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The ministry of illusion : Nazi cinema and its afterlife
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The ministry of illusion : Nazi cinema and its afterlife

Author: Eric Rentschler
Publisher: Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1996.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
German cinema of the Third Reich, even a half-century after Hitler's demise, still provokes extreme reactions. More than a thousand German feature films that premiered during the reign of National Socialism survive as mementoes of what many regard as film history's darkest hour. As Eric Rentschler argues, however, cinema in the Third Reich emanated from a Ministry of Illusion and not from a Ministry of Fear. Party  Read more...
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Rentschler, Eric.
Ministry of illusion.
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1996
(OCoLC)653038944
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Eric Rentschler
ISBN: 067457639X 9780674576391 0674576403 9780674576407
OCLC Number: 34355001
Description: xvi, 456 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Contents: Introduction : The power of illusions --
Part 1 : Fatal attractions --
A legend for modern times : "The blue light" (1932) --
Emotional engineering : "Hitler youth quex" (1933) --
Part 2 : Foreign affairs --
Home sweet Heimat : "The Prodigal Son" (1934) --
Hollywood made in Germany : "Lucky kids" (1936) --
Astray in the new world : "Lat Habanera" (1937) --
Part 3 : Specters and shadows --
The elective other : "Jew süss" (1940) --
The Fuhrer's phantom : "Paracelsus" (1943) --
Self-reflexive self-destruction : "Munchhausen" (1943) --
Epilogue : The testament of Dr. Goebbels --
Appendix A : Films and events, 1933-1945 --
Appendix B : Directorial filmographies --
Appendix C : American film and videotape sources.
Responsibility: Eric Rentschler.

Abstract:

German cinema of the Third Reich, even a half-century after Hitler's demise, still provokes extreme reactions. More than a thousand German feature films that premiered during the reign of National Socialism survive as mementoes of what many regard as film history's darkest hour. As Eric Rentschler argues, however, cinema in the Third Reich emanated from a Ministry of Illusion and not from a Ministry of Fear. Party vehicles such as Hitler Youth Quex and anti-Semitic hate films such as Jew Suss may warrant the epithet "Nazi propaganda," but they amount to a mere fraction of the productions from this era. The vast majority of the epoch's films seemed to be "unpolitical"--melodramas, biopics, and frothy entertainments set in cozy urbane surroundings, places where one rarely sees a swastika or hears a "Sieg Heil." Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Rentschler shows, endeavored to maximize film's seductive potential, to cloak party priorities in alluring cinematic shapes. Hitler and Goebbels were master showmen enamored of their media images, the Third Reich was a grand production. The Nazis were movie mad, and the Third Reich was movie made. Rentschler's analysis of the sophisticated media culture of this period demonstrates in an unprecedented way the potent and destructive powers of fascination and fantasy. Nazi feature films--both as entities that unreeled in moviehouses during the regime and as productions that continue to enjoy wide attention today--show that entertainment is often much more than innocent pleasure [Publisher description]

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