German Film 1

Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou’s Die Frau im Mond (1929)

Copy of the lecture slides?

• E-mail me on ben.morgan@worc.ox.ac.uk

Part I

Introduction

The 4 lectures

• 1. Die Frau im Mond (1929) (screening Thursday 1st week, 7.45pm)

• 2. Zu neuen Ufern (1937)

• 3. In jenen Tagen (1947) (screening Thurs 3rd week, 7.45pm)

• 3. Das Mädchen Rosemarie (1958)

My general line

• Slogan: “The meaning of a film is its use” – Cf. For a large class of cases--though not for all--in which

we employ the word "meaning" it can be defined thus: the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

Ludwig Wittgestein, Philosophical Investigations, §43

• Occasions where film is used– Cf. We don’t start from certain words, but from certain

occasions or activities.’ (p. 3)Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations on

Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief (1938, published 1966)

More on my general line

• Just focusing on reception, conditions of distribution v. looking at developing conventions of narrative cinema. “Ordinary Language” of film– Cf. “Our common stock of words embodies all th edistinctions men have

found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth marking, in lifetimes of many generations”

– J. L. Austin, ‘A Pleas for Excuses,’ Philosophical Papers 3rd ed., p. 182

• Narrative cinema: film used for reflecting on our reasons for doing things– Cf. Heidegger, Being and Time, §18. Encountering things as part of a

purpose, towards an aim. Always already involved in reasons for doing things

1st example:

• A film from 1929– Transition from silent to sound (Ich küsse ihre

Hand , Madame premiere 17 Jan 1929)– Pre-Wall St crash/political success of NSDAP– Material easily available: Gandert, Gero, ed. Der

Film Der Weimarer Republik 1929: Ein Handbuch Der Zeitgenössischen Kritik. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1993

Lang/Harbou Die Frau im Mond

• Lang/Harbou’s last silent film

• Popular success plus Critical engagement with developing conventions of narrative cinema

• Question of the right sort of narrative explicitly addressed in the reception

Frau im Mond: the plot

• Helius disappointed in love embarking on moon voyage with Manfeldt. Evil financial syndicate trying to gain access to gold reserves on the moon

Part II

Reception of Lang and Harbou’s film

Reception of the film

• “Der ganze Phantasterei der Vorgeschichte und die ganze Utopie der Mondfahrt scheint nur in Szene gesetzt, damit sich die beiden endlich finden […]. Die Liebesgeschichte vermag den großen Apparat nicht zu durchdringen.”

• D. "„Frau Im Mond.“ Ufa-Palast Am Zoo." Der Abend, 16th October 1929

• “The cosmic enterprise was staged with a surprising veracity of vision; the plot was pitiable for its emotional shortcomings.”

• Kracauer, Siegried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of German Film. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1947, p. 151.

• Ziese, Max. "Fritz Lang: „Frau Im Mond“." Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 16th October 1929.

More recent assessment of Frau im Mond

• Reactionary modernism?– Cf. Rainer Eisfeld’s afterword to Harbou,

Thea von. Die Frau Im Mond. Edited by Rainer Eisfeld. Munich: Heyne, 1989.

Counter-example

• Asphalt (1929), dir. Joe May. Starring Gustav Fröhlich and Betty Amann.

• Reviews available in Gandert 1993.

Part III

Reasons for doing things on the moon

Professor Manfeldt’s idolatry of gold reserves in Die Frau im Mond (1929).

Reasons for doing things in the novel• “»Wer wandert, der kommt ans Ziel […]. Ja, ja —

nur muß man den Ehrgeiz zu Hause lassen. Wer einfach wandert und wandert, der wird es zuletzt erleben, daß alle Dinge der Welt ihm entgegengehen. Sie kommen ganz sacht auf ihn zu und sagen: Da sind wir!« (Die Frau im Mond, pp. 94-95).

• “»Ich habe die Wahrheit getan. Begreifst du mich nicht? Die Wahrheit ist, daß ich lieber mit dir in den Wüsten des Mondes sterben will, als ohne dich leben in den Paradiesen der Erde«” (Die Frau im Mond, p. 206).

Intellectual context

• Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927)

• Critical commentary: Adorno, Theodor W. Jargon Der Eigentlichkeit. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1964.

The axis of action

Crossing the axis of action

Showing people’s backs

Cinematic traditions

Cinematic traditions

Bordwell, David. The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.

Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985

The material world in the foreground in sharper focus than the characters

Foregrounding objects

Administering medical assistance on the moon

Lunar exploration as a suitable subject for being filmed

Movement by or in front of the camera

Cultural context

• Neufeld, Michael J. "Weimar Culture and Futuristic Technology: The Rocketry and Spaceflight Fad in Germany, 1923-19233." Technology and Culture 31, no. 4 (1990): 525-52.

Uses of photography

• Anonymous. "Ausstellung Film Und Photo." Berliner Börsen-Zeitung, 16th October 1929

• “ein riesiges Aufgebot von Effekten, deren Schauwert nicht allzu groß ist, mit innerer Leere.”

• D. "„Frau Im Mond.“ Ufa-Palast Am Zoo." Der Abend, 16th October 1929

Recent assessment

• Die Frau im Mond “is a film in which Lang seems to bypass character in favor of a drama of technology.”

• Gunning, Tom. The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity. London: bfi, 2000, p. 173