Comradeship

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Matthew B If ever a movie was unfortunately timed, it was Kameradschaft, Georg Wilhelm Pabst's early sound movie of 1931. Pabst's film is an optimistic plea for solidarity between French and German workers. This plea was offered at a time in history when Pabst's native Germans could not have been further removed from thoughts of reconciliation and harmony with their neighbours. Just two years after the movie's release, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, and set the country on collision for another war against a number of European countries, including France. Perhaps then it is hardly surprising that Kameradschaft did poorly at the box office, thanks in part to pressure from the Nazis. The movie was based on a real mining disaster which happened in 1906. However Pabst's movie was set in the current day, i.e. 1930s Germany. As is appropriate to its subject matter, it was a collaboration between French and German moviemakers. The movie opens with a French boy and a German boy playing at marbles. After one boy takes all the marbles he refuses to share, and he digs a trench between him and the other boy. The bemused adults ask the boys why they cannot share. The symbolism of the scene is evident. There will be many such symbols in the movies – barriers, trenches, a wall, a gate. The two nations are closed off from one another. The boundaries do not stop at the border controls though. Beneath the ground French and German miners are both digging, but their territory is separated by a gate that prevents the two nations from mingling. The French additionally are building walls to keep out a fire that constantly burns underground, and which the walls cannot keep out. In the same way the boundaries between the nations cannot keep them fully separate. Something will get through, and this situation is potentially combustible. Affairs have reached an impasse, but this suddenly changes. A firedamp explosion blasts through the French mines, killing a number of colliers and trapping many more underneath the ground. The French town is briefly united in a flurry of activity as anxious family members descend on the mine seeking information on loved ones. This activity will soon be echoed on the German side of the border. While the German miners harbour some resentment against the French, many of them are willing to lay aside their differences. A rescue operation is mounted, and several trucks filled with miners speed to the rescue. This is a movie about coming together to solve common problems. As a result, there is little time for detailed or complex characterisation. The needs of the individual are subsumed by the needs of the many. Kameradschaft has been criticised for its naivety, but as the end suggests Pabst has some recognition of the realities. This event will not signal the end of the division between the two countries. However it has demonstrated that the workers of both countries can appreciate the value of comradeship and unity, even if their leaders have not yet learned the lesson. Indeed soon the leaders would be pushing their countries into another World War that would be even more devastating than the last one. We should see the movie's message of international comradeship as a hope rather than a reality. In Germany, many workers were ready to rally behind Hitler when he came to power, pushing an agenda of conflict and division. Viewed in this way Pabst's movie can be seen as naïve. While Pabst may use symbolism and express an overly idealistic viewpoint, Kameradschaft is remarkable for its realism. The portrayal of the lives of the miners and is shown in a naturalistic form. The miners speak in a plain and earthy manner without affectation. At the time when Kameradschaft was made, studios often used a soundproof box to separate the whirring sound of the camera from the image onscreen. However Pabst wanted a more mobile effect, and used a soundproof case instead. As a result, he is able to freely move the cameras around his sets and include long tracking scenes. This was quite sophisticated for an early sound movie, though nowadays the fast-moving, wobbly camera shots are likely to make the viewer slightly woozy. From a commercial point of view, it may have been a bad time to make Kameradschaft. It is a film that a defeated and economically crippled Germany was not yet ready to see. However perhaps that is the right time to make movies of this kind – movies that tell people what they do not want to hear. From the vantage point of time, it is easier to see Kameradschaft as a brave and worthwhile movie that preaches a message that is still not fully listened to today – that we are all comrades, regardless of nation, and we should work together for the betterment of everybody. The movie provides a rallying message of hope for a better time to come. I wrote a longer appreciation of Kameradschaft on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/kameradschaft/ Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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