RESEARCH NOTES
After meticulously watching a couple of movies, I have decided to narrow down my research on productions dealing with children’s approach of the Holocaust. The paper will be a comparative study of these films along with a thorough analysis of each one of them (general ambiance, music, character’s personality and representation, content and scenario…)
In this perspective, I have chosen two movies that I have started analyzing: The boy in the stripped pajamas (Mark Herman), la vita e bella (Roberto Begnini).
This is an analysis of the movies I am studying. I will continue posting my notes throughout my study.
I. Herman, M. , (2008), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Bruno is an 8 years-old German boy. His father, Ralf, is a Nazi official. In the beginning of the movie, Ralf is promoted and relocated with his family in a house situated next to a concentration camp. The education of Bruno and his 12 years old sister, Gretel is taken care of by Herr Listz, a German tutor who teaches them anti-Semite, nationalist ideas. Despite all of his mother’s effort to prevent her son from visiting “the farm” behind the house, Bruno, bored of his lousy swing and intrigued by these farmers working in pajamas, ventures toward the camp. He meets Shmuel, a Jewish boy living on the other side of the extermination camp. A very special friendship begins.
In addition to the atrocity of the camp life, this movie brilliantly depicts the indoctrination taught to children during the holocaust. It shows how the Nazi values were preserved, should it be through the education of pupils or the extermination of hostile citizens. However, the movie creates much less engagement with the characters than la vita e bella, as less family scenes are depicted.
1-Different aspects of the holocaust (more of a documentary than la vita e bella)
Innocence and naivete v/s propaganda
When they arrive to their new home 11min gretel is always grabbing her dolls like a little girl
14min Bruno describes the camp as a farm asking his mother if he could play with the kids out there 'ill wait a bit though, because they look a bit strange (...) they wear pajamas’ when he asks Ralf (16:31) he answers "the thing is those people are not really people at all"
-(Bruno reads) “the density of my people is my density”
-(Liszt corrects) “the destiny!”
During the tutoring hours, the children, who are still innocent and barely know how to read, are taught all the grandeur of their fatherland.
“The aim of the Jew is to become the ruler of humanity! The Jew is not creative but destructive, he is the enemy of culture, a thousands of Germans has been made poor by the Jew” (43’)
While Gretel is reading this text from her textbook, Bruno thinks of his friend Shmuel.
Shmuel is small, fragile, and pale. His pajamas are way too big. He has some teeth that are missing. He is running, panicked, pushing a heavy wheelbarrow in front of him. The contrast between what the audience hears and what it sees during this scene shows all the irrationality of the propaganda.
In the movie, Bruno seems very doubtful of all the Nazi ideology. He questions everything he is taught and always thinks of his friend Shmuel. On the contrary, his sister Gretel is totally under the influence of what she is told. At 35 min, Bruno goes to the basement to pick up his ball. There, he discovers a horrific scene: All of Gretel’s dolls are stacked, undressed, neglected on a table. While watching this image, I couldn’t stop myself of imagining a gas chamber, crowded with naked, frail people. When he went to Gretel’s room to understand what happened with her dolls, he saw her putting up Nazi’s slogans and poster in her room. It was as if the dolls represented the Jews. Due to the propaganda she was taught, Gretel had decided, from one day to the next, to segregate and deny them as her equals. Even her looks had changed. She had got ridden of her girly dresses and childish hairstyle. It seemed that the newspapers and the textbooks had brainwashed her, stealing her childhood to turn her into a pure Nazi product.
Loyalty to the party imposed upon people
During the party launched in honor of Ralf, his mother wonders if she is the one who led him towards this career, by confecting for him “all these costumes when (he was) tiny” She sarcastically asks him: “Does it still make you feel special Ralf dear? The uniform and what it stands for?” Elsa, Ralf ‘s wife starts looking left and right and Ralf’s father tries to silence his wife. Ralf then puts an end to his mother’s discourse and threatens: “You should be careful! Airing your views so publicly could land you in trouble. You know that!” (7’47)
The general discomfort felt at the sayings of the mother shows that no one was spared from the permanent Nazi surveillance, as even the SS commandant feared it.
Towards the end of the movie, during the funeral of the grandmother a bouquet with a Nazi slogan was deposed on her grave
Elsa "we cant have that on her she wouldn’t have wanted it"
Ralf "HE does"
he discreetly prevents Elsa from removing the bouquet
This situation is repeated towards the end of the movie. During a diner, lieutenant Kottler says that his father left the country four years ago, to go to Switzerland. After arguing that he must still be young, with a menacing tone, Commandant Ralf replies “How strange he should chose to leave the father land at the very moment it needed him the most, just when we are all required to play our part in the national revival”. The tension grows bigger when Ralf asks Lieutenant Kottler if he would report his father in case he was opposed to the government policy. Kottler avoids the conversation by attacking the Jewish servant. Later in the movie, Gretel will acknowledge the Lieutenant Kottler was fired/killed.
Therefore, a very strict policy forces every Nazi citizen, including the Nazi officials, to report the government opponents even if they are part of their families. However, as Elsa points out in the movie, Ralf never reported his mother even though she was against the Nazi’s ideologies. After all, even if they were completely devoted to Hitler, SS officials, as they’re depicted in the movie, are still human and couldn’t entirely adhere to the Nazi irrationality.
Automatism in front of the leader
During the reception when (6min) Ralf enters the room they all do the Nazi salute like robots one after the other
Bad treatment of Jews (bad would be a very weak word) - contrast with Nazi
14:45 when Pavel comes in we directly feel he is exhausted
22:34 lieutenant calls Pavel aggressively
'You! Here! Now! (...) MOVE!"
