Veit Harlan (1899–1964) was one of Germany's most controversial and loathed directors. After studying with theatre and film pioneer Max Reinhardt and beginning a promising career, he became one of Joseph Goebbels's leading filmmakers under the National Socialist regime. Harlan's Jud Süss (Jew Suss, 1940), in particular, stands as one of the most artistically distinct and morally reprehensible films produced by the Third Reich. His involvement with this movie has led to many critical questions: Was the director truly forced to make the film under penalty of death? Is anti-Semitism a theme in his other productions? Can and should his work be studied in light of the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust?
The first English-language biography of the notorious director, Veit Harlan presents an in-depth portrait of the man who is arguably the only Nazi filmmaker with a distinct authorial style and body of work. Author Frank Noack reveals that both Harlan's life and work were marked by creative vision, startling ambiguities, and deep moral flaws. His meticulously detailed study explores the director's influence on German cinema and places his work within the contexts of World War II and film history as a whole.
Rivaled only by Leni Riefenstahl, Veit Harlan remains one of Germany's most infamous filmmakers, and virtually every book on Nazi cinema contains at least one chapter about Harlan or an analysis of one of his movies. This biography―supplemented by production histories and rare interviews with actors, actresses, and cameramen―offers the first comprehensive analysis of the director and his work and adds new perspective to the growing body of scholarship on filmmaking under the Third Reich.
Frank Noack, former film reviewer for the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, is the author of Jannings: Der erste deutsche Weltstar.
"The research here is impeccable. An enjoyable and informative experience!"―Antje Ascheid, author of Hitler's Heroines: Stardom and Womanhood in Nazi Cinema
Author(s): Frank Noack
Series: Screen Classics
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Year: 2016
Language: English
Pages: 497
Front cover......Page 1
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Author’s Note......Page 8
Introduction......Page 10
1 The Father......Page 34
2 The Son......Page 38
3 Youth Culture......Page 44
4 Lights, Camera, Action......Page 54
5 Kunz versus Cohn......Page 61
6 The Interview......Page 73
7 Telling Others How to Act......Page 84
8 Learning the Alphabet......Page 90
9 Prestige......Page 100
10 Politics......Page 112
11 The Girl in the Water......Page 127
12 Adultery......Page 146
13 The Trap......Page 162
14 The Catastrophe of Success......Page 181
PHOTOGRAPHS......Page 202
15 Blood and Soil......Page 234
16 The German Soul......Page 248
17 Frenzy......Page 262
18 Opfergang......Page 270
19 Perseverance......Page 280
20 In the Ruins of the Reich......Page 296
21 The Trial......Page 308
22 The Second Trial......Page 316
23 Heimatfilm Noir......Page 326
24 Exile......Page 348
25 Youth Culture Revisited......Page 368
26 Exhaustion......Page 393
Epilogue......Page 406
Acknowledgments......Page 416
Appendix......Page 420
Notes......Page 424
Bibliography......Page 456
Index......Page 472
