Monthly Archives: February 2020

German Mockery

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The still I selected for this blog post came at the end of the film, To Be or Not To Be. I believe this scene plays a very important role in the theme of the film as it is evidence supporting the theme. The one theme behind the film was to point out the ignorance and scatterbrained mind of the German people. While the German’s were supposed to be highly intelligent people, this scene encapsulated the ignorance of them. They believed and disregarded an individual by a simple fake mustache. They then acted flabbergasted when he was not the man they thought he was. Another piece of evidence would be when all the men came into the meeting room within this scene. They all gave the “Heil Hitler,” salute. Any time this was performed in the film, the issue at hand was forgotten as everyone went and saluted. It is as if they are brainwashed and when something goes bad, all they have to do is salute and act as if the problem doesn’t exist anymore. They act as if the salute is a magical spell that will solve their problems for the German regime.

Blind Loyalty

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I chose these two stills because they showcase the sort of blind loyalty and the “no questions asked” atmosphere that Adolph Hitler was able to construct in his country. This sort of obedience and loyalty was crucial to Hitler’s, the Nazi’s and the Third Reich’s movement in Germany and their areas of interest in their conquests. But how?… How was Hitler able to ensure that his followers maintained this level of blind obedience and loyalty? The answer to this question is highly complex and the ways in which he achieved this level of discipline and obedience was not only through fear, but also through his effort of making those who followed him blindly feel very well cared for and playing on the natural human trait of wanting to feel like one is better than another. Hitler would make sure that those who followed him and took up his ideas as their own were very well taken care of. In the scene where Professor Siletsky is trying to persuade Maria Tura into being a “spy” for the Nazis, he promises her increased rations and her comfortable life back if she would come to the Nazi’s side and proclaim her allegiance to Hitler. By  promising great things and by making people feel superior to others, Hitler was able to create an almost god-like idealization of himself that his followers looked up to so much that they would even jump from an airplane to their death with no questions asked.

At the end Nothing really changed

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The still that I have chosen is the very last scene of the film which in my opinion shows  a major context of this film is that of the performance of all the actors both as their main character and then as their character’s characters. This scene shows that Joseph Tura no matter what stage he is on he can not recite Hamlet’s soliloquy without someone being displeased. Which is very funny, because after watching his performance as a Nazi Officer and his performance as Professor Siletsky. We see that is indeed a great actor he is able to trick Colonel Ehrhardt, his cohorts, and even Professor Siletsky even for a short amount of time. We can also see that Joseph’s performance can also be extended to improve. When he had to think of a way to convince Colonel Ehrhardt and his cohorts that he is the “real”  Professor Siletsky. Then another good scene that shows the actor’s talent for a serious performance would be when they executing their plan to escape Warsaw. Using their costumes from the very beginning of the film we see them give their greatest live performance. The group is committed into a serious like how the Producer Jan Dobosz wanted it in the start and wish that performance they were able to escape to England.

Performance of an Empire

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In this screenshot we Joseph Tura, dressed as the Nazi Colonel Ehrhardt, about to reenter the room that he left Professor Siletsky in. I believe that this screenshot speaks to the performance aspect of the movie. In my opinion, I believe that Lubitsch is speaking about the performative aspect that Nazi government utilized to draw support from the citizens of Germany and scare the rest of the world. During the Third Reich, there were many parades that involved Nazi soldiers and senior officers marching and putting on a performance for the public to gain support. Officers became famous to the public in Germany and outside of Germany, much like an actor does. By having Tura, an actor, impersonate Colonel Ehrhard, I believe Lubitsch is demonstrating his opinion that when it comes down to it, the Third Reich is in a sense a giant play, granted a giant play that committed horrible crimes against humanity, but a giant play none the less and the Nazi symbols and uniforms are nothing more than just props and costumes, as demonstrated by Tura leaving from the seating area of the theater, where a play would be watched, wearing a literal Nazi costume. News of a well produced performance can spread and reach many people far from the performance. For many people during this time, news of the Nazi parades and their might shown through their “performance” reached many countries. This is displayed by the shadows cast by the other actors and Sobinski who are also dressed as Nazi soldiers. Their shadows are present on the wall and are one of the main focal points. I am of the opinion that this symbolizes how the might of the Third Reich that was displayed through these “performances” casted a shadow on the rest of Europe.

Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness.

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The significance of this scene is Maria is about to be rescued by her husband Joseph Tura. He is wearing a false beard and glasses to disguise as professor Siletsky. Maria sabotages the report on the Polish underground but Joseph is in disguise of professor Siletksiy and is asked to meet the real colonel. The beginning of the meeting goes as planned, but is destroyed once the real professor is found dead. This is when Joseph decides to hide the dead body in a plot to protect his identity along with saving Maria. The reason I think this scene is significant is because the film “To Be Or Not To Be” can be considered a satire- connecting both drama and comedy. The comedy comes from the obvious sarcastic tone, however there are dramatic elements that occur  after this scene. Joseph tried to disguise himself as the professor and Maria eventually becoming a nazi spy through the element of seduction. In my personal opinion, one could even describe this film as a spy/thriller. This still from the movie captures the plot that Joseph disguise did work and that he captures the essence of a spy. Another important element to this still is the colorization and accent of the photo. Obviously the movie was made in a different era of ours- of course movies now-a-days are shot in black and white but the graininess of the photo proves its time period. Something else that stuck out to me was the lack of advance movie productions that film crews had in the 1940s. Without advance custom teams, prosthetics, or technology they were able to still capture the disguise that Joseph wore. And of course this costume added to the plot of the movie in regards to tricking characters. The still is a basic close up shot,but it captures the characters expression and essentially tells the story within itself.

