Instructions: Write a 3-5 page paper (double-spaced) in response to one the following questions. When you discuss the films in your paper, do not be too general: give specific examples of characters and scenes and plot points. If your memory is hazy and you feel that you need to see the film again, you can watch any of the movies from this course at the library. They are all on reserve. You should use material from articles and documents posted on Blackboard, including direct quotations, if documents are mentioned in the question. When citing information or quotations from the packet you do need to give a full citation; just write the author's last name and the page number and put it in a footnote or in brackets at the end of the sentence. [Zweig, p. 29] Please use either italics or quotation marks to identify the titles of all movies mentioned in your paper [Nosferatu or "Nosferatu"].
If you are having a hard time remembering the names of characters, specific plot points, or the name of the director or screenwriter, I suggest that you consult the internet. All of the films that we are watching in this course are quite famous, and you can find detailed Wikipedia articles for most of them. You do not need to give a citation for general information about the film taken from the internet (names of characters, for example), but if you include a detail about the movie taken from the internet or a book that is not something we have talked about in class you need to include a citation.
A hard copy of this paper is due in class on Friday, Oct. 14.
Topic #1: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) could both be described as horror films. The supernatural plot elements, the expressionistic lighting, the weird sets and costumes, and the stylized acting are clearly not employed to convey a "realistic" portrayal of everyday German life in the early 1920s. But if we look closely, we may find that these films can in fact tell us a great deal about the troubled early years of the Weimar Republic. The central figure of fear in each film-Dr. Caligari and Count Orlok-is an outsider, a stranger, perhaps a foreigner, who arrives in a small German town, bringing with him death, crime, murder, pestilence. Both characters also appear to have the ability to cast a spell-to bring innocent people under their power and to use them for evil deeds.
Could these two films be reflecting the very real fears of ordinary Germans in the early 1920s? Faced with military defeat, economic chaos, and political instability, many Germans were looking for scapegoats, someone or some group to blame for the disasters which had overtaken their country. The scapegoats might be an ethnic or religious minority (Jews), a political ideology (socialism, communism), or foreigners (Americans). To what extent is it fair to interpret these two films as a reflection of Weimar Germany's fear of foreigners, invasion, strangers, non-German cultures? (Scholars often refer to this as fear of "the other.") Can you find examples of characters or plot elements in the two films that would support this interpretation?
Look at the two documents on Blackboard for the Sept 16 class. In the first document a right-wing German writer blames the Russian Revolution on the Jews and fears that communism may spread to Germany; in the second document a female German writer describes a Jazz band with fascinated horror. Does the unease expressed in these two pieces of writing have any connection to the fears and anxieties which we find in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu? When all is said and done, are you comfortable analyzing these two movies in search of hidden social and political messages, or do you think they can better be understood as popular entertainments with no real connection to the politics of the day? (There is no right answer to this last question: give me your honest opinion.)
Topic #2: A major theme of the film Metropolis (1927) is modern technology and its interaction with human beings. What is the filmmakers' attitude towards technology? Do they fear it? Celebrate it? Does the technology in the movie's futuristic city improve or injure the lives of its citizens? Look at three of the documents posted on Blackboard for Sept. 23: the pieces by Zweig, Lorsy, and Sieburg. What sorts of fears and anxieties do these authors have about the modernization and Americanization of German society in the 1920s? Do the makers of Metropolis, the director Fritz Lang and his wife screenwriter Thea von Harbou, share these concerns? Even though the movie is set in the future, does it actually reflect the anxieties of the 1920s? Does the film take a consistent attitude towards technology? Do the filmmakers offer a solution to the dangers posed by technology in modern life?