A retrospective on Helmut Käutner and a tribute to Wolfgang Staudte

April's programme traces two of the most well-known directing careers in German-speaking film history. Helmut Käutner, who would have turned 100 in March 2008, produced some of his most impressive films paradoxically at the very time when German cinema was polarised between two extremes: the more or less explicit propaganda film and the escapist feature film. Yet Käutner did not comply unconditionally. His films address possibilities of realism in Nazi cinema and form to some extent an anomaly within the production system. Both shot in the midst of the "total war", GROSSE FREIHEIT NR. 7, an impressive portrait of a sailor filmed on location with Hans Albers, and UNTER DEN BRÜCKEN, the down-to-earth story of two barge skippers, suggest a clear move towards a different German cinema. Wolfgang Staudte's involvement in Nazi film production had a radical effect on his career. In 1942 the production company Tobis accepted one of his scripts for the Clown Charlie Rivel. AKROBAT SCHÖ-Ö-Ö-N became the first feature film Staudte directed. In 1944, however, his look at grotesque bureaucrats, DER MANN, DEM MAN DEN NAMEN STAHL, was banned. Heinrich George's wish to have Staudte direct FRAU ÜBER BORD was fulfilled before he was deployed for war. In the winter of 1945/1946, Staudte filmed documentary footage for Friedrich Wolfs and Slatan Dudow's film project KOLONNE STRUPP. And in the summer of 1946 he produced in cooperation with DEFA Germany's first post-war film. DIE MÖRDER SIND UNTER UNS offers a snapshot of the times and appeals for a new start down the road to democracy. In his 1948 film ROTATION, Staudte traced the origins of German fascism and so established himself as very much part of the film movement which attempted to deal with National Socialism and its aftermath. The retrospective covers Staudte's exceptional career and presents his work against that of his fellow director, Helmut Käutner, who was active at the same time in West Germany.