trifecta

Those of you keenly following my facebook stream may have noticed that I have been watching a lot of movies this week. No Lost, just movies. I decided at the beginning of the week to give myself a break from Lost, and then the break stuck. After two straight weeks watching it, it was nice to have something new. I'm still, however, planning on catching up so I can watch the Series finale in May, even if that sounds impossible. [I realized that Season 3 has 25 episodes like 1 and 2, but the last 3 Seasons only have 14 or so episodes. Easy peasy.]

This week, I watched 3 great movies about the Nazis--German movies. I'd seen several American movies about the War--The Pianist, Schindler's List, and so on--but these German movies gave the rest of the story. It started out with Downfall, which, honestly, I first learned of and wanted to watch because I find the Hitler meme so verdammte funny.

Then I watched the The Goebbels Experiment which was different than I expected. Really, it was a documentary. Kenneth Brannaugh reading from Goebbels diaries and footage of him mixed with news pieces. If I had known, I might not have agreed to the journey into the mind of a lunatic, but I think I came out better for it. It made me realize that Goebbels needed Hitler just as much as Hitler needed Goebbels. And helped me realize just how totalitarian the Nazis were. And it made him sound almost human. Which, of course, he was: for as many times as we like to think of them as "monsters", they were still just people, but people who were consumed by a false idea. Literally, consumed. To dehumanize them would be to imitate them.

The whole thing made me see that it was really a perfect storm. In the movies, everyone makes reference to losing WWI and seeking revenge. Hence not surrendering, saying things like: "there will never be another November 1918." And then there were the Russians. They all make reference to them too. I think the totalitarian example set by the Russians helped stir the pot of frenzy--Goebbels even mentions Eisenstein as a model--pushing them to "compete". I still can't quite figure out why Hitler thought it a good idea to invade Russia. In Downfall he says he doesn't even want to occupy it, just destroying Moscow and Leningrad would suffice. That's another point in the crazy column.

And then I watched The Final Days of Sophie Scholl. The only mention of her I can consciously remember was in Downfall: based on the diaries of Hitler's secretary, it had an interview with her at the beginning and end of the film. She first talked about not knowing anything but National Socialism and so didn't feel guilty for her (in)actions. But then she realized that she was born in the same year as Sophie and could have followed her to the gallows but instead went to work for the Nazis. Then, waves of guilt.

Sophie helped spread pamphlets condemning the war as part of the White Rose resistance movement. For this she was beheaded. It's an amazing movie, an amazing story, and is really worth watching. Recently, she was voted one of the most important Germans of history, beating out Bach and Goethe. For me, after Downfall and Goebbels being told from the Nazi perspective, it was cathartic to see a (small) group actively resisting. And in contrast to the Holocaust movies, it was helpful to focus on the tragedy of one sole death in Munich as opposed to the overwhelming horrors elsewhere.

Sophie in real life

In other news, I continue to make progress, writing the actual notes of a song. I'm headed back to Chicago today to housesit for a friend, so no cottage for a few weeks; don't worry I'll still blog. My new blog got noticed by people at the Lyric; they want me to see their productions and write about them. So I'm going tonight with my mom to see Marriage of Figaro.