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.11 Hitler s performances were versatile; he was able to intertwine accusationswith expressions of hope, drama with humour.Moreover, as Norman Stoneobserves, Most speakers who had the mental ability to keep their thoughtsin some kind of order were all too pompous and academic in their style tohave any mass appeal: they would simply read learned tracts to their audi-ence.On the other hand, men like Drexler [the first leader of the NationalSocialists], who were quite uneducated, might talk the language of the peo-ple, but would have nothing much to say in it.Hitler, educated enough toexpound his views coherently, also spoke a popular language.He could bevery funny, in an untranslatable, wholly German way (Stone 1980: 9).12 In his approach to life as a form of art (staged, exaggerated, ritualised), Hitlerborrowed from Richard Wagner and some minor and nowadays forgottenfigures.Some of Hitler s contemporaries were able to see his project of meld-ing art and politics, most famously Walter Benjamin, as the death of trueart (Benjamin 2007).For others, especially Leni Riefenstahl, it amounted togranting art a position which it never enjoyed before.Riefenstahl took fulladvantage of that making Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935),where Hitler utters the words: For future generations our demonstrationsmight be no more than spectacles.13 Yet, Hitler fiercely opposed Jewish assimilation into German culture, com-plaining about the infamous deception of Jews trying to appear Germanic (Fest 1974: 23).In this attitude he was not alone.Pierre Vidal-Naquet arguesthat Western-style anti-Semitism was in part reaction against Jewish assimi-lation (Vidal-Naquet 1996: 204).14 Max s death at the hands of Nazi rowdies can also be regarded as an illustra-tion of Hitler s tendency to discard people who once helped him.One suchman was Reinhold Hanisch, the man with whom Hitler stayed in the housefor men in Vienna and formed a partnership, with Hanisch selling Hitler swatercolours, sharing their proceeds on a 50 50 basis.According to Fest, in1938, when Hitler could do so, he had Hanisch tracked down and killed, mostlikely to erase the humiliating memory of his beginnings (Fest 1974: 46).15 Ben van Os, production designer for Meyjes s film, was also responsible forthe design of a number of films by Peter Greenaway, who in his films alsoplays with the idea that humans are no more than pawns in a game of fate.16 In this way %7Å„i~ek points to the immense subversive potential of para-cinema , as previously mentioned.17 A detailed analysis of the relationship between Downfall and historicaltruth (or historical discourses) is offered by Roel Vande Winkel.VandeWinkel also surveys previous Führer bunker films and discusses criticalreception of Hirschbiegel s film (Vande Winkel 2007).18 In reality Junge was interviewed by André Heller and Othmar Schmidererfor the documentary Im toten Winkel Hitlers Sekretärin (Blind Spot Hitler sSecretary, 2002).19 Primo Levi, examining the various grey zones existing in Auschwitz, points tothe fact that his oppressors were not monsters, and even committed some good Notes to Chapter 3 251deeds, but this is not reason to forgive them (Levi 1988).Slavoj %7Å„i~ek mock-ingly points out that all great dictators are remembered as the kindest men bythe members of their own families and their secretaries (%7Å„i~ek 2009: 40 1).3 A Clear Dividing Line?: Cinematic Representations ofGerman, Italian and Irish Terrorism1 However, as Alan O Leary observes, in Italy terrorism is more associatedwith left-wing than right-wing extremism.The latter is described as stragismo(large-scale, largely indiscriminate bombing) (O Leary 2005: 168).2 Godard, who also recently made Notre musique (2004), deserves the title ofthe leading film expert on terrorism and leading expert on film terrorismdue to his penetrating films concerning the phenomenon of armed resist-ance against the political order and his talent to subvert the existing cin-ematic conventions in a way attracting the larger public.3 The role of the Springer Press in influencing anti-RAF sentiments is reflectedin the incident which took place on 1 April 1968.That day a young right-wingworker, Josef Bachmann, shot charismatic student leader Rudi Dutschkethree times and, when he was arrested, he said that he was acting to protecthis country from communism, which Dutschke threatened, and that hehad gained his information from Bild, the Springer Press s flagship tabloid(Moncourt 2009: 4 5).4 The RAF was not unique in combining condemnation of the Holocaustwith criticism of Israel.We find a similar stance in the work of Godard, forexample in Notre musique, autobiographical JLG/JLG: Autoportrait de décembre(1995) and Histoire(s) du cinéma (Wright 2000).5 Julian Preece quotes over 20 films made on this subject (Preece 2008: 227).6 The letter is published in Bauer 2008: 171 7.7 In reality, the gap between her lifestyle and her values did not slip Meinhof sattention.As Karin Bauer claims, by this point Meinhof was becoming dis-satisfied with the limitations of journalism, and the discrepancy between herbourgeois lifestyle and her political objectives (Bauer 2008: 38).8 This does not mean, however, that the targets of the Red Brigades were solelyItalian citizens.In December 1981, the group abducted American GeneralJames Lee Dozier, who was working as the deputy chief of staff for logisticsand administration at NATO s headquarters in Southern Europe (Drake1999 2000: 67).9 The question of the involvement of a middle-class person in a movementwhose goal is to liberate the working class is also tackled by Godard in Lottein Italia (Struggle in Italy, 1969), whose protagonist, Paola, is a member of apost-1968 revolutionary organisation, Lotta Continua (Unceasing Struggle).However, unlike Pasolini and Bellocchio, Godard argues that coming fromthe bourgeoisie, although an obstacle in fitting into the world of the under-privileged, ultimately does not preclude becoming a revolutionary.10 According to the bulk of authors writing about the representation of NorthernIreland in cinema, inability or unwillingness to see the conflict between theCatholics and Protestants historically is this cinema s cardinal sin (Rockettet al.1987; McIlroy 1993). 252 Notes to Chapter 54 From Socialist Realism to Postmodernism: Polish MartialLaw of 1981 in Polish and Foreign Films* A preliminary version of part of this chapter was published in Communistand Post-Communist, 42, 2, 2009, as Polish Martial Law of 1981 in Polish Post-Communist Films: Between Romanticism and Postmodernism
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