No verbs, as if he was yelling at a dog / kids are schoked, bruno dorsnt move, he stares at the lieutnant
24min when bruno falls down, pavel takes care of him and talk to him about the future and tells him he was a doctor before he came 'here'
Everytime they call schmuel or pavel they look so anxious
Secrecy of the regime
"All you need to know about my job is that it’s very important for our country and for you" ralf to bruno 16:45
41min bruno to ralf "that horrible smell coming from the chimneys did you smell ot?""i think they burn rubbish there"
"They smell even worse when they burn dont they" lieutnant to elsa ~" i took an oath upon my life!" Says ralf explaining the secret he had kept from elsa
Documentary of propaganda made by nazi - depicts the camps as leisure places 1:01:00
2- the special friendship Bruno - Schmuel
Contrast between the 2 boys
Physically
Bruno is always well dressed, perfect shiny hair, perfect white skin while Schmuel wears super large 'pajamas., he is bald and we can barely picture his original skin color because he is very dirty
Culturally
When they meet (32min) Bruno arrogantly "Schmuel? No one is called Schmuel!"
Personality
Bruno is very arrogant and enthusiastic while Schmuel is shy and fragile he is always looking to the floor (33min)
Relation of sharing
Innocence
Bruno thinks it is a game reminds us of la vita e bella .its not fair me being alone out there and you playing with your friends all day' S 'playing??'" Tell me how the number game works" " I told you its not a game we just all have numbers"
Discovery
Get to know each other learn things about the camp
But most importantly towards 54min, Bruno starts questioning what his family told him about the Jews "they re evil vermin, they’re not people...´ thinking about his friend Schmuel
He asks him "is(your dad) a good man?" s nods "you’ve never thought he wasn’t?" "No" "and you’re proud of him?" "Aren’t you proud if yours?" Bruno doesn’t answer
Dramatic end of the relation
Bruno decides to go into the concentration camp in order to help Schmuel to find hid father
BUT It is 'shower time' Bruno, Shmuel and a hundreds of men are sent to the gas chambers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sntNaUjJPYg
Interview with mark Harman and John Boyne
When Bruno dies, it is up to the audience to feel sorry about the nazi family and to think it served them right. (MH)
Reaction of the mother when she realizes what her husband is up to is taken from real life (researches…_)
(JB) would like to really think about the movie, the racism and all the hatred cause they are the ones who will be responsible of the world in a couple of years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=judzB7XTpw8
Interview with the actors Vera feramiga and davis thelwis
No stress on any german accent cause it is a universal story + when kids play such roles they need to find the essence of the character in their personlaities and therefore focusing on the accent or the language would lead them to lose the core of the story.
II. Benigni, R. , (1997). La vita e bella
The story takes place in the fascist Italy of 1938. Guido is a young Italian boy. He is in love with Dora and kidnaps her on her engagement day with a fascist official. Five years later, they have a child, Giosue. But Guido is Jewish! One day, his son and him, are taken to a concentration camp where Dora voluntarily follows them. Throughout the movie, Guido makes his son believe that the concentration camps are actually the plot of a game which aim is to win a real tank!
Begnini’s movie is very risky as it depicts in a comic, satiric way the horrific truth of extermination camps. By making us laugh in the beginning to end up crying in the end, he opens our eyes on the ridiculous, cruel, irrational aspects of the holocaust.
I have studied the movie following two different phases: before the concentration camp and inside the camp.
1-The preparation of the audience before the concentration camp:
In the fist half of the movie, Begnini only gives hints about the Nazi system without really mentioning it. He creates his characters and his scenario leading the audience to get attached to them. The concentration camps’ atmosphere is not introduced before the second half and the audience is not prepared for such a catastrophe. (This is most probably the more accurate way to represent the prisoners before they went to the concentration camps; they were probably optimistic and no one would have imagined that one could be deported from a day to another)
The scenario is based on two main ideas that allow the viewer to identify himself with the movie’s characters.
a- The perfect romance
In the beginning of the movie Dora falls down from a window and she lands in Guido’s arms. It is as if love had fallen from the sky.
From the minute Guido met Dora, he fell in love with her and called her “principesca” (princess) preparing the ground for a long lasting romance reminding the viewer of the fairy tail stories.
Several times after they first meet, Guido comes across Dora by chance. With a lot of courage, determination and humor, he then starts going to the places where he know he can find her, until the day they finally spend an evening together. Like in most fairy tales, Guido kidnaps his love on a white horse (even though the white horse was painted green by Nazi vandals, it is still a white horse) on her engagement night.
When he takes her back home, Dora enters a glasshouse and Guido follows her into it. Few seconds after, Guose, their five year old son gets out form the glasshouse. This subtle metaphor helps conserving the innocent image of pure love. A very close family is depicted. Some details of their daily lives are shown, reminding the viewers of their own families, leading them to identify with the characters. (Dora lectures her son to go take his bath and Guido helps him to hide…)
In the end of the first part, after she discovers that Guido and Juose were taken to the concentration camp, Dora bravely follows them and asks to enter the train.
This devotion Guido and Dora have for each other and for their son deeply affects the audience and prepares them to be even more surprised and chocked after the characters are deported.
b- A modern commedia dell arte
The first part of the movie is a succession of situation comedies. Like in the XIXth century theatrical vaudeville or the XVIth century commedia dell’arte, the action is composed of humoristic, funny and often ludicrous scenes. Not only does humor engage the viewer into the issue screened, but it also allows the director to satire the Nazi ideology.
There is a particular scene taking place about 10 minutes after the beginning of the movie that would be typical of a vaudeville scene and in which Guido acts a lot like harlequin, the ludicrous character of the commedia dell’arte:
Guido is in the municipality. He needs a signature from an employee to be able to open a bookstore. While talking to the secretary he remembers he has forgotten to store the eggs Dora had given him. He holds the six eggs in his hands.
