Transit: our Natural State, or Hell on Earth?
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The Duality of the Soul
This clip depicts refugees singing together about their torment and pain as they remain in a state of transit in an attempt to flee their persecutors. Despite the director’s attempt to use this scene early in the film to paint the refugees as victims, this scene remains the most powerful depiction of humanity within the film. French philosopher Simone Weil, who starved to death while living under German occupation, believed that suffering causes the soul to cry out in two distinct voices. One voice which cries for relief, and the other which surrenders to the whims of a higher power. This scene is a beautiful and powerful depiction of the duality of the human spirit which Weil describes. These people are singing of their suffering to air their pain, but they do not beg for relief or for an answer. Through their painful song we see both a desire for an end to the suffering and insecurity, but we also see an acceptance of circumstance, and truth being felt by everyone who is singing. There are other scenes where people act more “normal”, but this is the only scene where people aren’t trying to ignore their circumstances, or ignoring their neighbors, or being depicted as helpless. Only in this scene do we see a deeper level to humanity, and emotional truth.
Popova, Maria. “How to Make Use of Our Suffering: Simone Weil on Ameliorating Our Experience of Pain, Hunger, Fatigue, and All That Makes the Soul Cry.” Brain Pickings, 14 Aug. 2016, www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/12/simone-weil-pain/.
A Once Wild Frontier
I find the theme of transit and human domination over an impossible landscape to be very powerful between these two scenes. It is very moving how, not luxurious exactly, but effortless it appears for the modern day scientists and travelers to get to Antartica. We see a group of adventurers lounging around a plane on their laptops and taking naps, and within a few hours they are safely on the ice and making their way to basecamp in a bus. The entire endeavor cannot last more than a day, and the worst hardship they might face is missing lunch or having to sleep in an uncomfortable position. In contrast we see clips from Shackleton’s famous expedition on the ship Endurance. After months of sailing to get to the bottom of the world their ship is caught in ice and they are forced to abandon it and make camp on the sea ice. After more than two years of some of the harshest conditions imaginable, including trekking over miles of uneven terrain like that which is shown in the clip with sleds weighing over one hundred pounds, Shackleton and his men were lucky to escape with their lives. Their survival became an epic tale and they never even managed to make it to the mainland of Antartica during that expedition. Nowadays that near-impossible feat can be accomplished in a fraction of the time with virtually no risks or struggle whatsoever. What was often thought of as a final frontier is all but conquered, and the extent of our progress is yet to find its limits.
Corrupt Officials Casablanca
In the scene building up to this clip, Rick and Captain Louis Renault (the local commanding police officer) discuss his next big arrest. Captain Renault is the prototypical corrupt police chief, who picks sides based on the highest bidder and own self-interests. Renault bolsters to Rick about how Major Strasser (the local Nazi leader) will be on hand to witness the arrest. The pair discuss “allegiances”, and the presence of two mysterious exit visas in Casablanca. Renault then tells Rick that there are rumors of a resistance fighter by the name of Victor Laszlo, who’s looking to obtain these exit visas. The clip begins with Renault proclaiming he must obey the orders of the Nazis, followed by Rick calling Renault a “GestapoSpank”. This slur perfectly describes the corrupt police officer, who is willing to undermine and oppress the refugees displaced in Casablanca at the time. Renault defends his position by saying that in Casablanca he is the master of his own fate.
This ties into the themes of refugees and transit. Throughout history, people in authoritative positions of power have been exploiting refugees in transit. Rick’s American Cafe, acting as the Refugee camp of today’s standard. Where just like today people prey upon the misplaced, desperate traveler. Abruptly one of Renault’s officers interrupts the two men, stating that Major Strasser has arrived. Renault’s demeanor clearly changes as he jumps to attention. The Clip closes with the Captain ensuring to the waiter that Major Strasser must receive the best possible seating. This clip portrays an all to familiar scene of an official in a “refugee zone” abusing their power and influence.
On the tracks
The scene I picked is where both Georg and Heinz are stowaways on a train traveling to Marseille. In order for Heinz to meet with his family and for Georg to flee Europe to Mexico. I picked this scene because of the journey Georg is taking with Heniz. As they continued on the tracks tracks to Marseille it finally gives Georg some time to relax for a bit and plan out his next move in order to flee the fascist takeover of France and to acquire safe travel to Mexico but he also has to deal with his current problem which is Heinz’s injured leg. We only see Georg help Heinz out only once, which is when administer a sedative into Heinz’s leg to help with the pain but we only see him do that once after that Heinz just laid there as if he was asleep but we learned that he is actually dying when he already dead. We mostly get scenes of Georg reading and looking through the writer’s belongings which gives us more information of the writer which does help Georg out at near the end of his goal. I feel like the train tracks help give Georg time to prepare what he is going to experience next and help him become someone he is not.
Place, Space and Time , in Transit
28.03 – 29.03
This scene takes place in the line for visas and transits. Even though Georg repaired Driss’ old radio in the previous scene, the lobby has a TV screen with changing photos of ships from different eras of time cementing that not only are we in transit geographically, but also in space and time. Narrated similarly to Casablanca, another in-transit classic, we learn that this lobby is the place where people tell their stories. People tell stories of their near-death experiences to feel more alive. When Max leaves the hungry conductor to talk to the familiar dog-lady, she tells the story of the self-seeking Americans whose dogs she is caring for. “I hate them and their mutts,” she says to Georg. I believe making the dogs American was a conscious decision that references America’s lack of assistance during World War II. Maybe “mutts” refers to the mixing and assimilating cultures in America. The fact that these people left their dogs with their architect solidifies their tactless nature that is representative of the actual American government. The same government that’s refugee and immigration structures made it virtually impossible for Anne Franks’s family to come here. In January I learned that the number of refugees that the American Government accepts dropped from 110,000 for the fiscal year of 2017 to 30,000 for 2019 despite the fact that we are in a displacement crisis that has been expedited by US imperialism.
