Visions of Defeat

Essay aus dem Jahr 2008 im Fachbereich Medien / Kommunikation - Film und Fernsehen Sprache: Deutsch Abstract: At the end of World War II Germany's cities were in ruins its people shattered by 6 years of Total War and vilified as guilty monsters around the world. Curt Reiss returned German émigré and American War Correspondent described the streets of 1945 Berlin as endless ruins [...]bombed out tanks the ubiquitous machine guns and helmets shot to pieces. This fantastic landscape and guilty citizens fascinated filmmakers. They produced films which tried to depict the implications of defeat for Germany and for the victors. The backdrop to these films was the endless ruins and in the foreground the questions of guilt and redemption.This essay examines three films which present Germany's defeat and how filmmakers dealt with questions of guilt responsibility Germany's possible redemption and the affect of victory on Allied soldiers. The films are: Die Mörder sind unter uns 1946 Wolfgang Staudte Germany DEFA A Foreign Affair 1948 Billy Wilder US Paramount and The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed UK London Films. Elsaesser says that cinema describes its times calling it a colourful chronotope [which] provides an easily recognizable but also superficial time/space iconography (Elsaesser 2003 33). Neorealism is suggested by Ezra as the main Post-War genre used to describe the destroyed cities shattered lives and the difficulties of re-integrating former soldiers back in to society saying the privations suffered by populations of Europe were both captured and transformed into the first great genre to emerge at the end of the war Italian Neorealism (Ezra 20049). It is clear however that in the films under discussion this is not the principle style used by Staudte Wilder and Reed.