Employee - We close at one here!
Guido - It's ten to one.
E - File a complaint.
G - Boy, is he nasty
Now I have to wait one hour for his substitute.
I'm filing a complaint. Write, "I, the undersigned--"
Guido is laying on the window, without paying attention he drops a flowerpot that lands directly on the head of the employee. He runs down the stairs to meet him.
G - Are you hurt? I'll help you.
The employee puts his hat on the top of a car. To check the employee’s head, Guido puts the eggs in the hat.
Come here. I didn't do it on purpose.
E - Don't touch me!
You can forget about your bookshop!
The employee takes the hat and puts it on his head.
G - No, the eggs!
The eggs are dripping on his face.
E - You scoundrel! I'll kill you!
However, the funny scenes of the movie are not exclusively meant to amuse the audience. In fact, through this humor, the Nazi ideology is subtly but very strongly criticized.
This (in my opinion) is the most interesting scene showing this idea:
Dora, Guido’s lover teaches in an elementary school. Guido discovers that one of his clients is an inspector from Rome, and that he needs to visit Dora’s school the next morning. In order to see her, Guido steels the inspector’s official ribbon and goes to the school. In addition to the fact that Guido is wearing the ribbon in a foolish way, he (unintentionally) parodies the inspector and the Nazi ideology when the principal asks him to educate the children about the race manifesto.
Principal - As you know, the inspector...came from Rome to talk to us about the race manifesto...signed by the most well versed Italian scientists. He will, and we're very honored…demonstrate to us that our race is a superior race -the best of all. Take your seats. Go ahead, Inspector.
Guido- Our race-- - Is superior! Naturally!
Our race is superior.
I've just come from Rome, right this minute...
to come and tell you in order that you'll know, children...
that our race is a superior one.
I was...chosen, I was, by racist Italian scientists[CO1] …in order to demonstrate…how superior our race is[CO2] .
Why did they pick me, children?
Guido jumps on the table
Must I tell you?
Where can you find…someone more handsome than me?
Justly so, there is silence. I'm an original "superior race" pure Aryan, children.[CO3]
Let's start with something that one says: "What's so big about that?"
The ear. Look at the perfection of this ear.
Guido shows his left ear to the children.
Left auricle…with a pendant little bell at the end.
Check it out. Movable cartilage, bendable.
Find two ears more beautiful than these and I'll leave[CO4] !
But you have to show them to me. They dream about these in France!
Races exist, children. You bet they do!
But let's continue. I want to show you something else.
Pay attention.
[…] The true inspector enters the room. Guido is on the table, wearing his underwear, lifting up his shirt to show his belly button to the children.[CO5]
Guido - The belly button!
Take a look at this belly button! What a knot!
But you can't untie it, not even with your teeth!
Those racist scientists tried it. Not a chance!
This is an Italian belly button. It's part of our race!
Check out this style!
Look at these muscles: ceps, biceps, triceps! Look at this beauty! Admire this hip!
Just look at the movement!
Guido is now dancing ridiculously on the table.
He realizes the true inspector is here and gets away from the window.
Gentlemen!
I must say good-bye now.
I have to go. I have an appointment.
I'll make my Aryan exit and bid you farewell.[CO6]
Moreover, during Dora’s engagement ceremony, an “Ethiopian cake”, magnificent showpiece with a huge ostrich on top of it, was offered by the hotel. When this cake was brought to the room, a Nazi officer immediately did the Nazi salute. A few minutes later, when Guido entered the room on his white/green horse, the officer was still doing the salute. This shows the robotization of the Nazi followers and it also compares Hitler and the Nazi officials to the ostrich and to the horse.
2- The Nazis and the concentration camp:
The representation is mostly based on contrasts: first, there is a contrast between Jewish people and Nazi officials, second, there is a contrast between their world of today and their old life, third, there is a contrast between the concentration camp and the game.
This way, in the first scene where Guido’s uncle appears, he is being robbed by a couple of young Nazis. Guido’s uncle is very wise. Throughout the movie, he speaks in proverbs and idioms and teaches his nephew all kinds of values. After he has been attacked he calls the robbers “barbarians”
Uncle - Barbarians.
Guido - Who were they?
U - Barbarians.
G - Why didn't you cry for help?
U - Silence is the most powerful cry.
Towards the end of the first half Robin Hood, the uncle’s horse was painted in green. It was written on it “Achtung! Jewish Horse”
The uncle reacts again in full dignity and calls the Nazi vandals “barbarians”
This contrast between the very wealthy, educated Jewish uncle, and the barbaric young Nazis denounces the Nazi movement, showing that it undeservedly targeted the wrong people. It shows the irony of the situation of Jews being killed and mocked at by people less knowledgeable than them.
Moreover, in the concentration camp, before being cremated, Guido’s uncle tried to help a Nazi official who ha fallen down “ are you okay, signora?”, But the women stared at him with hatred in her eyes.
Second of all, the second part of the movie constantly reminisces the first part in a way to affect the viewer. This way, Guido still calls his wife principesca, he still uses the attraction laws’ methods his old friend has taught him in the beginning of the movie… from the moment they were deported, the music changed and took a more sober and sad accent.
Throughout the movie, even when he was shot, Guido tries to hide the truth to his son. He transforms the concentration camp into a game: If they reach 1000points they will win a real char. This metaphor shows the deep irrationality of the camp.
Begnini still uses humor but it a less theatrical way.
Bartolomeo was sent to the nurse because he got injured
Guido - How'd it go?
Bartolomeo - Any worse than this-- I got 20 [points] (In Italian stiches and points have the same meaning)
Josue - We got more than him.
