David L. Starling
German Women Film Directors
Essay #2

In order to answer essay question number one, it is important to understand what story (histoire) and discourse (discours) mean. For a brief explanation, I turned to Seymore Chatman’s book, Story and Discourse/Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film. He posits that each narrative has two parts: story and discourse. Chatman defines story as "the content or chain of events (actions, happenings), plus what may be called the existents(characters, items of setting)." He calls discourse "the means by which the content is communicated." In short he says that in a narrative, the story is the What that is depicted, and the discourse is the How the What is depicted.

First, I would like to start out by exploring the What and the How of the film Germany, Pale Mother. This is a film about a woman’s experience during the Nazi era and the war. Helma Sander-Brahms uses narration (voice–over), documentary, and various presentations of the characters to shape the story of her film. These techniques are the discourse. Sanders-Brahms most useful discourse tool is her narration. It is not really narration, but a one-sided conversation with her mother. The film begins with Sanders-Brahms addressing her mother.

Her mother and father have a brief and happy romance and marry before the war starts. Sanders-Brahms chooses to portray her father as she has always known him – an older man. As the narrator, she explains why she has made this choice. This affects our perception of her father. The picture of the happy couple is distorted, because she has told us that something is not quite realistic in this scene. She goes on to tell us that her parents’ love will not last. She does this by directly addressing her mother and telling her she hasn’t gotten married because of their example. This information prevents us from viewing the film as the story presents it. The story-time and the discourse-time are not in sync. We are seeing the present happy couple, but we also see a glimpse of the future through the narrator’s words. She also interrupts their love scene because she tells her mother she can’t imagine that they would have ever been intimate. By using this technique Sanders-Brahms has prevented us from becoming attached to the characters portraying her parents. McCormack calls this technique "distantization."

Neither Hans nor Lene is particularly interested in politics and they don’t join the Nazi party. It appears that they intend to live their lives unaffected by the political atmosphere around them. This is illustrated by the surreal dance scene showing the couple enjoying each other’s company, apparently unaffected by the Nazis all around them at the party. Hans wants to marry, have kids, and have a simple life. He seems to unimpressed with the Nazi Party, but offers to join, if that is what his prospective bride wants. Lene wants no involvement in politics. She doesn’t seem to have an opinion one way or the other about the Nazis. She even ignores her Jewish classmate’s pleas for help when she is being carried away by the Nazis. Sanders-Brahms uses this to show that the apoliticalness of the people is just an illusion. The story and the discourse are in opposition. The story is sympathetic their plight, while the discourse is incriminating. How can they seek a normal life in an atmosphere of repression? Soon enough we see that there is no escaping politics. My interpretation is that Sanders-Brahms is saying they are either sympathizers or collaborators if they are not in opposition to the Nazi Party. They don’t stay apolitical for long. Hans is drafted and must leave to fight as a soldier. Soon after the war starts, he is called up to the eastern front.

The story then shows us what Lene went thought during the war and also a little bit of the father’s experience. He eventually becomes hardened because of the tragedies of the war and what has been required of him. He has had to kill a woman that looks to him to be the image of his wife. The director chooses the image of Lene to show us that the victims of the war are as innocent as his wife. Hans comes home on leave and finds that he and his wife can’t connect because of their very different experiences. He goes back to fight in France and is gone for several more years. Lene, meanwhile, has given birth to a child(the narrator) in the midst of a bombing raid. Sanders-Brahms interrupts her story with documetary film footage at this point. This reminds the viewer that this perhaps fictional scene is grounded in reality. This is the experience of the German woman during the war.

During the war her home is completely destroyed. She has to walk to Berlin to seek help from the only relatives they can turn to. As she is walking she tells her daughter a fairy tale. The tale is about a young maiden who is promised to a murderer. Sanders-Brahms uses this story as a metaphor for the story of Nazi Germany. She chooses what appears to be the ruins of a concentration camp to tell part of this tale. In the story she is telling her daughter a fairytale. In the discourse she is explaining the viewers the horrors of Nazi Germany.

In another short review of the film, Germany, Pale Mother, the reviewer calls this movie "a devastating chronicle of a young bride whose husband goes to fight in WWII and her struggle to survive in a Germany wracked by war and famine." I think this is an excellent summary of the story, but the reviewer seems to have completely missed the message in the discourse.

Jutta Brueckner uses different techniques to present the story and the discourse in her film, A Thoroughly Demoralized Girl. She chooses a different approach with the camera as well. Whereas Sanders-Brahms uses the camera to tell a story which we are to at least partially able to identify with – that is partially because the movie is shot in the style of a full cinematic production – Brueckner presents her film to us as a faux-documentary. The camera appears to be a shoulder camera that is moving during the entire film. We get to know Rita through faux-documentary footage of her life, Rita talking to the camera and analyzing herself, and a voiceover that gives us an insight into what she is thinking.

The story in this film is about the life of an angry, single, unskilled woman. Brueckner paints a picture of a woman with no desire to improve her life. I believe the only enjoyment in her life is wallowing in her misery. The camera follows her through encounters with her child, her parents, her friends, and numerous men.

Brueckner’s choice of a hand held camera makes us aware that Rita is being followed by a cameraman, and that all of the scenes are staged. It seems the opposite would be true. However, it has the effect of distancing us from the character. This is an intentional choice designed to keep the character at arm’s length and to keep the viewer uninvolved.

The interviews allow us a break from the tragic story, and allow us to see that Rita does have some human qualities. There is a difference in the way that Sanders-Brahms and Brueckner use discourse and story. Brueckner uses discourse to expose her character’s humanity and help us understand the character. Sander-Brahms uses discourse to show her characters’ complicity in an era fraught with inhumane actions.

Lene arrives in Berlin just as her relatives are leaving and is allowed to stay at their home for a while, even though they won’t be there. Hans is allowed to visit there and meet his small daughter, Anne. Anne doesn’t take to this stranger very well. The mother and father also don’t seem to have much to say to each other. He returns to the Eastern Front without even a final kiss. When the war is over, her husband is in a prison camp for a while. She is raped in front of her daughter by two Americans. The wife is working in the effort to reconstruct Germany. She seems to enjoy this effort quite a bit. She is also caring for her daughter by trading things on the black market. When the husband comes home, he establishes himself as the head of the household and tries to take over the work. Both of them have changed. She is used to providing for her and her daughter and doesn’t easily adapt to the situation. He also has problems and is suspicious that she had taken a lover while he was away. She has a stroke and her face is paralyzed on one side. All of her teeth are pulled and she becomes extremely depressed. I’m not sure what this pain is supposed to represent.

He says he will call her. We see that the woman has a son. She is apparently not married. She promises to buy her son some sweet things for breakfast, but never does. She is also worried about the fact that she has stolen some money from her employer and needs to pay it back. However, when she is finally loaned money, she spends it on a dress, which she tries to give away because it doesn’t look as good on her as it did in the store. She can’t take it back because she has also stolen a belt. We find out her parents are supporting her and paying her rent. When she is forced to go out on job interviews, she is rude and obviously doesn’t want to be hired. At times she turns to talk to the camera about her problems. She understands her problems, but doesn’t do what is necessary to resolve them. We see her involvement with an older man, a man she picked up on the street, and she talks about what she wants from a man. What she wants and what she looks for are two completely different things. As her friend tells her, she is looking in the wrong places for the kind of man she wants. Throughout the movie, it appears that the woman is punishing herself.