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Series for Film Group Discussions The Consequences of Prejudice and Hate |
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Philosophers continue to debate whether the Holocaust can or should be evoked in art, because of the limitations and falsifications that are inevitable in any rendering of that tragedy. When the period is depicted on the screen, it is most often through the nonfiction documentary or the sober drama that seeks to evoke pity and terror. How then should we view comedies whose subjects are Hitler and Nazism? The first three films in this series depict the early days of that demonic movement, when its paranoia, hysteria, and exaggerations still could be mocked at a distance, and when the full scale of the inhumanity was yet to come. The final film, Life Is Beautiful, with its concentration camp setting, plunges straight into that horror. One must ask what exactly these filmmakers were trying to achieve with their humor. Were they innocent, misguided, clever, subversive--or insensitive? This series explores the films' moral, political, and artistic validity both in their own time and today.
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