Guido - Don't tell him that. We're in the lead!
There is also a big difference that we can notice between Guido as a risonner and Guido as a father.
Everytime Josie discovers the truth Guido points out the irrationality of the facts he presents:
I thought you were a sharp boy-- cunning, intelligent.
Buttons and soap out of people? That'll be the day!
You believed that?
Just imagine. Tomorrow morning, I wash my hands with Bartolomeo...
a good scrub.
Then I'll button up with Francesco.
Darn it all!
Look! I just lost Giorgio!
Does this look like a person?
Come on! They were teasing you! And you fell for it!
What else did they tell you?
That we get cooked in the oven.
They burn us up in the oven.
You fell for that too! You just eat everything up!
I've heard of a wood oven...
but I've never seen a man oven before.
"I'm made of wood!" "Take this lawyer!"
"This lawyer doesn't burn. He's not dry enough.
Look at that smoke!"
Buttons, soap, we get burned in the oven.
Let's be serious now! …
Throughout the second part many details of the first part emerge again: Guose has hiccups when he is scared just like his mother; he refuses to take a shower like in the beginning of the movie, Guido meets the doctor with whom he was close in the beginning of the movie… Several ideas are inserted in the second part in order to remind the viewer of the family’s life before the concentration camps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Ea95wX7e0
Nicoletta Brasci in an interview points out the importance of this sudden change in their lives – importance of teaching children about the holocaust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nwSE8uiQk
Roberto Begnini - the train takes us from comedy to tragedy and Dora choses to take the train with them
“you can’t make a comedy about the holocaust but its is not a comedy about the holocaust it is a comedian who made a movie about the holocaust, so it is a comedian in an extreme situation, it is quite different”
In another interview for Gallimard in 1998:
“Laughter saves us, it helps us see the other side of things, the unreal or fun side, or at least it allows us to imagine it. It prevents us of being crushed like twigs, giving us the will to resist through the night, even when it looks very very long.”
Possible title?? Cinema and the Holocaust: Imagining the unimaginable
Cinema: Holocaust fable is tarnished by clichés- Anonymous- Sunday Business Post [Cork] 14 Sep 2008.
Critique of the Boy with the Stripped pyjamas:
“Harman's adaptation falls prey to narrative blind alleys and emotional cliches without ever losing a nagging sense of over- simplification.”
“While Harman's film doesn't go as far as making a cartoon out of unfathomable suffering, there are moments when the film's awkward artificiality is impossible to ignore.”
Holocaust Cinema – Beth Dotan - Journal of religion and film
Page 1
“How is it possible to create a film about the Holocaust if even those who were there cannot comprehend?” – This could be an interesting attention grabber.
“Reimer & Reimer quote Wiesel from Robert Franciosi’s - Elie Wiesel: Conversations, “the opposite of history is not myth but forgetfulness.”2 Although it is practically impossible to create imagery that might reflect the occurrences of this murderous time, we must find a way to retell the history.” – importance of these movies: they play the role of storytellers, they relate history, preventing youngsters to reproduce historical mistakes.
Wiesel “The paradox is we cannot tell the story, and yet it must be told.”
Page 3
“Matalon inspects the genre of Holocaust film by arranging the works into four categories. The first grouping in the article is Post Liberation films. […]Most of the brief film reviews by Matalon in this category show that the content often “fails to address the Jewishness of the Holocaust and particularly the effect of the war on Jewish survivors.””
Page 4
“The next category referenced by Matalon in “Holocaust Movies” is titled Hollywood Melodramas. The author suggests this category to be composed of popular cinematic techniques of the day and well-known actors.”
“Hollywood Melodrama is followed by television network documentaries and interview films documenting personal interviews”
Page 5
“Matalon groups the last category of films as European-made Post Realist films. Matalon concludes that European Art Films “provide an aesthetic profile that was later adopted by Hollywood.” Here, he mentions a variety of films that embrace dramatic story lines, sexual undertones, and stretch the genre as well as the historical context.” – the two movies I chose would probably fall in this category.
Page 7
Talking about the schindler’s list “Commercial success, according to Reimer & Reimer led to the study of the Holocaust in school classrooms.” – importance of showing children in these movies, implication of children to educate them about the holocaust
Page 13
“In the first section, ‘The Holocaust and Pre-1945 Films,” Reimer & Reimer note the documentation of the liberation of the camps and the fact that this material provided confirming news reels that had filtered out to the world toward the end of the war. They comment that “the filmic revelations compiled by the liberators of the camps were not the first acknowledgement in film of Nazi crimes; they were simply the first to show the result of Nazi policies against Jews.”[…] Reimer & Reimer do point out, however, that films that may have embraced the theme of pre-war Europe often ignored the topic of anti-Semitism or focused on individual stories rather than the plight of the Jews”
Page 19
“The end of the entry in the annotation of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, for example, states: “At the end of the film, when the camera focuses on the closed gas chamber door, behind which Bruno has died, viewers may be moved to tears more at Bruno’s death than by outrage at the death of millions of Jews.” (Reimer & Reimer, 41)
[CO1]Double meaning: Scientists of race and Racist scientists.
[CO2]As Guido didn’t prepare any speech, he constantly repeats that their race is superior ridiculing this idea to the highest point.
[CO3]This is very satirical knowing that Guido is the perfect opposite of the Aryan race (brown hair, brown eyes, crooked nose…)
[CO4]He choses to describe insignificant details of the body (the ear, and later the belly button) to show how much the Aryan ideology makes no sense.
[CO5]Guido acts like a buffoon. Besides the fact that this amuses the viewer it also has the purpose of denouncing Nazis.
[CO6]The Aryan exist = getting out from the window => making fun of Nazi officials.