Zaveri, Mihir. “Anne Frank’s Family Was Thwarted by U.S. Immigration Rules, Research Shows.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/anne-frank-family-escape-usa.html.
Blizzard, Jeanne Batalova Brittany, and Jeanne Batalova. “Refugees and Asylees in the United States.” Migrationpolicy.org, Migration Policy Institute, 2 July 2019, www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states.
Transit: the Strains of Performance
While almost the entirety of Transit centers around Georg’s performance as the writer figure, this clip is selected because it can show the viewer the strains that come with pretending to be someone you are not for too long. His actual performances can be seen when interacting with the police and consulate officials in other scenes, but this is where the mask comes off; when he finally retires and is all alone, Georg finds the writer’s character becoming bland where it once fascinated him. It has effectively become normalized in his mind.
All of the information in this scene, however, comes from the narrator instead of from George himself. This is the case for much of the film, but I believe it is being used perfectly here. As Georg has effectively become a refugee or person in transit, he requires someone else to tell his story for him. Perhaps this speaks to the real world, where the lives of migrants are rarely ever told from their own lips. This effect is of course amplified by the fact that in other scenes, the narrator refers to himself as “I” but to Greorg as “he,” indicating that the narrator is a person other than the protagonist. This is a sort of combination of first-person and third-person point of view that adds to the story of the film as one of a migrant, almost without a voice.
The Reunion of Travelers, Transit
Throughout the film Transit, written and directed by Christian Petzold, we follow a German refugee named Georg as he escapes Paris and flees to Marseille. While in Marseille he meets a number of other refugees, but Georg is shown to be a bit different from them. He calls Marseille a “port city”, and all the travelers in it have stories to tell about their great escape to the port. He doesn’t want to hear anybody’s tales of survival and he doesn’t want to share his own. At one point a woman with two dogs sits with Georg. He asks her nothing, but she nevertheless rambles on about saving the dogs and fleeing for her life. Georg doesn’t care about her or the dogs or the story, and he promptly leaves. Fast forward in the film and Georg is still trying to leave Marseille, but now he has made a number of friends in the city. As he walks alone down the empty streets the same woman he met earlier approaches him. She no longer has the dogs, but openly invites Georg to eat lunch with her. He is surprised but accepts. Upon sitting down the quiet Georg starts to talk while the usually talkative woman says nothing. He asks about the dogs, and all she’ll say is that they’re gone. Georg tries to respond but the woman cuts him off, saying that she doesn’t want to talk, she just wants someone to eat with so she won’t be alone. I believe this scene is beautiful because it shows the growth of two characters and how they have almost swapped mindsets. Initially the woman babbles on about her story even though Georg couldn’t care less and just wants to sit in silence. Once Georg has had a few experiences of his own and the two meet again he’s the one who tries to talk to diffuse tension, while she just wants to enjoy the silence together. I think it shows in a wonderful way how traumatic events can change anyone and everyone’s way of acting and treating people, and that when two people have gone through horrible times, it might just be best to sit in silence.
Always a Profit
In this clip, the viewer catches a glimpse of the hardships that oppressed and targeted individuals of certain racial, cultural, ethnic or religious endure during unfortunate times of conflict. In the film Transit, the conflict is unknown; however, the struggle of the oppressed remains the same throughout history. A “cleansing” is taken place, and the hate of the occupying forces knows no bounds. It is unclear in the film of what traits the targeted people share that make them undesirable, as the woman with the dogs admits that she is a Jew, but the other characters each seem to be from totally different races and cultures so I am unclear on just what places each character in the position that they are in. Nevertheless, there is a common theme throughout the film of those who are not targeted and those who are residing legally in these areas of transit profiteering off of the misfortunes of those displaced people. In this scene the innkeeper is blatantly taking advantage of Georg and his plight by charging him a ridiculous amount of money for the room, they both know that she will notify the authorizes in a few short days in an effort to reap the benefits and promptly rent the room out for another few days for the price of a week up front until she calls for another raid on the hotel. It was all the money that he had, and I am sure that others would have and will take advantage of these people in transit.
Casablanca
The chosen scene involves a conversation between Ugarte who holds two letters of transit and Rick Blaine. The idea of Casablanca was a “destination of freedom” as in order to obtain freedom, one would go to Casablanca, Morocco to get transit exit visas. This scene sets up the idea of the risk involved in freedom and being a refugee. Rick goes on to ask how he acquired the two transit tickets, as two German’s where known to have them. It is later found out that Ugarte murdered the two German couriers in order to obtain them. He had planned to take advantage of individuals trying to flee to freedom and charge a high price, that he could then split with Rick, as he had asked Rick to hold onto them and watch the transits for him.
The filming style is also an important component of the scene. It was shot in a close-up, over the shoulder shot. The close up conveys emotion and importance, as it typically includes the actor from mid-chest up. Over the shoulder shot conveys the conversation between two actors, cutting back and forth from one to the other to show the interaction being held.