Veit Harlan: The Life and Work of a Nazi Filmmaker

Description

Veit Harlan (1899–1964) was one of Germany's most controversial and loathed directors. After studying with theatre and film pioneer Max Reinhardt and beginning a promising career, he became one of Joseph Goebbels's leading filmmakers under the National Socialist regime. Harlan's Jud Süss (Jew Suss, 1940), in particular, stands as one of the most artistically distinct and morally reprehensible films produced by the Third Reich. His involvement with this movie has led to many critical questions: Was the director truly forced to make the film under penalty of death? Is anti-Semitism a theme in his other productions? Can and should his work be studied in light of the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust? The first English-language biography of the notorious director, Veit Harlan presents an in-depth portrait of the man who is arguably the only Nazi filmmaker with a distinct authorial style and body of work. Author Frank Noack reveals that both Harlan's life and work were marked by creative vision, startling ambiguities, and deep moral flaws. His meticulously detailed study explores the director's influence on German cinema and places his work within the contexts of World War II and film history as a whole. Rivaled only by Leni Riefenstahl, Veit Harlan remains one of Germany's most infamous filmmakers, and virtually every book on Nazi cinema contains at least one chapter about Harlan or an analysis of one of his movies. This biography―supplemented by production histories and rare interviews with actors, actresses, and cameramen―offers the first comprehensive analysis of the director and his work and adds new perspective to the growing body of scholarship on filmmaking under the Third Reich. Frank Noack, former film reviewer for the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, is the author of Jannings: Der erste deutsche Weltstar. "The research here is impeccable. An enjoyable and informative experience!"―Antje Ascheid, author of Hitler's Heroines: Stardom and Womanhood in Nazi Cinema Front cover......Page 1 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Author’s Note......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 1 The Father......Page 34 2 The Son......Page 38 3 Youth Culture......Page 44 4 Lights, Camera, Action......Page 54 5 Kunz versus Cohn......Page 61 6 The Interview......Page 73 7 Telling Others How to Act......Page 84 8 Learning the Alphabet......Page 90 9 Prestige......Page 100 10 Politics......Page 112 11 The Girl in the Water......Page 127 12 Adultery......Page 146 13 The Trap......Page 162 14 The Catastrophe of Success......Page 181 PHOTOGRAPHS......Page 202 15 Blood and Soil......Page 234 16 The German Soul......Page 248 17 Frenzy......Page 262 18 Opfergang......Page 270 19 Perseverance......Page 280 20 In the Ruins of the Reich......Page 296 21 The Trial......Page 308 22 The Second Trial......Page 316 23 Heimatfilm Noir......Page 326 24 Exile......Page 348 25 Youth Culture Revisited......Page 368 26 Exhaustion......Page 393 Epilogue......Page 406 Acknowledgments......Page 416 Appendix......Page 420 Notes......Page 424 Bibliography......Page 456 Index......Page 472