After meticulously watching a couple of movies, I have decided to narrow down my research on productions dealing with children’s approach of the Holocaust. The paper will be a comparative study of these films along with a thorough analysis of each one of them (general ambiance, music, character’s personality and representation, content and scenario…)
In this perspective, I have chosen two movies that I have started analyzing: The boy in the stripped pajamas (Mark Herman), la vita e bella (Roberto Begnini).
This is an analysis of the movies I am studying. I will continue posting my notes throughout my study.
I. Herman, M. , (2008), The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Bruno is an 8 years-old German boy. His father, Ralf, is a Nazi official. In the beginning of the movie, Ralf is promoted and relocated with his family in a house situated next to a concentration camp. The education of Bruno and his 12 years old sister, Gretel is taken care of by Herr Listz, a German tutor who teaches them anti-Semite, nationalist ideas. Despite all of his mother’s effort to prevent her son from visiting “the farm” behind the house, Bruno, bored of his lousy swing and intrigued by these farmers working in pajamas, ventures toward the camp. He meets Shmuel, a Jewish boy living on the other side of the extermination camp. A very special friendship begins.
In addition to the atrocity of the camp life, this movie brilliantly depicts the indoctrination taught to children during the holocaust. It shows how the Nazi values were preserved, should it be through the education of pupils or the extermination of hostile citizens. However, the movie creates much less engagement with the characters than la vita e bella, as less family scenes are depicted.
1-Different aspects of the holocaust (more of a documentary than la vita e bella)
Innocence and naivete v/s propaganda
When they arrive to their new home 11min gretel is always grabbing her dolls like a little girl
14min Bruno describes the camp as a farm asking his mother if he could play with the kids out there 'ill wait a bit though, because they look a bit strange (...) they wear pajamas’ when he asks Ralf (16:31) he answers "the thing is those people are not really people at all"
-(Bruno reads) “the density of my people is my density”
-(Liszt corrects) “the destiny!”
During the tutoring hours, the children, who are still innocent and barely know how to read, are taught all the grandeur of their fatherland.
“The aim of the Jew is to become the ruler of humanity! The Jew is not creative but destructive, he is the enemy of culture, a thousands of Germans has been made poor by the Jew” (43’)
While Gretel is reading this text from her textbook, Bruno thinks of his friend Shmuel.
Shmuel is small, fragile, and pale. His pajamas are way too big. He has some teeth that are missing. He is running, panicked, pushing a heavy wheelbarrow in front of him. The contrast between what the audience hears and what it sees during this scene shows all the irrationality of the propaganda.
In the movie, Bruno seems very doubtful of all the Nazi ideology. He questions everything he is taught and always thinks of his friend Shmuel. On the contrary, his sister Gretel is totally under the influence of what she is told. At 35 min, Bruno goes to the basement to pick up his ball. There, he discovers a horrific scene: All of Gretel’s dolls are stacked, undressed, neglected on a table. While watching this image, I couldn’t stop myself of imagining a gas chamber, crowded with naked, frail people. When he went to Gretel’s room to understand what happened with her dolls, he saw her putting up Nazi’s slogans and poster in her room. It was as if the dolls represented the Jews. Due to the propaganda she was taught, Gretel had decided, from one day to the next, to segregate and deny them as her equals. Even her looks had changed. She had got ridden of her girly dresses and childish hairstyle. It seemed that the newspapers and the textbooks had brainwashed her, stealing her childhood to turn her into a pure Nazi product.
Loyalty to the party imposed upon people
During the party launched in honor of Ralf, his mother wonders if she is the one who led him towards this career, by confecting for him “all these costumes when (he was) tiny” She sarcastically asks him: “Does it still make you feel special Ralf dear? The uniform and what it stands for?” Elsa, Ralf ‘s wife starts looking left and right and Ralf’s father tries to silence his wife. Ralf then puts an end to his mother’s discourse and threatens: “You should be careful! Airing your views so publicly could land you in trouble. You know that!” (7’47)
The general discomfort felt at the sayings of the mother shows that no one was spared from the permanent Nazi surveillance, as even the SS commandant feared it.
Towards the end of the movie, during the funeral of the grandmother a bouquet with a Nazi slogan was deposed on her grave
Elsa "we cant have that on her she wouldn’t have wanted it"
Ralf "HE does"
he discreetly prevents Elsa from removing the bouquet
This situation is repeated towards the end of the movie. During a diner, lieutenant Kottler says that his father left the country four years ago, to go to Switzerland. After arguing that he must still be young, with a menacing tone, Commandant Ralf replies “How strange he should chose to leave the father land at the very moment it needed him the most, just when we are all required to play our part in the national revival”. The tension grows bigger when Ralf asks Lieutenant Kottler if he would report his father in case he was opposed to the government policy. Kottler avoids the conversation by attacking the Jewish servant. Later in the movie, Gretel will acknowledge the Lieutenant Kottler was fired/killed.
Therefore, a very strict policy forces every Nazi citizen, including the Nazi officials, to report the government opponents even if they are part of their families. However, as Elsa points out in the movie, Ralf never reported his mother even though she was against the Nazi’s ideologies. After all, even if they were completely devoted to Hitler, SS officials, as they’re depicted in the movie, are still human and couldn’t entirely adhere to the Nazi irrationality.
Automatism in front of the leader
During the reception when (6min) Ralf enters the room they all do the Nazi salute like robots one after the other
Bad treatment of Jews (bad would be a very weak word) - contrast with Nazi
14:45 when Pavel comes in we directly feel he is exhausted
22:34 lieutenant calls Pavel aggressively
'You! Here! Now! (...) MOVE!"
