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The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi cinema and its afterlife
ERIC RENTSCHLER, 1996 Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press pp. xvi + 456, illus.; $25.00 (paper)
The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi cinema and its afterlife, provides a long-awaited and meticulously researched examination of films in the Third Reich that will be of tremendous value to both scholars and educators. Eric Rentschler, whose encyclopedic knowledge of German film has earned him a reputation as one of the foremost film historians in the United States, provides both a historical account of Nazi ideology and a number of readings of exemplary Nazi propaganda films, such as Hitler Youth Quex and the notorious few Suss. In addition, he examines a number of films produced during that era which have long been deemed 'harmless', such as La habanera, an unhappy, melodramatic romance by Detlef Sierck (who later became the celebrated Douglas Sirk) and Lucky Kids, a frothy comedy that does its best to imitate Hollywood genres. These films, according to Rentschler, lie on a continuum with the more overtly propagandistic works, yet they also reproduce many of the filmic techniques of traditional Hollywood cinema.