Hey everyone. Looking up stuff I ran into this comparison a guy did on these three German movies, The Marriage of Maria Braun, with Lola, a resembling movie to The Blue Angel and as well the main characters share the name, and Veronica Voss. These movies are made during the time of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland or West Germany and have the same theme reoccurring on them. They portray the German woman being seen as an object, at a time when everything and everyone was for sale. All the movies tell a different story on them but the one thing in common is the general suffering witnessed from the population and the price that these women had to pay in order to go on and live a semi-normal life.
It's an interesting subject you discuss in these two posts; that everything and everyone was on sale. I don't think it is an uncommon thing to be portrayed on film, particularly ones taking place post World War Two. One film that pops to mind is "Memoirs of a Geisha." The women in that film literally sell themselves so as to rebuild and pick up the pieces of their former lives. Also, when I think back to my favorite childhood television show "Mash", I remember that following the American doctors and military personal was a continual black market presence. Countless Koreans were depicted as centering their entire livelihoods on a foreign presence. When film portrays this topic, I can't help but ask how would living such an existence, where a nation is forced to live of the scraps of an occupying force, affect the psyche of its people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Daphne, but I would also mention the specific portrayal of Maria in the film as distinctly opportunistic. At times, it seems, she is akin to the femme fatale, an idea that is reinforced particularly by the fact that she dies in the end of the film--a symbol I see as conveying a strong message about the unsustainable nature not only of this type of survivalist behavior, but of the post-war situation in Germany as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Maria, and Lola, is more opportunistic than anything else. And in being opportunistic, they take advantage of their situations. Thus, while they may be oppressed to some degree, they are actually leaders of the women's role through their ability to take advantage of the system.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to feel one distinct emotion for all these character. Their features create sorrow on the viewer, but at the same time their perfect blending to the life style makes you think that they sorta enjoy that life style.
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