No verbs, as if he was yelling at a dog / kids are schoked, bruno dorsnt move, he stares at the lieutnant
24min when bruno falls down, pavel takes care of him and talk to him about the future and tells him he was a doctor before he came 'here'
Everytime they call schmuel or pavel they look so anxious
Secrecy of the regime
"All you need to know about my job is that it’s very important for our country and for you" ralf to bruno 16:45
41min bruno to ralf "that horrible smell coming from the chimneys did you smell ot?""i think they burn rubbish there"
"They smell even worse when they burn dont they" lieutnant to elsa ~" i took an oath upon my life!" Says ralf explaining the secret he had kept from elsa
Documentary of propaganda made by nazi - depicts the camps as leisure places 1:01:00
2- the special friendship Bruno - Schmuel
Contrast between the 2 boys
Physically
Bruno is always well dressed, perfect shiny hair, perfect white skin while Schmuel wears super large 'pajamas., he is bald and we can barely picture his original skin color because he is very dirty
Culturally
When they meet (32min) Bruno arrogantly "Schmuel? No one is called Schmuel!"
Personality
Bruno is very arrogant and enthusiastic while Schmuel is shy and fragile he is always looking to the floor (33min)
Relation of sharing
Innocence
Bruno thinks it is a game reminds us of la vita e bella .its not fair me being alone out there and you playing with your friends all day' S 'playing??'" Tell me how the number game works" " I told you its not a game we just all have numbers"
Discovery
Get to know each other learn things about the camp
But most importantly towards 54min, Bruno starts questioning what his family told him about the Jews "they re evil vermin, they’re not people...´ thinking about his friend Schmuel
He asks him "is(your dad) a good man?" s nods "you’ve never thought he wasn’t?" "No" "and you’re proud of him?" "Aren’t you proud if yours?" Bruno doesn’t answer
Dramatic end of the relation
Bruno decides to go into the concentration camp in order to help Schmuel to find hid father
BUT It is 'shower time' Bruno, Shmuel and a hundreds of men are sent to the gas chambers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sntNaUjJPYg
Interview with mark Harman and John Boyne
When Bruno dies, it is up to the audience to feel sorry about the nazi family and to think it served them right. (MH)
Reaction of the mother when she realizes what her husband is up to is taken from real life (researches…_)
(JB) would like to really think about the movie, the racism and all the hatred cause they are the ones who will be responsible of the world in a couple of years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=judzB7XTpw8
Interview with the actors Vera feramiga and davis thelwis
No stress on any german accent cause it is a universal story + when kids play such roles they need to find the essence of the character in their personlaities and therefore focusing on the accent or the language would lead them to lose the core of the story.
II. Benigni, R. , (1997). La vita e bella
The story takes place in the fascist Italy of 1938. Guido is a young Italian boy. He is in love with Dora and kidnaps her on her engagement day with a fascist official. Five years later, they have a child, Giosue. But Guido is Jewish! One day, his son and him, are taken to a concentration camp where Dora voluntarily follows them. Throughout the movie, Guido makes his son believe that the concentration camps are actually the plot of a game which aim is to win a real tank!
Begnini’s movie is very risky as it depicts in a comic, satiric way the horrific truth of extermination camps. By making us laugh in the beginning to end up crying in the end, he opens our eyes on the ridiculous, cruel, irrational aspects of the holocaust.
I have studied the movie following two different phases: before the concentration camp and inside the camp.
1-The preparation of the audience before the concentration camp:
In the fist half of the movie, Begnini only gives hints about the Nazi system without really mentioning it. He creates his characters and his scenario leading the audience to get attached to them. The concentration camps’ atmosphere is not introduced before the second half and the audience is not prepared for such a catastrophe. (This is most probably the more accurate way to represent the prisoners before they went to the concentration camps; they were probably optimistic and no one would have imagined that one could be deported from a day to another)
The scenario is based on two main ideas that allow the viewer to identify himself with the movie’s characters.
a- The perfect romance
In the beginning of the movie Dora falls down from a window and she lands in Guido’s arms. It is as if love had fallen from the sky.
From the minute Guido met Dora, he fell in love with her and called her “principesca” (princess) preparing the ground for a long lasting romance reminding the viewer of the fairy tail stories.
Several times after they first meet, Guido comes across Dora by chance. With a lot of courage, determination and humor, he then starts going to the places where he know he can find her, until the day they finally spend an evening together. Like in most fairy tales, Guido kidnaps his love on a white horse (even though the white horse was painted green by Nazi vandals, it is still a white horse) on her engagement night.
When he takes her back home, Dora enters a glasshouse and Guido follows her into it. Few seconds after, Guose, their five year old son gets out form the glasshouse. This subtle metaphor helps conserving the innocent image of pure love. A very close family is depicted. Some details of their daily lives are shown, reminding the viewers of their own families, leading them to identify with the characters. (Dora lectures her son to go take his bath and Guido helps him to hide…)
In the end of the first part, after she discovers that Guido and Juose were taken to the concentration camp, Dora bravely follows them and asks to enter the train.
This devotion Guido and Dora have for each other and for their son deeply affects the audience and prepares them to be even more surprised and chocked after the characters are deported.
b- A modern commedia dell arte
The first part of the movie is a succession of situation comedies. Like in the XIXth century theatrical vaudeville or the XVIth century commedia dell’arte, the action is composed of humoristic, funny and often ludicrous scenes. Not only does humor engage the viewer into the issue screened, but it also allows the director to satire the Nazi ideology.
There is a particular scene taking place about 10 minutes after the beginning of the movie that would be typical of a vaudeville scene and in which Guido acts a lot like harlequin, the ludicrous character of the commedia dell’arte:
Guido is in the municipality. He needs a signature from an employee to be able to open a bookstore. While talking to the secretary he remembers he has forgotten to store the eggs Dora had given him. He holds the six eggs in his hands.