You Are What You Eat

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The scene that I wanted to dive deeper into is in the beginning of the film when Greenberg turns to Mr. Rawitch and tells him “what you are, I wouldn’t eat.”  What is interesting in this scene is that it is the first major clue that Mr. Greenberg, besides his name, is a Jewish character and is performing ethnicity throughout the film.  The line is inferring the Mr. Rawitch is a ham, which in the acting industry means that he is very dramatic and thinks he’s the most important character. Although Mr. Greenberg does not mention him being a ham, he gets the reference right away, signalling that the characters know that he is Jewish.  This is one of the three main hints that he is playing a Jewish character in the film and the one that sticks out the most to me. In this scene the camera is centered straight on at the two actors, but instead of Mr. Rawitch looking at Mr. Greenberg he is looking at the camera which reinforces what Mr. Greenberg is saying.  He is always trying to get screen time and or thinks he is better than the other characters and won’t look at them unless they make claims about him. After Mr. Rawitch comes back saying “How dare you call me a ham,” the camera cuts quickly to another part of the stage which doesn’t let the joke or line linger and receive an audience reaction as much as it would otherwise.  I think this technique makes you think about the line more than you would have given there be a pause there and it doesn’t give room for the line to be perceived as a joke but rather characterization that factors into Mr. Greenberg’s final monologue and his performance in general.

Siletsky: A not-so-clueless Nazi?

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This still captures a moment that occurs just past the halfway point in the film, during which Professor Siletsky unravels Joseph Tura’s performance as Colonel Ehrhardt. At this point in the film, Tura has betrayed his identify by overreacting to Siletsky’s confession about Maria Tura’s infidelity. This moment complicates Lubitsch’s satirization of Nazis as easily-fooled and performative followers of an insubstantial political regime.  

Professor Siletsky is one of few, if not the only Nazi to demonstrate a convincing loyalty to the political party. He was seemingly genuine in his testimony to Maria Tura about Nazi ‘principles’ and ‘humanity,’ and here acts in accordance with loyalty to the party by exposing Joseph Tura and attempting to escape the theatre. Siletsky, unlike many of the Nazis in the film, fully believes in Naziism. Further, he sees through Joseph’s performance as Colonel Ehrhardt and soon bursts out of the staged room and into the theatre beyond, exemplifying his priviness to the act. Though he had earlier been fooled by Maria Tura’s performance as a dewy-eyed dame, Siletsky now disobeys the clueless Nazi trope Lubitsch has constructed in the film.  

Having gained the upper hand in this shot, Siletsky stands in the foreground and towers above the freshly-exposed Joseph Tura who sits in the background. Behind him, Tura’s stage becomes clear – the curtains fall behind him as if they were theatre curtains closing in on his act. Siletsky gazes down at Tura who looks nervously up at him. Since Siletsky stands to the left, our eye naturally follows his stare down from left to right. If one were to trace this gaze with a pen, the line would would pass through the swastika on the wall, as if Siletsky were looking through the Nazi front Tura has constructed. Whether they are due to Tura’s inadequacy as an actor, or to Siletsky’s true perceptiveness, Siletsky’s actions in this scene complicate Lubitsch’s satirization of Nazis in To Be or Not to Be. 

Who’s Running the Show?

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This scene stuck out to me during the film because it is the moment everyone realizes that they’ve lost control. It shows the uncertainty and helplessness the characters feel after the war sirens went off and the first bombs were dropped on Poland. I understand that this film is supposed to be ironic and hypocritical but I think this particular still contains a lot of irony in itself. The line, “The Nazis are putting on the show now — a much bigger one”, portrays their loss of power over the situation and also states that now this show/film is being put on/will be about the Nazis. In this still, the performers from the play are hiding. The characters they’re playing were powerful, high-titled people during their lives which makes it ironic that they’re now hiding from war.

What I found interesting about this still is the foreshadowing it is casting on the performers. The image that they are all squeezed in hiding and scared portends their possible future as refugees once the war hits Poland harder. This also could be foreshadowing a rise in the resistance, it could be portending a secret meeting between resisting Poles. This scene discloses a lot of different things which can be taken in multiple ways, but we can be sure that this still reveals unification amongst Poles against Nazis during this time as well as the new distribution of power to the Nazi regime.

A Shallow Act

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This screenshot depicts an actor posing as Hitler in Warsaw during the satirical film “To Be or Not to Be”. What I find so interesting about this specific scene is the look of confusion and almost bewilderment on the actor’s face when a young fan recognizes him. It is the perfect representation of how the Nazi uniform and the Hitler mustache were almost seen as a suit of armor at the time of this movie’s filming. These iconic symbols were synonymous with power and authority, and no one dared to question them, which is why, when the actor was posing as Hitler, he was shocked to have his disguise discovered. The camera angle is straight on and centers his shocked expression almost in the direct middle of the screen, further alluding to the masked humanity of the actor who is trying to disappear behind his authoritative disguise. This scene sets up a pervasive theme throughout the film, and an overall commentary on the superficial nature of the order and posing within the Third Reich. A band of actors is successful in extracting information from high-level Nazi officials by posing as high-level officials themselves, and no one questions their authority because they are in disguise and act as though they are in a position of authority. By deifying people as symbols, and losing sight of their undeniable humanity, the Nazis let themselves become fooled and easily manipulated by actors who only needed a few simple props. The reason it worked so well is because the Nazis knew the truth, that their leaders, just like the actors, were only human, but by refusing to question either, an illusion can be maintained. That is why this scene is so interesting to me. It showcases the fragility of the illusion, and yet it works so well because of the fragile illusion the Nazis themselves were trying to uphold.