Sexuality
The cinema of the Weimar Republic showcased an extensive number of genres and artistic styles throughout the 1920s and into the early 1930s. At the beginning of the Republic, after World War I, there were significant changes in the roles that women played in German society. Post 1919, women occupied a much more visible sphere of Weimar life, including full rights as citizens for females, and women’s suffrage. [1] Men off to war had become tempted by brothels on the front lines, a violation of the sanctity of bourgeoisie marriage that was already compromised due to the new roles of women as the heads of households and the main source of income. There seems to be a shift in the way Women were depicted and perceived in Weimar films to these vamp, femme fatale characters.
The beginning of Weimar Cinema showcased women who were reminded not to stray from the path of virtue.[2] These women in the early Weimar films wore their hair like a mop[3] and were very much continuing traditions of the more chaste women in previous eras of German films, as mostly supporting characters in early silent films. The shift in Weimar cinema, in the representation of female characters, showed a change to these femme fatales, vamp characters The Weimar republic included a more liberated female population and films began to represent their female characters in more explicit, sexual ways.
The films that developed in the 1920s contained women that were considered vamps, or femme fatales. Many of these films began relying on the star power of these female individuals; the leading females became an attraction for viewers.[4] These movies began to use these ideas of the “star” or “cult of personality” with social and sexual stereotypes to develop a continuity of body and character[5] that heightened the visibility and physicality of an actress.
The early years of the 1920s had a greater popularity and production of melodramas and social dramas. These films began to address issues of self-determination and at the same time pay close attention to highlight this through performative femininity.[6] Around 1921, Richard Oswald began to produce many films that were meant to warn the populace about venereal diseases.[7] These Aufklarungsfilm, early social hygiene films, essentially sex education films brought into film a female sexuality separate from marital relations and even from prostitution.[8] Die Prostitution, a film by Oswald, did not present prostitution in a negative light; it was inviting and even glamorous.
Early films linked women’s uncontrolled sexuality with disorder, this stemming from the disorder within years prior to the establishment of, and during, the early republic. Single, non-monogamous women were marked as prostitutes at this time. [9] The discourse surrounding these female characters in cinema was that of women that were more seductive and easier to manipulate through sex. The reactions to the social and political discourse left women depicted as sexually explicit, sexual objects, or dupes easily controlled by men above them. [10]
The 1930s experienced a rise in popularity of the romantic comedy and slight shift in female characters. In response to the more sexualized vamps and femme fatales throughout Weimar cinema, these late Weimar republic films highly exaggerated the vamp character even further. Within the context of Germany’s shifting gender relations, these romantic comedies still contained these femme fatale characters that seduced men and subsequently destroyed their lives.[11]
The 1930 film Der blaue Engel by Joseph von Sternberg, captured the typical Weimar Republic femme fatale in Marlene Dietrich’s performance as Lola Lola, a beautiful singer. The film showcases Dietrich’s character as one of extreme beauty and sexuality. She wears elaborate costumes and makeup and sings on a large stage each night. Lola Lola is adored by the young, and old men in town who come to see her perform every night. Her character fills this pattern of a beautiful woman who seduces the main character. She is shown often in her dressing room changing in and out of costumes to the embarrassment of Professor Rath, who later marries Lola Lola although the marriage does not last in a tragic ending to the film.
The shift to the women of Weimar films as sexualized, almost temptresses reflected the ever-changing social relationships after the First World War that carried into the newly established republic. A characteristic of the Weimar republic was that the society was constantly struggling with the crisis engaged in efforts to re-negotiate changing gender definitions of femininity and reconfigure gender relationships.[12]
- Layne Thue-Bludworth
[1] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[2] Kardish, Laurence. Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010), 68.
[3] Kardish, Laurence. Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010), 63.
[4] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 17.
[5] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 17.
[6] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 21.
[7] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 14.
[8] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 14.
[9] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[10] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[11] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 300.
[12] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 312.
The beginning of Weimar Cinema showcased women who were reminded not to stray from the path of virtue.[2] These women in the early Weimar films wore their hair like a mop[3] and were very much continuing traditions of the more chaste women in previous eras of German films, as mostly supporting characters in early silent films. The shift in Weimar cinema, in the representation of female characters, showed a change to these femme fatales, vamp characters The Weimar republic included a more liberated female population and films began to represent their female characters in more explicit, sexual ways.
The films that developed in the 1920s contained women that were considered vamps, or femme fatales. Many of these films began relying on the star power of these female individuals; the leading females became an attraction for viewers.[4] These movies began to use these ideas of the “star” or “cult of personality” with social and sexual stereotypes to develop a continuity of body and character[5] that heightened the visibility and physicality of an actress.
The early years of the 1920s had a greater popularity and production of melodramas and social dramas. These films began to address issues of self-determination and at the same time pay close attention to highlight this through performative femininity.[6] Around 1921, Richard Oswald began to produce many films that were meant to warn the populace about venereal diseases.[7] These Aufklarungsfilm, early social hygiene films, essentially sex education films brought into film a female sexuality separate from marital relations and even from prostitution.[8] Die Prostitution, a film by Oswald, did not present prostitution in a negative light; it was inviting and even glamorous.
Early films linked women’s uncontrolled sexuality with disorder, this stemming from the disorder within years prior to the establishment of, and during, the early republic. Single, non-monogamous women were marked as prostitutes at this time. [9] The discourse surrounding these female characters in cinema was that of women that were more seductive and easier to manipulate through sex. The reactions to the social and political discourse left women depicted as sexually explicit, sexual objects, or dupes easily controlled by men above them. [10]
The 1930s experienced a rise in popularity of the romantic comedy and slight shift in female characters. In response to the more sexualized vamps and femme fatales throughout Weimar cinema, these late Weimar republic films highly exaggerated the vamp character even further. Within the context of Germany’s shifting gender relations, these romantic comedies still contained these femme fatale characters that seduced men and subsequently destroyed their lives.[11]
The 1930 film Der blaue Engel by Joseph von Sternberg, captured the typical Weimar Republic femme fatale in Marlene Dietrich’s performance as Lola Lola, a beautiful singer. The film showcases Dietrich’s character as one of extreme beauty and sexuality. She wears elaborate costumes and makeup and sings on a large stage each night. Lola Lola is adored by the young, and old men in town who come to see her perform every night. Her character fills this pattern of a beautiful woman who seduces the main character. She is shown often in her dressing room changing in and out of costumes to the embarrassment of Professor Rath, who later marries Lola Lola although the marriage does not last in a tragic ending to the film.
The shift to the women of Weimar films as sexualized, almost temptresses reflected the ever-changing social relationships after the First World War that carried into the newly established republic. A characteristic of the Weimar republic was that the society was constantly struggling with the crisis engaged in efforts to re-negotiate changing gender definitions of femininity and reconfigure gender relationships.[12]
- Layne Thue-Bludworth
[1] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[2] Kardish, Laurence. Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010), 68.
[3] Kardish, Laurence. Weimar Cinema, 1919-1933: Daydreams and Nightmares (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010), 63.
[4] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 17.
[5] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 17.
[6] Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. 2nd ed (London: Routledge, 2008), 21.
[7] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 14.
[8] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 14.
[9] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[10] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 21.
[11] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 300.
[12] Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010), 312.