ESSAY 2

Please anwer one of the following three questions. Your essay shoould be four to five pages in length. Submissions should be typed and double-spaced. Deadline: March 24, 2:30 pm.

1. At the beginning of his essay, "Propaganda and the Nazi War Film" (1942), Siegfried Kracauer maintains that "all Nazi films were more or less propaganda films-even the mere entertainment pictures which seem to be remote from politics." Towards the conclusion of the same essay, he goes on to say, "What actually appears on the screen should be expected to achieve its propagandistic mission unequivocally. But the Nazis do not always succeed in mastering their material." In what sense are all Nazi films propaganda films? In what ways is such a sweeping statement in need of differentiation and further elaboration? And finally, can one say that Nazi films such as Triumph of the Will indeed bear out Kracauer's claim that Nazi films do not always master their material?

2. Could you imagine Fritz Lang shooting films such as Triumph of the Will?

3. Compare the representation of urban space in M and Murderer are among us.

4. To what extent can we understand Lang's Hangmen also Die as both an exile film and an anti-Nazi feature?

5. Compare the representation of work and labor in Trace of Stones with the images of the labor force in Triumph of the Will.

6. Compare the way in which Hangmen also Die and Murderer are among usmanipulate point of view in order to align the viewer against the Nazis.