Employee - We close at one here!
Guido - It's ten to one.
E - File a complaint.
G - Boy, is he nasty
Now I have to wait one hour for his substitute.
I'm filing a complaint. Write, "I, the undersigned--"
Guido is laying on the window, without paying attention he drops a flowerpot that lands directly on the head of the employee. He runs down the stairs to meet him.
G - Are you hurt? I'll help you.
The employee puts his hat on the top of a car. To check the employee’s head, Guido puts the eggs in the hat.
Come here. I didn't do it on purpose.
E - Don't touch me!
You can forget about your bookshop!
The employee takes the hat and puts it on his head.
G - No, the eggs!
The eggs are dripping on his face.
E - You scoundrel! I'll kill you!
However, the funny scenes of the movie are not exclusively meant to amuse the audience. In fact, through this humor, the Nazi ideology is subtly but very strongly criticized.
This (in my opinion) is the most interesting scene showing this idea:
Dora, Guido’s lover teaches in an elementary school. Guido discovers that one of his clients is an inspector from Rome, and that he needs to visit Dora’s school the next morning. In order to see her, Guido steels the inspector’s official ribbon and goes to the school. In addition to the fact that Guido is wearing the ribbon in a foolish way, he (unintentionally) parodies the inspector and the Nazi ideology when the principal asks him to educate the children about the race manifesto.
Principal - As you know, the inspector...came from Rome to talk to us about the race manifesto...signed by the most well versed Italian scientists. He will, and we're very honored…demonstrate to us that our race is a superior race -the best of all. Take your seats. Go ahead, Inspector.
Guido- Our race-- - Is superior! Naturally!
Our race is superior.
I've just come from Rome, right this minute...
to come and tell you in order that you'll know, children...
that our race is a superior one.
I was...chosen, I was, by racist Italian scientists[CO1] …in order to demonstrate…how superior our race is[CO2] .
Why did they pick me, children?
Guido jumps on the table
Must I tell you?
Where can you find…someone more handsome than me?
Justly so, there is silence. I'm an original "superior race" pure Aryan, children.[CO3]
Let's start with something that one says: "What's so big about that?"
The ear. Look at the perfection of this ear.
Guido shows his left ear to the children.
Left auricle…with a pendant little bell at the end.
Check it out. Movable cartilage, bendable.
Find two ears more beautiful than these and I'll leave[CO4] !
But you have to show them to me. They dream about these in France!
Races exist, children. You bet they do!
But let's continue. I want to show you something else.
Pay attention.
[…] The true inspector enters the room. Guido is on the table, wearing his underwear, lifting up his shirt to show his belly button to the children.[CO5]
Guido - The belly button!
Take a look at this belly button! What a knot!
But you can't untie it, not even with your teeth!
Those racist scientists tried it. Not a chance!
This is an Italian belly button. It's part of our race!
Check out this style!
Look at these muscles: ceps, biceps, triceps! Look at this beauty! Admire this hip!
Just look at the movement!
Guido is now dancing ridiculously on the table.
He realizes the true inspector is here and gets away from the window.
Gentlemen!
I must say good-bye now.
I have to go. I have an appointment.
I'll make my Aryan exit and bid you farewell.[CO6]
Moreover, during Dora’s engagement ceremony, an “Ethiopian cake”, magnificent showpiece with a huge ostrich on top of it, was offered by the hotel. When this cake was brought to the room, a Nazi officer immediately did the Nazi salute. A few minutes later, when Guido entered the room on his white/green horse, the officer was still doing the salute. This shows the robotization of the Nazi followers and it also compares Hitler and the Nazi officials to the ostrich and to the horse.
2- The Nazis and the concentration camp:
The representation is mostly based on contrasts: first, there is a contrast between Jewish people and Nazi officials, second, there is a contrast between their world of today and their old life, third, there is a contrast between the concentration camp and the game.
This way, in the first scene where Guido’s uncle appears, he is being robbed by a couple of young Nazis. Guido’s uncle is very wise. Throughout the movie, he speaks in proverbs and idioms and teaches his nephew all kinds of values. After he has been attacked he calls the robbers “barbarians”
Uncle - Barbarians.
Guido - Who were they?
U - Barbarians.
G - Why didn't you cry for help?
U - Silence is the most powerful cry.
Towards the end of the first half Robin Hood, the uncle’s horse was painted in green. It was written on it “Achtung! Jewish Horse”
The uncle reacts again in full dignity and calls the Nazi vandals “barbarians”
This contrast between the very wealthy, educated Jewish uncle, and the barbaric young Nazis denounces the Nazi movement, showing that it undeservedly targeted the wrong people. It shows the irony of the situation of Jews being killed and mocked at by people less knowledgeable than them.
Moreover, in the concentration camp, before being cremated, Guido’s uncle tried to help a Nazi official who ha fallen down “ are you okay, signora?”, But the women stared at him with hatred in her eyes.
Second of all, the second part of the movie constantly reminisces the first part in a way to affect the viewer. This way, Guido still calls his wife principesca, he still uses the attraction laws’ methods his old friend has taught him in the beginning of the movie… from the moment they were deported, the music changed and took a more sober and sad accent.
Throughout the movie, even when he was shot, Guido tries to hide the truth to his son. He transforms the concentration camp into a game: If they reach 1000points they will win a real char. This metaphor shows the deep irrationality of the camp.
Begnini still uses humor but it a less theatrical way.
Bartolomeo was sent to the nurse because he got injured
Guido - How'd it go?
Bartolomeo - Any worse than this-- I got 20 [points] (In Italian stiches and points have the same meaning)
Josue - We got more than him.
