Iron curtain auteurs lost voices from East Germany's DEFA Studios.(Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft)(Viewpoint essay)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Though much critical attention is given to West German films associated with Neue Deutsche Kino, the cinematic achievements of East Germany, or Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), have been far less visible. To reverse this trend, the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst partnered with the distributor First Run Features (FRF) in 2001 to make some of the most important films from East Germany commercially available in the US. FRF's DEFA Collection currently includes around thirty titles, fourteen of which were recently ranked within the "100 Most Important German Films" of all time. Rather than comparing DEFA's legacy to that of Neue Deutsche Kino, then, or judging them according to the same values and terms, we should rather look to what makes these films distinctive, which is so often their sense of raw urgency, a combination of idealism and frustration in the face of uncomfortable realities. When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, some East German filmmakers felt a sense of relief, hoping that tensions between East and West would relax enough for them to begin addressing questions and experiences unique to life in the DDR. Unlike the Allied command, which dismantled Germany's once powerful studio system, UFA, Soviet forces instead nationalized film production and recast it as the DEFA Studios, which would go on to produce over 7,500 films between 1946 and 1992. For DEFA, the state-controlled funding and monopoly on film production proved to be a double-edged sword that allowed film culture to flourish in East Germany but also yoked it to party politics.

FRF's DEFA Collection highlights the work of important directors such as Frank Beyer, Konrad Wolf, Wolfgang Staudte, Heiner Carow, and Kurt Maetzig, but also covers a range of genres, styles, and themes from the 1940s to the 1990s. DEFA's considerable strengths in documentary, animation, and puppet and "trick" films aren't addressed by the FRF collection, but those absences don't detract from the formal sophistication and meaningful narratives of the films that are included. These films are all marked in some way by the contradictions of East German life and cultural policy, but many nevertheless succeed in transcending those strictures. There are some missteps, of course, but they are more the exception than the rule and are often enjoyable for precisely the same reason. In comparison to Hollywood's own wooden ideology, the at times dogmatic celebration of socialism and proletarian life in these films can also be as refreshing as it is transparent. A teen musical that can allude to Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt is certainly a step above a soapy Sandra Dee flick. The genre pictures-which include three Westerns, three sci-fi films, and a teen musical--are likely to appeal to the broadest swath of audiences, particularly connoisseurs of camp and cult fare. With those niches in mind, FRF has wisely chosen to market DEFA's sci-fi films as "Midnight Movies." Sold both individually and as a box set, the discs come with interesting extras, including contemporary newsreels, trailers, and other background information that was illuminating, if difficult to read on a small screen.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Described as "the East German Grease" on its cover, Joachim Hasler's 1968 hit, Hot Summer, stars two East German pop sensations (Chris Doerk and Frank Schobel) in a story of twelve girls and eleven boys--you do the tragic math--who hitchhike to the Baltic Sea for a summer vacation. The love triangle between focal characters Brit, Wolf, and Kai stands at the center of the story but never consumes it the way lead actors often do in Hollywood films. The musical in this respect seems like a perversely appropriate genre for a socialist celebration of the working masses. And the rivalry between the girls and boys is enjoyably comical, particularly when they compete for transportation to the coast. (Recognizing the power of sex appeal, the girls, of course, win.) In one comic scene, the boys are given a lift by a member of a female collective of farmers, women whose physical strength and control of heavy industrial equipment comically dwarfs the lighthearted machismo of the teens. In general, DEFA's representation of women and female sexuality puts Hollywood's record to shame (perhaps most directly in Her Third, an idiosyncratic drama from 1971). For those worried about raising their children in our age of consumerist princess culture, these movies provide a restful, if imperfect, ...