The documentary Paragraph 175 covers the topic of homosexuals in Nazi Germany, stories of them being arrested, and their lives before and after the camps. It is an emotional film, filled to the brim with memories both happy and sad. The film is narrated by Rupert Everett and is directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman telling the stories of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are also known for a film called The Celluloid Closet, a film which came out five years earlier, and is about Hollywood’s depictions of homosexuals. In fact, the pair directed several films together, including Lovelace (2013), The Battle of Amfar (2013), and Howl (2010). In the film, we follow Klaus Müller, a historian, as he interviews several men and a few women
He speaks of dismissing difficulties in the process of filling himself and others with love, and treats it as if it was the obvious thing to do. Already in the film, appeals to emotion is a prominent method. Often times throughout the movie, the audience is shown those who were interviewed getting very emotional, for understandable reasons, too. One of the men interviewed, Pierre Seel, had great emphasis on never shaking hands with a German again. Later on in his interview, he exposes the horror and trauma of his experience, and how difficult it was to deal with the memories of the camps. Often times when a deeply emotional section of the documentary begins, a time which was mentioned before, slow instrumentals play. Other times, it is silent, and the person being interviewed is left alone with their memories. An example of this is when a man recollects on nearly all of the homosexuals being killed. He breaks down briefly, and it is dead silent behind his
Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
Throughout the film, the filmmaker follows the three victims around in their everyday lives by using somber music and backgrounds of depressing colors. The documentary starts off with colorful images of the scenery
I would like to point out the poignant cinematography, which was very innovative for its time. The narration and the filming introducing what was about to be uncovered must have been extremely moving in a melancholy way. The mise-en-scène is both compelling and haunting, each frame cleverly editied. Resnais experimented with what is known as the long shot, and the 360 degree shot, to make the voyeur very aware of the unbalanced composition. The panning of the film tracking back from Auschwitz brings us a close up, of barbed wire. This clearly suggests that this isn't what it appears to be. Resnais films the past in black and white, and the then present in colour. The ambiance is chilling, and the composed background music unique. Where normally dramatic loud music would be used to express the abonimation and enormity of the most horrendous scenes, Resnais did quite the contrary.
A large portion of contemporary film and theatre has been lacking in substance. More often than not, we are presented with a “been there, seen that” scenario. One such exception to this rule is Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a film by John Cameron Mitchell that was released in 2001. Set primarily in post-Cold War America, Hedwig is a film that characteristically breaks convention. Our story follows Hedwig, a forgotten and confused homo…trans…well, human being. Growing up in East Berlin during the Cold War, Hansel Schmidt (John Cameron Mitchell) lives what I would call a horrible childhood in the bleak landscape of communist occupied Germany. He falls in love with an American soldier, and undergoes a sex change in order to marry him and leave East Berlin. The operation is botched, leaving him/her as a physical contradiction. Not quite a man, but not yet a woman, Hansel (now Hedwig) has what she describes as an “angry inch.” When describing it in lighter terms, she calls it a “Barbie doll crotch.” Upon arriving in America, the soldier leaves her the same day the Berlin wall comes down. Destroyed, Hedwig spends some time discovering her new self and eventually finds a soul mate in a young boy named Tommy Speck (Michael Pitt). They collaborate musically and romantically, but upon discovering Hedwig’s secret he leaves with all of their music. He becomes a huge rock star, living Hedwig’s dream while simultaneously leaving her in the dust. From then on, Hedwig and her band “The Angry Inch” follow Tommy as he tours the nation while Hedwig tries desperately to gain the notoriety she deserves for her music. Viewing this film through the lens of a feminist gender perspective, I find that Hedwig is a pioneer on the forefront of changing the gende...
The legacy of fear did not stop when the Trumbo’s name appeared in the credits for Spartacus and Exodus. Five years later the black list ended, Kenneth McGowan’s influential Behind the Screen: The History and Techniques of the Motion Picture was published. There is not a word in the book that offers her slightest hint that there ever had been a HUAC, a blacklist, or the Hollywood Ten. The two chapters on censorship deal exclusively with the control of sexual imagery and language in...
“The Nazis believed that male homosexuals were weak, effeminate men who could not fight for the German nation.” The Nazis based their army on power and no weakness. The homosexuals, during this time of World War II, were viewed in that manner. Hitler’s plan for the “Master race” did not include homosexuals in that blueprint. Eliminating these “racial dangers” included the homosexuals being mistreated, labored, and also executed (Persecution of Homosexuals in The Third Reich). They wore pink triangles on their clothes to identify them as homosexual. In addition, thousands were put into concentration camps. “Between 5,000 and 15,000 homosexuals died in concentration camps during the Holocaust” (Schwartz). In total, over 55,000 homosexuals were brutally murdered. They all died for the way they
Sterritt, David. “HOLLYWOOD'S HOLOCAUST”. Tikkun 24.3 (2009): 60-62. Literary Reference Center. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
When the Nazi party came to power Paragraph 175 was put in place. This law was adjusted to include further punishment for homosexual men and the code was used as the main tool to arrest both known homosexuals and men suspected of homosexual a...
Müller, Filip. Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers. New York: Stein and Day, 1979.
...n Duberman, and Martha Vicinus, eds. Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian past. New York: Penguin Group, 1990.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
In conclusion, I have demonstrated how Coppola exploits a wide array of sound and editing to create suspense, intensity, and anxiety in the sequence to affect the audience’s emotions, using diegetic ambient sound effects, non-diegetic music, voice over and four editing types. With this sequence, Coppola has shown the savagery of war and our complicity in this violence as an audience.
The acceptance of “abnormal” sexualities has been a prolonged, controversial battle. The segregation is excruciating and the prejudice remarks are so spiteful that some people never truly recover. Homosexuals have been left suffering for ages. Life, for most homosexuals during the first half of the twentieth century, was mostly one of hiding: having to constantly hide their true feelings and tastes. Instead of restaurants and movies, they had to sit quiet in the dark and meet each other in concealed places such as bars. Homosexuals were those with “mental and psychic abnormalities” and were the victim of medical prejudice, police harassment, and church condemnation (Jagose 24). The minuscule mention or assumption of one’s homosexuality could easily lead to the loss of family, livelihood, and sometimes even their lives. It was only after the Stonewall riots and the organization of gay/lesbian groups that times for homosexuals started to look brighter.
‘Das Leben der Anderen’ (The Lives of Others) is a striking example of how a director can convey narrative links within a film by employing various styles and film techniques. The Lives of Others relies upon these visual means to assist with the telling of the story as much as it relies upon the script. In this selected sequence of the film, several narrative links are drawn here to form the conclusion of ‘Operation Lazlo’. These narrative links are further cemented by Donnersmarck’s use of various lighting styles, diegtic and non-diegtic sound, revealing camera shots and intricate mise-en-scene.
The director of the series, Dan Curtis, actually recreated and rebuilt parts of Auschwitz and filmed in the camp. The series showed the mass executions of prisoners and how they filled trenches with their corpses along with how merciless the SS officers running the concentration camps were. Another site that made for an accurate camp recreation and series was the gas chambers. The prisoners were tricked into thinking they were going to the showers but instead were put into gas chambers. The screams of the prisoners in the film shows no dilution of emotion whatsoever and makes people feel empathetic towards the prisoners. The series almost feels like the audience is in the concentration camps from within the safety of their homes. The series was made honestly which means it has to be shown graphically because in reality it was extremely graphic. This combination of actual location and truthful gore contributed to creating one of the best portrayals of the Holocaust known. People were shocked into believing the truth about the Holocaust which once again, leaving a lasting impact on the