Guido - Don't tell him that. We're in the lead!
There is also a big difference that we can notice between Guido as a risonner and Guido as a father.
Everytime Josie discovers the truth Guido points out the irrationality of the facts he presents:
I thought you were a sharp boy-- cunning, intelligent.
Buttons and soap out of people? That'll be the day!
You believed that?
Just imagine. Tomorrow morning, I wash my hands with Bartolomeo...
a good scrub.
Then I'll button up with Francesco.
Darn it all!
Look! I just lost Giorgio!
Does this look like a person?
Come on! They were teasing you! And you fell for it!
What else did they tell you?
That we get cooked in the oven.
They burn us up in the oven.
You fell for that too! You just eat everything up!
I've heard of a wood oven...
but I've never seen a man oven before.
"I'm made of wood!" "Take this lawyer!"
"This lawyer doesn't burn. He's not dry enough.
Look at that smoke!"
Buttons, soap, we get burned in the oven.
Let's be serious now! …
Throughout the second part many details of the first part emerge again: Guose has hiccups when he is scared just like his mother; he refuses to take a shower like in the beginning of the movie, Guido meets the doctor with whom he was close in the beginning of the movie… Several ideas are inserted in the second part in order to remind the viewer of the family’s life before the concentration camps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3Ea95wX7e0
Nicoletta Brasci in an interview points out the importance of this sudden change in their lives – importance of teaching children about the holocaust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nwSE8uiQk
Roberto Begnini - the train takes us from comedy to tragedy and Dora choses to take the train with them
“you can’t make a comedy about the holocaust but its is not a comedy about the holocaust it is a comedian who made a movie about the holocaust, so it is a comedian in an extreme situation, it is quite different”
In another interview for Gallimard in 1998:
“Laughter saves us, it helps us see the other side of things, the unreal or fun side, or at least it allows us to imagine it. It prevents us of being crushed like twigs, giving us the will to resist through the night, even when it looks very very long.”
Possible title?? Cinema and the Holocaust: Imagining the unimaginable
Cinema: Holocaust fable is tarnished by clichés- Anonymous- Sunday Business Post [Cork] 14 Sep 2008.
Critique of the Boy with the Stripped pyjamas:
“Harman's adaptation falls prey to narrative blind alleys and emotional cliches without ever losing a nagging sense of over- simplification.”
“While Harman's film doesn't go as far as making a cartoon out of unfathomable suffering, there are moments when the film's awkward artificiality is impossible to ignore.”
Holocaust Cinema – Beth Dotan - Journal of religion and film
Page 1
“How is it possible to create a film about the Holocaust if even those who were there cannot comprehend?” – This could be an interesting attention grabber.
“Reimer & Reimer quote Wiesel from Robert Franciosi’s - Elie Wiesel: Conversations, “the opposite of history is not myth but forgetfulness.”2 Although it is practically impossible to create imagery that might reflect the occurrences of this murderous time, we must find a way to retell the history.” – importance of these movies: they play the role of storytellers, they relate history, preventing youngsters to reproduce historical mistakes.
Wiesel “The paradox is we cannot tell the story, and yet it must be told.”
Page 3
“Matalon inspects the genre of Holocaust film by arranging the works into four categories. The first grouping in the article is Post Liberation films. […]Most of the brief film reviews by Matalon in this category show that the content often “fails to address the Jewishness of the Holocaust and particularly the effect of the war on Jewish survivors.””
Page 4
“The next category referenced by Matalon in “Holocaust Movies” is titled Hollywood Melodramas. The author suggests this category to be composed of popular cinematic techniques of the day and well-known actors.”
“Hollywood Melodrama is followed by television network documentaries and interview films documenting personal interviews”
Page 5
“Matalon groups the last category of films as European-made Post Realist films. Matalon concludes that European Art Films “provide an aesthetic profile that was later adopted by Hollywood.” Here, he mentions a variety of films that embrace dramatic story lines, sexual undertones, and stretch the genre as well as the historical context.” – the two movies I chose would probably fall in this category.
Page 7
Talking about the schindler’s list “Commercial success, according to Reimer & Reimer led to the study of the Holocaust in school classrooms.” – importance of showing children in these movies, implication of children to educate them about the holocaust
Page 13
“In the first section, ‘The Holocaust and Pre-1945 Films,” Reimer & Reimer note the documentation of the liberation of the camps and the fact that this material provided confirming news reels that had filtered out to the world toward the end of the war. They comment that “the filmic revelations compiled by the liberators of the camps were not the first acknowledgement in film of Nazi crimes; they were simply the first to show the result of Nazi policies against Jews.”[…] Reimer & Reimer do point out, however, that films that may have embraced the theme of pre-war Europe often ignored the topic of anti-Semitism or focused on individual stories rather than the plight of the Jews”
Page 19
“The end of the entry in the annotation of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, for example, states: “At the end of the film, when the camera focuses on the closed gas chamber door, behind which Bruno has died, viewers may be moved to tears more at Bruno’s death than by outrage at the death of millions of Jews.” (Reimer & Reimer, 41)
[CO1]Double meaning: Scientists of race and Racist scientists.
[CO2]As Guido didn’t prepare any speech, he constantly repeats that their race is superior ridiculing this idea to the highest point.
[CO3]This is very satirical knowing that Guido is the perfect opposite of the Aryan race (brown hair, brown eyes, crooked nose…)
[CO4]He choses to describe insignificant details of the body (the ear, and later the belly button) to show how much the Aryan ideology makes no sense.
[CO5]Guido acts like a buffoon. Besides the fact that this amuses the viewer it also has the purpose of denouncing Nazis.
[CO6]The Aryan exist = getting out from the window => making fun of Nazi officials.