing , including some by Pavel Juráček , Jiří Menzel and Věra Chytilová . After the crackdown on the Prague Spring by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, this censorship intensified considerably, especially during the so-called “ normalization ”.
Examples from the Soviet Union include the 1967 film Die Kommissarin von Alexander Askoldow or the 1984 film Die Reue von Tengis Abuladze , which only came to the cinema and festival honors as a result of perestroika after 1987/88.
The most prominent Hungarian prohibited film is probably the film Der Zeuge [A tanú] by Péter Bacsó from 1969, which, although slightly censored, was shown for the first time in 1981 at the Cannes Film Festival , and again in 2019, now in full uncensored version.
Situation in Poland
Due to the comparatively large artistic freedom of his “Filmic Working Groups” [Zespoły Filmowe] , which emerged in the wake of the post-Stalinist “ thaw ” from the mid-1950s , in Poland - unlike in neighboring countries with more preventive censorship - numerous films could be produced that only began in the They were subsequently banned by the authorities, but were at least "in the world" because of this, and so some of them still saw the light of day even decades later. The following table lists the 26 longest banned Polish films, the majority of which are feature film productions:
Movie title | Director | production | premiere | Prohibited Years |
---|---|---|---|---|
Długa noc [The Long Night] | pl: Janusz Nasfeter | 1967 | 1992 | 25th |
Ósmy dzień tygodnia [ The eighth day of the week ] | Aleksander Ford | 1958 | 1983 | 25th |
Ręce do góry [ hands up! ] | Jerzy Skolimowski | 1967 | 1985 | 18th |
Diabeł [The Devil] | Andrzej Żuławski | 1972 | 1988 | 16 |
Na srebrnym globie [ The Silver Planet ] | Andrzej Żuławski | 1976/87 | 1988 | 12 |
Zasieki [wire entanglements] | pl: Andrzej Jerzy Piotrowski | 1973 | 1983 | 10 |
Głowy pełne gwiazd [Stars full of stars] | Janusz Kondratiuk | 1974 | 1983 | 9 |
Pełnia nad głowami [full moon above their heads] | pl: Andrzej Czekalski | 1974 | 1983 | 9 |
Jej portret [your portrait] | pl: Mieczysław Waśkowski | 1974 | 1982 | 8th |
Przesłuchanie [ interrogation of a woman ] | Ryszard Bugajski | 1982 | 1989 | 7th |
Choinka strachu [Christmas tree of fear] | pl: Tomasz Lengren | 1982 | 1989 | 7th |
Kobieta samotna [a single woman] | Agnieszka Holland | 1981 | 1988 | 7th |
Wigilia [Christmas Eve] | pl: Leszek Wosiewicz | 1982 | 1988 | 6th |
Stan wewnętrzny [The inner state] | pl: Krzysztof Tchórzewski (reżyser) | 1983 | 1989 | 6th |
Wolny strzelec [The Freelancer] | pl: Wiesław Saniewski | 1981 | 1987 | 6th |
Palace Hotel [Palace Hotel] | pl: Ewa Kruk | 1977 | 1983 | 6th |
Przypadek [ Chance may be ] | Krzysztof Kieślowski | 1981 | 1987 | 6th |
Matka Królów [Mother Król and her sons] | Janusz Zaorski | 1982 | 1987 | 5 |
Wielki bend [the great run] | pl: Jerzy Domaradzki | 1981/85 | 1986 | 5 |
Grzechy dzieciństwa [The Sins of Childhood] | pl: Krzysztof Nowak-Tyszowiecki | 1980 | 1984 | 4th |
Indeks (Życie i twórczość Józefa M.) [Study book (Life and work of Józef M.)] |
pl: Janusz Kijowski | 1977 | 1981 | 4th |
Niedzielne igraszki [Sunday games] | Robert Gliński | 1983 | 1987 | 4th |
Wierna rzeka [The Faithful Stream] | pl: Tadeusz Chmielewski (reżyser) | 1983 | 1987 | 4th |
Jak żyć [How to Live] | pl: Marcel Łoziński | 1977 | 1981 | 4th |
Był Jazz [There was jazz] | Feliks Falk | 1981 | 1984 | 3 |
Concert [The Concert] | Michał Tarkowski | 1982 | 1985 | 3 |
literature
- Christiane Mückenberger (Ed.): Predicate: Particularly harmful. Berlin 1990.
- Ralf Schenk (Red.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg 1946-1992. Berlin 1994.
- Günter Agde (Ed.): Kahlschlag: the 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee. Berlin 2000.
Web links
Ralf Schenk & Gudrun Scherp (editors); Johannes Roschlau (texts); Merle Bargmann & Philip Zengel (design): Online exhibition: DEFA prohibition films. DEFA Foundation , 2015 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg Schweinitz: cellar film / shelf film . In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Reclams Sachlexikon des Films. 2nd Edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-010625-9 , p. 341 f.
- ^ Online exhibition: DEFA prohibition films. DEFA Foundation , 2015, accessed on May 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Cinematography w Polsce Ludowej 1945-1980 ; Redakcja Wydawnictw Filmowych ZRF, Warszawa 1980, pp. 173-177.