Jud Süss - Film ohne Gewissen

JUD Süß ("Jew Sweet") was the title of a film commissioned by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, to be made as an anti-Semitic vehicle intended to inflame the German people against the Jews of Germany and set the stage for their extermination. "Jud Süß — Film ohne Gewissen" ("Jud Süß — A Film Without a Conscience") is the title of a new film by ace German director Oskar Roehler, which goes back to 1940 to tell the story behind the making of the most notorious film in German cinema history – which in his own title he calls "A film without a conscience".

The original "Jud Süß" is still considered to be so racist and inflammatory that it is legally banned from public screenings in Germany, and prints of the film can be seen only at rare special screenings for academic personnel under strict supervision, the picture being regarded even now as an an evergreen piece of racist propaganda which might still incite neo-Nazis in Germany to violence against Jews.

Surprisingly this clearly well-intentioned film by a leading German director of liberal persuasion was greeted with boos of hysterical outrage by elements of the German critical establishment at the general press screening. No other competition film this year was booed –clearly a still highly sensitive Germanic nerve was struck. Those who were against the film didn't just dislike it — they HATED it –and surely not on esthetic grounds alone. Jud Süß -Film ohne Gewissen' is essentially a film about a film, and to some extent a film within a film (as extensive portions of the reconstructed original film are shown), which basically follows the rise and fall of the actor Ferdinand Marian, who was forced to play the leading role in Josef Goebbels' fiercely anti-Semitic 1940 film 'Jud Suess'. No cliché goose stepping soldiers are to be seen in this picture which is set among the elite-polite society of the Nazi era, providing an unusual view of the period and the people behind the scenes.

At the very beginning of the film Goebbels (a highly manic but extremely savvy Moritz Bleibtreu )spots Marian at a rehearsal of Shakespeare's "Othello" playing Iago, and concludes that he will be perfect for the title role of his planned anti-Semitic propaganda film Jew Suss. Marian balks fearing the role might actually injure his career, but Goebbels cannot be dissuaded and Marian is compelled into playing the title role of the film which becomes a gigantic hit and makes him an overnight star. However, his beautiful half-Jewish wife (Martina Gedeck) senses danger, and begs him not to return to Germany when they attend the Premiere of the film at the 1940 Venice Film Festival in Italy. (They could go to Casablanca, says she, and from there take a boat to America — shades of Rick's Cafe!) And here, a cute insert –we are informed that the film has been highly praised by a young Italian critic with the remarkable name of "Michelangelo Antonioni"!

Marian does go back to bask in his new found glory, but as the war progresses Jewish wife Dora is carted off to Auschwitz and He finds himself in a position much the same as that of the actor in "Mephisto", who was manipulated by the Nazis against his will to promote the aims of the Third Reich in Hungarian Istvan Szabo's 1981 Oscar winning film of that name. Austrian actor Tobias Morreti, plays Ferdinand Marian much as Klaus Maria Brandauer, also Austrian, played actor Hendrik Hoefgren in Szabo's "Mephisto" -- as a puppet manipulated by the Nazis and finally destroyed by them. Many German critics found Moritz Bleibtreu's Goebbels way too over the top but the actor defended himself saying that this Goebbels was meant to be a satire, not a documentary portrait, and this is precisely what rubbed the Nazi still lurking in the bones of many of these critics the wrong way. ("How dare you make fun of such a key figure of German history!") — I personally found Bleibtreu's Goebbels extremely effective and satirically hypnotic — arguably the best thing he has done to date.

Perhaps another point that didn't go down too well with the hyper-sensitive anti-Nazi German critics, was the fact that Goebbels is presented not as a madman, but as an extremely clever master of propaganda who knew that propaganda has to be subtle in order to be effective. No dummy he the notorious Nazi propaganda minister, and a very canny portrayal by Herr Bleibtreu, indeed one that, in this writers's humble opinion, should have won the Best Actor Silver Bear by a mile.

Katja Nicodemus, main critic of the intellectual German weekly "Die Zeit", came right out and called a Spade a Spade the day after the controversial Press screening saying, "As a German — I am shocked by the reaction of the German press to this film". What all this means in terms of collective German guilt feelings over the role of Germany as Genocide Inc. during WW II is really hard to sum up nicely. There are clearly many Germans still around who would prefer to see the whole thing swept under the carpet, or at least portrayed in a more "savory", documentary manner. Maybe some politically over-correct Germans didn't like the fact that Roehler took the liberty of having his actors sing the banned Nazi anthem "Deutschland Über Alles" in full, at a Christmas party near the beginning of the film — too realistic, nicht wahr? (Und, isn't this supposed to be a VERBOTEN song!) —

One thing that can certainly be said, however, without making any bones about it, is that Oskar Roehler's new film is definitely a film WITH a conscience, about a film with a purely Nazi conscience. And if they don't like that — well, one can only wonder about the Collective Unconscious of the booers.

