Note: This article originally appeared on a site devoted to comparing two different versions of the same story. I decided to discontinue the site because the amount of work that went into the articles was well beyond the attention they received. I'm republishing this one here because it pertains to a film that I've already …
Category: Crime
East German Noir
Before I get too far into this article, I should point out that one’s opinion of what constitutes film noir is a highly subjective one. For some, the only films that qualify are those that contain the following elements: Black-and-White film Chiaroscuro lighting Made after World War II and before JFK became president An anti-hero …
Red Westerns
The American West is about as far from East Germany as one can get, politically, geographically, and philosophically, but Germans have a long—some might say bizarre—love affair with America’s past, and, in particular, the lives of the Indians who roamed the plains.1 Some Germans spend their summers living in teepees, wearing feathered headdresses and face …
The Murder of Rathenau
A 1961 television docudrama about the assassination of the German Foreign Minister for the Weimar Republic who tried to make peace with the Soviets. A morality play about the impossibility of finding common ground when you’re dealing with fascists.
The Night on the Autobahn
After graduating from medical school, a young doctor crosses paths with West German spies in this dark spy/crime film from the early sixties. Right after the Wall was built, politicians were anxious to demonstrate that the Wall would have no effect on creative freedom, and that, if anything, it would protect the average person from …
The Break-In
This DEFA/West German coproduction about a daring bank robber was a huge hit on both side of the German border. It’s based on an actual bank robbery that took place in Berlin in 1951. In November of 1951, a man named Walter Pannewitz rented office spaces on the ground floor of the Römischer Hof, a …
Those “Porcupine” Films (Das Stachetier)
If you’ve read more than a couple of the articles on this blog, you’ll have come across the name “Das Stacheltier.” Formed in 1953 as a subgroup of the documentary film group at DEFA, Das Stacheltier made short films intended to play before the main features at East German cinemas. Stacheltier means porcupine in German1, …
Heroin
The late sixties saw the trend in international intrigue move from the Cold War to the Drug War. It started with the made-for-TV movie The Poppy Is Also a Flower, which was financed by the United Nations in cooperation with the Xerox Corporation, and went through the early 1970s, reaching its apex with William Friedkin’s …
Murder on Monday
Germany has given the world plenty of great films and filmmakers, but their greatest contribution to genre cinema is the Krimifilm. Literally, this just means crime film, but the Krimi is much more than that. A good Krimi has a style and structure that started in the silent era, and can still be seen in …
What Should I Watch?
New to East German films? Here are a few from DEFA with English subtitles that are well worth seeing. All of these films are currently available on the Kanopy streaming service. I’m often asked for recommendations on East German movies that people should watch. There’s no one answer to this. I once showed my personal …
East German Cinema Blog 