Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War PDF
Preview Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War
Shell Shock Cinema Mourning the dead. Ellen sits among crosses at the sea (from Nosferatu). Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War Anton Kaes PrinCEton UnivErsity PrEss Princeton and oxford Copyright © 2009 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kaes, Anton. Shell shock cinema : Weimar culture and the wounds of war / Anton Kaes. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-03136-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Motion pictures—Germany—History—20th century. 2. World War, 1914-1918—Motion pictures and the war. 3. World War, 1914-1918—Influence. 4. Silent films— Germany—History and criticism. 5. War and motion pictures. 6. Psychic trauma in motion pictures. 7. Culture in motion pictures. I. Title. PN1993.5.G3K295 2009 833’.909358—dc22 2008053044 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Minion and Myriad Designed by Tracy Baldwin Printed on acid-free paper. press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix introduction 1 1 The War at Home 7 The Wounded Soldier 8 The Spirit of 1914 16 Film and Nation 20 The Battle of Images 25 A Medium for Deception 29 The New Empire 34 Mental Breakdowns 37 2 Tales from the Asylum 45 War Neurotics 46 Recovering the Past 49 Phantoms and Freaks 55 From Dr. Charcot to Dr. Caligari 63 Madness as Resistance 71 The Hitler Connection 75 Shattered Space 81 3 The Return of the Undead 87 The Lost Generation 88 Mass Death 93 Dracula Revisited 98 A Community under Siege 108 Hysteria on the Home Front 113 The Allure of the Occult 120 The Work of Mourning 127 4 Myth, Murder, and Revenge 131 The National Project 132 Posing for Germany 135 The Will to Form 141 The Fallen Hero 145 Excursus: Lang in World War I 151 The Sacred Battle 153 The End of Violence 157 5 The Industrial Battlefield 167 Rise of the Machines 168 Moloch War 175 Lang’s America 181 The Hunger for Religion 186 The Workers’ Revolt 193 Destruction and Regeneration 200 Aftershocks 205 Conclusion 211 notes 217 Weimar Cinema on DvD 251 Bibliography 267 Shell Shock and Trauma Theory 267 World War I and the Weimar Republic 272 Weimar Film History 278 Films Discussed 283 index 299 vi Contents Illustrations All frame enlargements courtesy of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation Wiesbaden. Frontispiece. Mourning the dead. A shell-shocked soldier 11 “I will guide you.” 15 The anonymity of death 38 A mother and her dying son 40 “I will tell you.” 50 Traumatic entertainment 60 Doctors and patients 65 The transference of madness 69 The spaces of trauma 83 “Why did you kill the flowers?” 90 The presence of death 95 Trauma as phantasmagoria 104 Distant dangers 107 vii The phantom of the text 128 Life and death of a German hero 137 The religiosity of form 143 From mythic duel to trench warfare 150 The price of loyalty 159 A fiery retelling of cold-blooded revenge 164 The machine as fuming god 170 The industrial battlefield 176 Moments of shock 180 Imagined architecture and material catastrophe 189 Apocalypse as spectacle 203 viii illustrations
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