German movies about the Nazi dictatorship are usually heavily subsidised, but nothing to write home about (which actually goes for most German movies these days). "Jud Süß -- Film ohne Gewissen" by Oscar Roehler stands out because it tries to go beyond the simplistic message that "the Nazis were evil". Instead it honestly tries to explore the fact why an actor who didn't sympathise with the Nazis nevertheless chose to play lead in Veit Harlan's antisemitic "masterpiece". We witness Ferdinand Marian getting sucked deep into the heart of darkness. Oscar Roehler also takes a good look at the sexual life of the fascist bohème, with an impressive performance by Gudrun Landgrebe, who looks unbelievably foxy despite her sixty years of age.

This was also the only movie I can think of that displays survivors of the Nazi death machine not as saintly survivors but as brutalised human beings.

That said, I take umbrage at four aspects of this movie:

* the -- pardon my French -- overly drastic fellatio scene between Goebbels and housemaid Britta, who wears a golden swastika pendant to hammer home the fact that she's a Nazi slag (and while I'm at it, the actress playing her, Anna Unterberger, is far to blonde and svelte for a realistic housemaid)

* in the movie, Ferdinand Marian's wife Anna is a "semi-Jewess" who is eventually murdered by the Nazis while Marian lives the high life of a Nazi A-list actor; in reality she wasn't Jewish (although she had previously been married to a Jew and in consequence her daughter was "half Jewish"), and survived her husband by three years; in my book, that alteration was hammy and unfair game

* unlike displayed in the movie, Marian probably died in an "ordinary" traffic accident and didn't commit suicide

* I didn't get the scene where Marian is in a nightclub in Prague with a transvestite; also, in that same scene we see a German soldier firing into the crowd with his Luger, a histrionic scene which would have resulted in carnage plus a court martial for the shooter

You have to view these criticisms in the light that this movie was booed at the Berlinale, ostracised by many critics, and the highest Jewish representative in Germany even called for it to be banned. Of course everyone is free to dislike and criticise this movie, but I simply don't understand what caused this massive rejection of a serious, well-made and captivating movie.

PS: for reference, if you want a movie that really deals with Nazism in an inappropriate manner, check out "Der Vorleser".

Why was this film talked against at Berlinale? I find it excellent. It is very interesting story about what happened to actor Marian who acted in Jew Suss. We are still not sure, but I heard that some soldiers of some country who occupied Germany at that time killed him. Nobody is sure.

It is very important to explore Nazi propaganda films, it was an interesting time in the history of film making in Germany at that time. I wished Nazi period never happened, but it did and left a legacy in film making that Germany and UFA should not be proud of.

I would definitely recommend this film for all people who want to know about what happened to film making during Nazi period. We should explore further what happened to the actor Ferdinand Marian.

This is a very delicate subject and the filmmaker at hand might not have been the best choice. His directing (Moritz B. as Goebbels would have needed some guidance), his poor choices in staging some scenes and other flaws become very apparent.

On the other hand, he is not afraid to go places, that others might not have dared (an intercourse that is so absurd, it's almost funny, if it weren't tragic ... and a scene you will either love or hate). Of course the faux documentary style tries to recreate a feeling of what happened back then. But the fact, that he was just a director for hire, seems to apparent.

He did not really check or confront himself too much with the story. Instead opting on doing what he got from the script (or his interpretation of it). And it's a shame that some powerful scenes such a the one in a tent, were the movie is shown, with reactions, is getting sidetracked and completely dismissed by the next set-up outside the tent, when it seems to be a completely different movie, with no class or style attached to it.

Moretti on the other hand (as most actors), try their best. You cannot fault him (or his "wife" in the movie) for any shortcomings of the end result. With a subject matter like this you could expect a better movie. Some parts are really good and it's ambiguity is still something I cherish (that's why I rated it so "high"). Still there is no constant flow and the mood is all over the place ... same goes for Bleibtreus Goebbels ...

German films about Nazism often face the evil eye from reviewers. No exception in this case. Director Oskar Roehler clarified; "Our aim was to enter the innermost sanctum of Nazi high society, and to portray how seducible artists were in the Third Reich". The Third Reich is not to be trifled with. Not now, when we finally have mapped and interpreted Nazism forever. This film delivers a different message and conclusion. De- demonizing the clowns and incarcerating the followers. Many have been outraged by the unabashed rough sex between Gudrun Landgrebe's and Tobias Moretti's characters. Not to mention the brilliant scene where the merrymaking German locals whines about the crumbs that the American liberators hands over to the surviving camp inmates. "Jud Süss" is played out as the war operetta it was. Blind, boisterous, excessive, orgastic, self-indulgent, greedy, in curling pastel colors. Much like Fassbinder's "Lili Marleen" or Szabó's "Mephisto". Nazism and its demons is still a moneymaker in the media world.