Re: [Marxism] Another Stasi film? No thanks | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 4/4/18 11:58 AM, Daniel Lindvall wrote:
”Barbara” is IMO still one of the best films on DDR post-89. Here’s the 
first para of my review of it:


”/Barbara/ (2012), written and directed by Christian Petzold, is a 
remarkable film. It may well be the best so far of all the German films 
made in recent years on the still very much contentious subject of the 
defunct German Democratic Republic (GDR). Generally speaking, such 
films, at least the ones that have reached an international audience, 
tend to fall into two categories: those tinted by nostalgia (in German 
the term /Ostalgie/ – combining the words for ‘east’ and ‘nostalgia’ – 
is the label used for cultural expressions of nostalgia for the GDR) and 
those who, on the contrary, portray the GDR as a place of undiluted 
evil. /Good Bye, Lenin!/ (2003) and /The Lives of Others/ (2006) are 
probably the best-known examples of the respective category. 
/Barbara/ treads a path beyond these ideological dead-end alleys."


http://filmint.nu/?p=5881



My reviews of earlier Petzold films:

https://louisproyect.org/2008/05/12/yella/

https://louisproyect.org/2009/05/14/jerichow/
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Re: [Marxism] Another Stasi film? No thanks | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Daniel Lindvall via Marxism]

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”Barbara” is IMO still one of the best films on DDR post-89. Here’s the first 
para of my review of it:

”Barbara (2012), written and directed by Christian Petzold, is a remarkable 
film. It may well be the best so far of all the German films made in recent 
years on the still very much contentious subject of the defunct German 
Democratic Republic (GDR). Generally speaking, such films, at least the ones 
that have reached an international audience, tend to fall into two categories: 
those tinted by nostalgia (in German the term Ostalgie – combining the words 
for ‘east’ and ‘nostalgia’ – is the label used for cultural expressions of 
nostalgia for the GDR) and those who, on the contrary, portray the GDR as a 
place of undiluted evil. Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) and The Lives of Others (2006) 
are probably the best-known examples of the respective category. Barbara treads 
a path beyond these ideological dead-end alleys."

http://filmint.nu/?p=5881

Website: http://filmint.nu/
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> 4 apr. 2018 kl. 17:39 skrev Louis Proyect via Marxism 
> :
> 
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> 
> Ernie, I haven't seen "Barbara" but I refer to it favorably in this piece. I 
> got a chuckle out of the NY Times article referring to "mustache-twirling 
> villain", the same words I used in my Counterpunch article:
> 
> 
> In a NY Times profile of Christian Petzold, the director of “Barbara”, he 
> states that he did not want Stasi operatives to be “depicted as 
> mustache-twirling villains”. The eponymous lead character is a doctor who has 
> been banished to the countryside for some unspecified offense, where she is 
> snooped on by Stasi operatives. We learn from a review of the film that 
> Petzold was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, evidence of which is “the 
> prickles of unease that creep into his work, creating a cold climate of 
> paranoia and an oft-justified fear of an imminent threat.” I haven’t seen 
> this film but when it comes to prickles of unease, you can’t help but think 
> of Hitchcock’s “Torn Curtain”, where mustache-twirling villains abound.
> 
> https://louisproyect.org/2017/03/30/another-stasi-film-no-thanks/
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[Marxism] Another Stasi film? No thanks | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Ernie, I haven't seen "Barbara" but I refer to it favorably in this 
piece. I got a chuckle out of the NY Times article referring to 
"mustache-twirling villain", the same words I used in my Counterpunch 
article:



In a NY Times profile of Christian Petzold, the director of “Barbara”, 
he states that he did not want Stasi operatives to be “depicted as 
mustache-twirling villains”. The eponymous lead character is a doctor 
who has been banished to the countryside for some unspecified offense, 
where she is snooped on by Stasi operatives. We learn from a review of 
the film that Petzold was influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, evidence of 
which is “the prickles of unease that creep into his work, creating a 
cold climate of paranoia and an oft-justified fear of an imminent 
threat.” I haven’t seen this film but when it comes to prickles of 
unease, you can’t help but think of Hitchcock’s “Torn Curtain”, where 
mustache-twirling villains abound.


https://louisproyect.org/2017/03/30/another-stasi-film-no-thanks/
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